Spider-Man: Brand New Day spoiler-free review – Amazing friends

Spider-Man has been around for a very long time – since 1962, to be exact. Unlike the Distinguished Competition and its reality-resetting Crisis events though, Marvel Comics has avoided doing full universal reboots for the most part. So, how does the publisher keep sexagenarians like Spider-Man still feeling relevant and reinvigorated after all this time? The answer is status quo resets brought on by a new creative team, offering us fresh spins on existing character dynamics; the evolution of powersets; and first-time character debuts to set up something major and exciting down the line that will draw in new readers and bring old fans back to the fold. And that’s exactly what it feels like watching Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Having capped off his trilogy with 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, director Jon Watts hands over the baton to Destin Daniel Cretton, the filmmaker who masterfully punched his way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Cretton was supposed to helm Marvel’s next major team-up blockbuster, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, before that project fell apart. That loss was our gain here though as Cretton takes to the world of Spider-Man like he’s always been there, even bringing in the dynamic martial arts choreography he displayed so brilliantly in Shang-Chi to give us the best Spider-Man action ever put to screen. Wuxia? More like webxia.

There are more than just flashy moves in Brand New Day though. For those of you who don’t remember No Way Home (ha!), that film saw Spider-Man aka Peter Parker (Tom Holland) needing to untangle a multiversal mess he made that had already claimed the life of his beloved Aunt May, and then put his true love MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batlon) in danger as well. The only solution was a powerful spell that made the entire world – friend and foe alike – forget that Peter Parker ever existed.

The physics of how that worked was murky back then and is, frustratingly, only slight less murky now. All you need to know is this: Now able to focus on just being a hero and nothing else, Peter has become the best Spider-Man he can be. He’s all but cleaned up crime in New York City, has a great working relationship with the NYPD via Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas), and the people actually love him. He is truly a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. He’s also gravely miserable.

Outside of fighting crime, Peter does virtually nothing else except achingly follow MJ and Ned on social media, watching as the two people he cares for most in the world go off to study at MIT and live the lives the three of them had once dreamed about together. Although he had originally planned to tell them the truth of who he was and what they all meant to each other, Peter has never been able to, placing their happiness and safety above his own broken existence.

Luckily, there’s plenty of Spidey business to distract him when a series of attacks target the Department of Damage Control, the government agency created to police those with superpowers, which is now run by Bill Meltzer (Tramell Tillman). The attacks also grab the attention of the Punisher aka Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), who may not be as revenge-driven any longer but is still a fan of lethal force, much to Spider-Man’s dismay. As the villainous Scorpion (Michael Mando) gets pulled into affairs, Spider-Man realizes that something mysterious is afoot. The villain, as well as several seemingly innocent people involved in the attacks, don’t appear to be in control of their actions and don’t even have memories of what they did. And at the heart of this mystery appears to be a shadowy figure with some truly terrifying body-hopping powers. I won’t mention where the cast addition of Sadie Sink slots in.

On top of which, Peter is going through something terrifying of his own, as his powers appear to be evolving in unprecedented ways. The physical changes come with the unhealthy side-effect of unleashing a monstrously violent side to Spider-Man, forcing him to reach out to an expert on the matter in the form of Bruce Banner, aka the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).

And if all of that sounds like there’s a lot going on, it’s because there is. Although not as much as you may think, and not in the directions you may have predicted. MCU fundis fond of dreaming up theories ahead of seeing a movie may find themselves both pleasantly surprised and disappointed as some characters barely feature, while others unexpectedly get given sizable chunks of screen time. And, of course, this being a Marvel movie, we also have some very fun fan-pleasing cameos.

Through it all though, keeping us invested through every heart-lurching swing of the plot, is Spider-Man himself. In his seventh appearance as the character, Holland turns in easily his best dramatic performance in the MCU to date. The script from franchise scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers understands that the reason this character has been so popular for 64 years is that he’s so infectiously likeable, making those dark moments between the levity hit even harder. And Holland sells it with authority.

He has help though. My apologies to the lactose intolerant among you, but if there’s ever a metatextual theme that could be associated with Brand New Day, it’s “The Power of Friendship”. Holland is amazing solo, but truly shines when playing off his cast mates, who all bring their A-games. It says a lot when the most audible gasps from the audience in my cinema came from deeply meaningful moments of character interaction rather than the likes of Spider-Man acrobatically tussling with ninjas (though I definitely did some gasping of my own there).

Special mention has to be made of Jon Bernthal whose Punisher not only has incredibly entertaining chemistry with Spider-Man, resulting in some of the film’s biggest laughs, but also gives arguably the most emotionally nuanced showing of Frank Castle on screen so far. Sadie Sink also proves once again that her breakout as Max in Stranger Things was no fluke as she’s fantastic here. And no, me not mentioning her character’s name was not an oversight. Make of that what you will.

If there is a chink in this film’s armour, it’s that some ideas feel a little undercooked, most notably the whole spider evolution angle. Pulling from infamous 2000s comic book arc The Other, its inclusion here feels clunky, seemingly only present to spin up future developments in the MCU. There are also a few moments of head scratching that arise when you think about the logistics of Peter Parker’s isolationist post-spell life.

None of these are tangible enough to distract from the overall swinging success of Brand New Day though. The direction, writing, action, and character work are all top tier – not to mention, we also get the very best rendition of the Hulk we’ve seen on screen since Avengers: Age of Ultron. The result is a film, much like Thunderbolts* last year, that marries wildly fun spectacle with strongly invested emotional drama. The iconoclastic Thunderbolts tackled much darker and more mature themes than you normally find in movies about people dressing up in colourful leotards to punch each other, which is why it was considered by many to be the best Marvel release post-Avengers: Endgame. I think that still gives it the edge over Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but just barely. Either way, it’s really good to be a Marvel fan again!

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in cinemas now, having released on 29 July.