Spider-Man: Brand New Day has been released, and after one watch, I’ll lead with this: I very much enjoyed this movie… however, I have some problems with it. Let’s get some things out of the way first:
- The majority of Spidey’s fights with the villains that mimic comic-book covers are shown in the trailer. Even Tombstone is reduced to this.
- The cinematography is great, with few CGI issues.
- This is the best Spidey swinging action in a film yet. Seriously, it’s really good.
- The score does its job.
- I wish they had shot parts of this in NYC.
- The main actors are spectacular. This is Tom Holland’s best performance as Peter Parker. He delivers every emotional facet of the character brilliantly.
- There are too many characters in this movie.
- The Hand are just a plot device (but give us a super-cool battle).
- Yelena shows up to waste oxygen for a completely stupid meeting with Spidey in a spa where she’s naked. That’s a thing that actually happens.
The movie begins by catching us up with Peter—and with MJ and Ned through Peter’s social media. Four years or so have passed since Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter is a dedicated full-time Spider-Man—obsessed might be a better word—as frequently pointed out by his partner on the police side, Jean DeWolff. Detective DeWolff guides Peter, maybe a bit too much, but they have a partnership when dealing with street-level crime.
Anyway, isolation is catching up with Peter, who begins to experience some unexpected changes after seeing MJ with her new boyfriend. At the same time, a new threat emerges that only Peter can detect… until his new powers kick in. These powers begin to get out of control, making Peter very aggressive to the point of carelessness. After a battle with a mind-controlled Scorpion, Detective DeWolff warns Peter to get it together. On top of these emerging powers, Peter is getting headaches and, out of desperation, seeks out Bruce Banner, who is now teaching at ESU. Banner sniffs Pete out pretty quickly as a posing student who is trying to replicate Banner’s inhibitor to control his own mutations. Banner warns him about the ethics and potential harm this can cause, but Peter goes ahead and builds the inhibitor anyway.
At this point, Peter’s loneliness gives the story a strong emotional foundation. He’s lost May, MJ, Ned, and essentially his entire personal life, yet he continues to help people. His moral compass once again drives the story.
The antagonist is after something that Damage Control has and continues to assault them to get what she wants. Damage Control can’t identify her, so they convince Peter to do it. During one of these attacks, Frank Castle shows up. It’s made clear that Frank and Peter already have a relationship, and the pair have immediate chemistry.
Peter learns that this villain—and she is a villain—can possess other people. She has a limited range, but she can jump from person to person, making her hard to catch. The one person, at least for most of the movie, she can’t jump into is Peter. She does for a short time, which allows her access to all of Peter’s memories and puts MJ and Ned at risk. This forces Peter to get MJ to go with him for protection, and we get a great scene where a possessed MJ convinces Peter that she remembers everything. It’s gut-wrenching. Holland and Zendaya are great here, and as soon as the antagonist reveals the possession, she makes MJ jump off a rooftop with Peter chasing after her. This makes Peter go to Frank to hide MJ for a bit.
Now, by this time in the film, I’m just suspending disbelief a bit because I’m enjoying it, but Pete’s got a pretty fancy tech setup that the film never explains:
- How does Peter afford to live without a job?
- I can accept that Peter creates his own technology, but how is any of it funded?
The “Peter is broke” thing is kind of a classic theme, but whatever.
The time MJ spends hiding out with Frank gives us some truly great character moments, once again executed flawlessly by Holland and Zendaya. MJ eventually reads the note Peter wrote in NWH and confronts Peter, who pours his heart out. While MJ empathizes with Peter’s position, she tells him the spell worked and she doesn’t love him. Gut punch.
The film finally reveals what most of us knew: the antagonist is Jean Grey, and Peter has surveillance cameras all over the city to track her. Highly unethical, but the plot needs to happen somehow. Jean is now getting desperate and hops into Banner’s head to slow down Peter when she attempts to attack Damage Control again. She is particularly targeting William Metzger, who leads Damage Control, as Jean witnessed them kidnapping her sister Sarah.
Jean breaks something in Banner’s head and Savage Hulk returns.
The inhibitor won’t penetrate Hulk’s skin, and he wrecks Spidey. It is a decent enough fight scene, but it’s a shame you basically saw half of it in the trailer. While pinned down, Peter begs Banner to stop, telling him that they are friends. This stops Hulk, and there is a moment when you think he might remember Peter, but it’s not clear. Hulk has a ton of concrete webbed to him, and he just lets go and falls to the ground. Turning back into Banner, he is taken away in an ambulance.
Now, I’m a big Hulk guy, but he isn’t necessary for this film. It feels like he is there for two reasons:
- To explain why he isn’t in Avengers: Doomsday
- Because they wanted Hulk in the movie.
With Hulk handled, Peter tags Jean with the inhibitor right before she takes out the Damage Control people, and she is taken into custody. This should end the film, but strangely, we get a whole lot more Jean in what feels like a second third act.
Damage Control begins experimenting on Jean in hopes of replicating her abilities. The trauma of learning that her sister Sarah died in the very same room triggers Jean’s full abilities. She breaks free of the inhibitor and possesses half of NYC as her limitations are greatly reduced. Jean gets full control of her telekinesis as well and quickly turns the tables, holding Damage Control hostage as she attempts to exact revenge.
Peter confers with Yelena again and learns about Sarah. Realizing he made a mistake, he goes to rescue Jean. Jean, attempting to stop him, takes control of the Hand, and they have an incredible fight. Peter begins resolving his identity issues, which allows him to gain control over his heightened abilities, including his organic webbing, heightened senses, and strength. He confronts Jean and allows her into his head, where she gets to talk to Aunt May.
The film does a good job showing that while Jean grew up without her mother’s presence, Peter benefited greatly from May’s. The film ties this together when Jean experiences the warmth of a maternal figure through his memories. We are left with two people who believe they are completely alone but realize they at least have each other.
For Peter, this gives him the confidence to reestablish a relationship with Ned. For Jean—well, she is about to join a new family, isn’t she? My gripes about Jean aside, their shared trauma really works for me. There is a clear parallel between Peter and Jean, with their physical transformations seemingly intended to reflect the identity struggles they are experiencing internally.
Of course, Frank is going to Frank, and he attempts to kill Jean with a sniper rifle. Peter takes the bullet and nearly dies, but Jean uses her powers to keep him breathing overnight from a distance. An apologetic and remorseful Frank stays overnight with Peter, and when he wakes, they exchange laughs and establish an actual friendship. Imagine that—it took a Spider-Man movie to help Frank evolve.
Frank then helps Peter escape the hospital unnoticed, where Peter gets to witness a vigil of Spidey fans rooting for his recovery. This convinces Peter that he does not need to continue on alone, and he meets Ned in a bodega, where they do the secret handshake. Although Ned still doesn’t remember, their friendship begins anew. We cut to MJ on the trio’s old rooftop, where she is holding the necklace Peter gave her. Perhaps she is gaining feelings for this version of Peter?
The purpose of these scenes is not to restore Peter’s old life. Instead of living in the past, Peter chooses to move forward by building new relationships with the people he already loves. This distinction preserves the consequence of the spell while allowing Peter to regain meaningful connections with MJ and Ned in a different way.
And Jean? I’d need an entire article for that. The short version is that Jean is not portrayed as misunderstood or remorseful. She kills and endangers hundreds of people without hesitation, and the majority of these acts occur before she finds out her sister is dead.
Secondly, I struggle with Jean just powering up and having full control of her abilities. I mean, she gets telekinesis and has pinpoint accuracy with it.
Finally, the writing lets her off the hook. I’ve complained about this in previous reviews. There is no penalty for clearly bad actions. Motive matters, but there are limits. I think mentally freezing half the city after killing multiple people probably crosses that line.
Sadie Sink does a good job, but letting the character off the hook affects the stakes. The writing fails the character here. A better ending would have been to have her turn herself in to her ally, Detective DeWolff. This solves several issues with the film. It gives Jean consequences, gives DeWolff a payoff, and reinforces Peter’s moral position between Frank’s violence and Jean’s revenge. It’s these kinds of things that make the difference between okay writing and excellent storytelling.
It’s a nice ending, and despite part of me wishing Peter had moved on, I found his emotional connections with MJ and Ned to be among the film’s highlights. Whatever someone may think of their relationship, Zendaya and Tom Holland have great chemistry.
Holland and Bernthal are great together as well. Their relationship is probably my second-biggest highlight, and Frank gets a decent amount of screen time.
Ned doesn’t get as much to do, but the scene where Peter gets to nerd out with him as Spider-Man gives Peter something he desperately needs at that moment: a genuine human connection.
That is the film’s central contradiction. Its emotional character work is effective, but its overcrowded cast and questionable handling of Jean prevent the story from fully coming together.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a fun ride. It has issues, but it is a solid MCU entry and probably the best end-to-end MCU outing since Avengers: Endgame. The film is very busy and feels like a tale of two stories:
- Peter rebuilding himself and his human connections
- The Jean/Damage Control/mutant conspiracy plot
Since this review went up, the movie has swung to a $355 million opening weekend projection, and Michael Mando has shared our best look yet at Scorpion.
Marvel cannot fully commit to certain conclusions, particularly consequences, and repeatedly writes its way out of them. The movie is well-produced and well-acted, but its writing choices keep it out of 8-out-of-10 territory. I still recommend it enthusiastically due to its fantastic fighting sequences, excellent character work, and tone. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man understands his responsibility and, despite his isolation, displays all the qualities of true heroism. This film gets that right from start to finish. I give it a solid 7 out of 10.