Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens in theaters on July 31.
Tom Holland’s run as Spider-Man has been nothing if not consistent. Three solo MCU outings and three supporting appearances leading up to and including Avengers: Endgame have shown Marvel Studios and the Russo Brothers struck gold in casting Holland back in Captain America: Civil War, identifying a guy who has scant few detractors out there thanks to how well he’s able to embody both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Peter’s struggle to find balance between those poles, as it so often does with Spidey, proves to be the main thrust of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. After Shang-Chi and Wonder Man, director Destin Daniel Cretton scores a hat trick by keeping the next chapter of Peter’s journey a lot more restrained than his latter, cosmically-charged outings, even with telepathic threats and organic web fluid oozing from his wrists in play.
Right out of the gate, it must be said that, as Spidey’s first MCU movie set almost entirely within Manhattan: it’s real good to have New York City so front and center in Brand New Day’s action. It’s part of a more-focused mission statement for the movie that Cretton makes immediately in the opening montage, a swing-and-punch medley which covers the last few years of Peter’s lonely life in a world that has completely forgotten who he is thanks to Doctor Strange’s spell at the end of No Way Home.
With no personal life to cultivate, Peter has been laser-focused on cleaning up the city, and his success has gained him the trust of Detective DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) and the rest of the NYPD, leading to enough operational latitude to drive crime in New York to an all-time low. All that comes at the cost of Peter forgoing all connection, but a chance spotting of Ned (Jacob Batalon) convinces him to attend a party to see whether that spark between him and not just Ned, but MJ (Zendaya) too still lingers somewhere in their subconsciouses. The unexpected emotional turbulence that comes with that is what triggers the physiological changes which threaten to subsume the Peter we all know and love, which manifest as supercharged versions of his existing powers, as well as brand new ones like organic web-shooters.
Brand New Day sees Holland at his best in the moments where maybe, just maybe there’s some lingering recognition on the faces of his old friends. His yearning for that old, familiar feeling comes through when the story needs it to, leading to some effective gut punches when things go wrong for him. He’s just as sharp as ever under the mask, too. Peter’s life may be in a rut, but Spider-Man has a lot more swagger thanks to his winning streak as a crimefighter. As his abilities go haywire, that greater power also effectively animates Spidey’s sense of responsibility to the fallout of his actions in some sobering moments. The stakes of Peter’s heroism are a lot different when Iron Man and Doctor Strange aren’t around to clean up his messes, after all.
There’s not quite enough that sets apart Brand New Day’s drama of struggling to serve dual identities from previous Spider-Man movies, and so Holland doesn’t have room to break into new territory with the character. While MJ’s function to the plot doesn’t amount to much more than being a weakness of Peter’s for Sadie Sink’s antagonist to exploit, Zendaya does make space for herself to refine MJ’s established mix of acerbic wit and empathy for others into what feels like a real progression for the character. There’s a fullness to how MJ embraces the odd circumstances that come with Peter’s return into her life, and Zendaya does a great job servicing the nuances of that in her scenes with Holland. Those two, they’ve got some chemistry, don’t know if you’ve heard.
Peter’s eternal struggle to grapple with power and responsibility is reflected in Sink’s mysterious nemesis, who I’m thrilled to reveal, is of course, as we all anticipated, a reincarnated MODOK, everyone’s favorite Avenger. Sink doesn’t truly enter the action until the middle of the movie, but she runs away with the second half on the strength of her quiet fury and a pretty cool power set to back it up. This character’s ability to body-hop between different hosts proves a reliable trick that Cretton deploys liberally across not just the fight scenes, but during chases and even some more dialogue-heavy moments. It’s not too dissimilar from how we’ve seen Loki’s powers used in the past, but given Peter’s vulnerable state, it’s a strong enough tool to keep him second-guessing whether reaching out for help is really safe.
Following Jon Watts’ work on the “Home” trilogy, Destin Daniel Cretton handles the passing of the directorial torch well. Brand New Day tends towards being a little on the nose with some of its musings on evolution and identity, but if Cretton paints with a broad brush, at least his lines are clean. The director’s proven instincts for acrobatic action serve Brand New Day well. This is as “Spider-Man” as Tom Holland’s Spidey has ever felt in combat not just thanks to the increased level of his abilities, but in how precisely Cretton moves the camera to capture all that spectacle.
And yes, Spidey does some Insomniac-coded stuff during the fights. And yes… it’s cool to see a well-loved adaptation of the character from a different medium get a knuckle bump from the big dogs at Marvel Studios in that way.
Bringing Spider-Man back down to ground and recontextualizing him into the considerable, interwoven world that Marvel Studios has endeavored to build out is mostly a success here. Sure, if you were one of those folks who was really hoping to see Scorpion (Michael Mando), Tombstone (Marvin Jones III), or Boomerang (computer generated man) get their due as fleshed-out baddies, you’ll be dismayed to discover they aren’t used as much more than set dressing here. The rogues gallery is mostly waved aside this time, but Brand New Day gets plenty of mileage out of calling in previously-established MCU characters to help Spider-Man along his friendly, neighborhood way.
Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner / Hulk is a sensible choice for a character to pluck out of the roster to bounce science jargon off of, but even more effective as an authority on Peter’s deliberations over how much control he should be trying to exert over nature as it takes its course. That said, it’s Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle / Punisher, with his own long history of isolating through tragedy, who really finds the most success among the returning MCU faces. If Tony Stark was a father figure to Peter, Frank’s more of a hot-blooded uncle, and the chemistry the two actors share is a reliable source of chaotic, argumentative energy that always serves the movie well. You have to have a little context for who The Punisher is for all that to have its full effect, but that is the Sacha Baron Cohen-faced Mephisto with which you bargain when you buy a movie ticket to any new Marvel.
Less successfully deployed from the MCU toy chest is the Department of Damage Control, whose Director Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) entreats Spider-Man to help them stop the mystery antagonist testing the boundaries of their facilities for weaknesses like a body-hopping raptor. Damage Control has been consolidating power for years at this point in the MCU – not usually a chill thing to do in these movies – and their stated goal of turning dangers into buffers against those very dangers isn’t convincingly conceived enough or followed through on to give the normally charismatic Tillman much room to leave an impression. Brand New Day’s overreach with Damage Control extends into some odd choices with respect to who it’s choosing to “reform.” Metzger highlights the purportedly redeemed ninjas of The Hand as exemplary of his approach early on, but in a way that positions the group that once terrorized The Defenders as a group of wayward kids who just needed some structure in their lives. Though there are some undeniably great action beats involving them, they never rise above feeling like bright red enemies for Spidey to knock around to get some experience points.
Though Brand New Day occasionally fumbles the execution of how it pushes forward some of these more minor elements of the larger MCU tapestry, it does a pretty solid job of keeping the amount of “homework” it has to do setting up future franchise entries to a respectable minimum. The new elements established, thunderclouds on the horizon, are both relevant and removed enough from Peter’s focus here as not to distract from the conflict at hand. Whether all that’s expressly in service of the character or because Avengers: Doomsday is right around the corner and there’s nothing for Spider-Man to do about such massive threats right now, Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s smaller scope is a welcome change of pace after a string of high-concept adventures. It’s… it’s almost like… a Spider-Man homecoming.
