In the ten years that Spider-Man has officially been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney has certainly made the most of its agreement to share the rights for the seminal superhero with Sony. Not only did they create a trio of standalone features between 2017 and 2021 but the webslinger also featured heavily in already teeming Avengers: Infinity War. Picking up directly after the gambit of No Way Home‘s conclusion 5 years ago, Spider-Man: Brand New Day finds Peter Parker (Tom Holland) reckoning with the magic spell that wiped his existence from everyone’s minds. Holed up in his apartment, he watches helplessly through social media as his best friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) go off to MIT after he’s removed from their lives. Desperate for meaning, he buries himself in work as Spider-Man and works overtime to rid the city of its cyclical villains.
The film’s subtitle connotes a turning of the page for this series, a way to recontextualize Peter Parker’s relationship to Spider-Man after he commits such a staggering sacrifice to protect the ones he loves most. Taking over from Jon Watts, who directed the first three Tom Holland-starring Spider-Man adventures, Destin Daniel Cretton spends the first 15 minutes of Brand New Day setting the table for a very different kind of MCU tale before it’s back to business as usual. A new superpowered threat emerges, wreaking havoc downtown at the superhuman-policing Department Of Damage Control, led by Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman). Unable to handle it alone, Spider-Man calls in favors from vigilante Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) and fellow Avenger Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who’s been teaching quantum mechanics at a local university while keeping “the green guy” within him at bay.
Like the still series-best Spider-Man: Homecoming, Brand New Day shines most when it sets its focus on the entangled relationships in young Peter Parker’s life. In past cinematic chapters with this character and other superheroes, a chief conflict has been concealing one’s alter ego from friends and family. Like the Tillman-starring Apple TV series Severance, it’s an extreme example of maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Since the events of No Way Home (to put it mildly) put Peter’s personal life in shambles, it makes sense that Spider-Man would become a workaholic escape for someone petrified of starting over with best friends. We see how painful that process can be when Peter invites himself to a packed party at Ned’s place. Not only does Peter have to reintroduce himself to his best friend but he’s also unrecognized by the love of his life as she smooches with a new boyfriend.
Being the marketing juggernaut that it is, Disney does a terrific job pitching the “this one will be different” message for every new entry in the MCU. Like Doctor Strange, they cast a well-financed spell on us where we forget how surefire their formula is and how unlikely it is, no matter what figurehead creative forces are brought in, that they’ll stray from it. The context varies for each property but in the instance of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the implication is that we’ll get a more “back-to-basics” iteration of Spider-Man who’s picking up the pieces and trying to figure out who he is in this new paradigm shift. When Peter visits another familiar face from other MCU fare, she deems his personal problems as “small potatoes” that don’t require Avenger-level intervention. Frankly, that’s fine by me. I’d prefer to see Peter deal with his issues himself but franchise obligations necessitate appearances from The Punisher, The Hulk and perhaps newly-acquired characters from the larger universe of Marvel comics.
Even though the movie has far too much going on from a plot perspective, given that it has to tie in storylines from Disney+ shows of the past several years, Brand New Day remains reliably entertaining output from the most reliable entertainment film franchise around. Holland remains outstanding in the lead role and his real-life marriage to Zendaya gives their scenes of lost love a metatextual poignancy and gut-punch for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Being pulled in from the Punisher series, Bernthal is a terrific addition as a gruff, bull-in-a-china-shop foil to our still doe-eyed and altruistic protagonist. I wish there was more time dedicated to the conversations between Peter and the people he wants to remember him but I’ll have to wait another day for the truly character-forward stories the MCU so often promises.
Score – 3/5
New movies coming to theaters this weekend:
One Night Only, starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, is a romantic comedy in which two strangers in New York try to find love on the one night of the year when pre-marital sex is legal.
Super Troopers 3, starring Jay Chandrasekhar and Kevin Heffernan, is a comedy sequel reuniting the titular goofballs as they work to bring down a pernicious new drug ring against the backdrop of an upcoming wedding between one of the Troopers and the sister of another Trooper.
Ice Cream Man, starring Ari Millen and Charlie Zeltzer, is a slasher set in an idyllic suburban town that descends into madness when a mysterious ice cream man serves sweet treats that turn children into homicidal maniacs.