“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” delivers a fresh new chapter for Marvel’s iconic hero.
TRAILER
TOP FIVE THINGS ABOUT “SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY”
5. A Renewed Sense of Focus
Part of what really detracted from the more recent MCU Spider-Man films preceding this one was their lack of real cohesion. Spider-Man: Far From Home ends with Spider-Man fighting drones, which is just kind of intrinsically boring to watch. Spider-Man: No Way Home gets so high on its own supply when it comes to nostalgia for previous iterations of the character that it accidentally sabotages Tom Holland’s version of Spider-Man in the process.
So, it’s an absolute delight to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day reprioritize the important stuff right from its opening sequence. This is a movie about the internal conflict between Peter Parker and Spider-Man. By putting so much focus on Holland’s version of the character, it feels like he’s finally getting the spotlight in the kind of unfiltered way audiences frankly haven’t seen before. The film is genuinely invested in exploring this Spider-Man as a character, something the previous films often sidelined, and that’s a major plus.
4. There Are Some Pacing Issues
That’s not to say everything is perfect by any means. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is an ambitious swing, and I respect it for that, but at times it feels like a juggler with a few too many balls in the air. It has a lot of storylines to balance, a large cast of characters to service, and plenty of narrative ground to cover. As a result, there are moments where everything doesn’t feel as seamlessly interconnected or as naturally driven as it could.
At times, it feels like Tom Holland and screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers had a checklist of ideas they wanted to include, and they did everything they could to squeeze them into the film. Unfortunately, that approach causes some of the movie’s strongest moments to feel oddly contextualized or slightly out of sync with the overall rhythm and structure of the story.
3. The Action
While Jon Watts directed the previous three MCU Spider-Man films, Destin Daniel Cretton takes over behind the camera for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and the difference is immediately noticeable. Not to knock Watts too much, but it’s fair to say the defining aesthetic of his Spider-Man trilogy was clean and glossy. By contrast, Cretton and his longtime cinematographer, Brett Pawlak, bring a tangible, rugged, and lived-in quality to their take on the character. This version of New York feels authentic and vividly realized, and that same sense of realism carries over into the action sequences.
Cretton previously directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings for Marvel, which featured outstanding choreography, staging, and camera work. More recently, he created and directed several episodes of Wonder Man, showcasing a major leap forward in his visual style. Spider-Man: Brand New Day effectively blends the strengths of both projects, resulting in action sequences that are consistently engaging, dynamic, and visually impressive.
2. The Performances
To be honest, I was caught off guard by how strong some of the performances in Spider-Man: Brand New Day were. This is Tom Holland’s most dynamic, diverse, and compelling performance as the titular hero. Zendaya is featured more than I expected, and she honestly provides much of the film’s tragic, emotional core. Jon Bernthal is also a delight and becomes an unexpected scene-stealer.
However, the two performances that surprised me the most came from Sadie Sink and Mark Ruffalo. Sink is excellent in her not-so-secret role, especially when the third act asks a lot from her. She rises to the challenge and delivers far more than expected. Then there’s Ruffalo. There’s a major action sequence centered around Bruce Banner/Hulk, and during the middle of it, Ruffalo appears in human form for a few moments and delivers a performance so genuinely haunted and heartbreaking that it completely pulled me out of the action.
Ruffalo has always been great with the material he’s given, but this felt like he was operating on another level. The fact that he was able to create such a powerful moment right in the middle of a massive action sequence makes it even more impressive. It’s a truly striking performance.
1. Preserving What Works While Charting a New Path Forward
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is eager to carve out its own identity, but it isn’t interested in doing so at the expense of what came before. In fact, the film feels like a far more thoughtful and compelling culmination of Sony’s decades-spanning Spider-Man franchise than Spider-Man: No Way Home was. Cretton and his team pull inspiration from the various iterations of the character while still preserving the heart, emotional arcs, and characterizations established throughout the previous Holland-led films.
No Way Home made it feel like the franchise had reached the bottom of the tank, with nostalgia for what was already behind us being the main thing left to explore. Brand New Day, however, takes a different approach. It acknowledges that there is tremendous value in Spider-Man’s history while also recognizing that the character’s future still holds endless possibilities. More importantly, it continues to explore the central question that has kept Spider-Man relevant for generations: who is this character, and why does he continue to mean so much to so many people?
RGM GRADE
(B)
When it was initially announced that Sony and Marvel Studios had reached a deal to bring Marvel’s most beloved superhero, Spider-Man, into the studio’s illustrious and interconnected cinematic universe, fans rejoiced. After all, Sony’s most recent projects at that point were the less-than-well-received Amazing Spider-Man films, so fans were eager to see what Marvel Studios would do with the character. Things got off to a pretty great start, with the one-two punch of Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming serving as the character’s introduction to this broader universe while establishing him as his own distinct voice within it.
However, not long after that, things started to get a bit wonky. The narrative necessities of universe-altering crossover events like Avengers: Infinity War meant that the same character who had just decided to remain a “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” was suddenly off in space, meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy and dying when Thanos snapped those big purple sausages he calls fingers. Then, in his next solo movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home, he was back in high school having European Vacation-style antics while simultaneously grieving the loss of several years of his life between films. This level of interconnectivity resulted in some severe tonal whiplash for the character and muddied the waters that once seemed so pristine.
Fortunately, Spider-Man: Brand New Day sheds much of the continuity that bogged down prior entries (and continues to weigh down much of the MCU). Instead, it focuses on telling a more grounded, character-driven Spider-Man story that feels fresh, exciting, and genuinely invested in Peter Parker once again. It doesn’t completely stick the landing, but it comes pretty gosh darn close, and I admire it for taking the swing.
That’s ultimately what makes Spider-Man: Brand New Day work. It isn’t without its faults, but its heart is in the right place, and it represents a significant step up from the last few Spider-Man films.
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