3.5 out of 5 Spider-Men (Above Average)
Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings so close to being great, but just misses that ledge. It’s an admirably downbeat sci-fi thriller with plenty of action and a resonant message, but some forced humor and an overabundance of characters and story threads tangle its narrative web. If you’ve enjoyed Tom Holland’s previous outings or wanted them to grow up, Spider-Man: Brand New Day pushes the web-head in a new direction for its series and the Marvel Universe at large.
Peter Parker (Tom Holland) has spent the last few years alone and fully devoted to being Spider-Man after shenanigans made the world forget his identity in No Way Home. Though he’s set crime rates to record lows and developed a frenemyship with Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), Peter still yearns for his old connections with previous friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon). When a new enemy arises and starts wreaking havoc on government facilities, our wallcrawler must uncover his foe’s identity before it’s too late. Oh, did I mention Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) is also here and Peter’s undergoing some bizarre body changes?
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is easily the darkest film in the Tom Holland series so far and better for it. The goofy humor of previous films is largely absent, the more mature tone and grounded style (curtesy of Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton) is a refreshing and appropriate change, and the underlying message that everyone needs Someone in their corner regardless of how strong they are hits hard. The film also sets up future movies without sacrificing its own story, though some parts of that story feel underutilized. Marvel reportedly cut a storyline to make the film more kid-friendly, but I can’t imagine most parents wanting their 8-year-olds quoting the swear-happy Punisher.
There are too many characters from outside films for this to stand alone and the movie ushers them out with unresolved plot threads, but each serves the story and the action, character drama, and emotions hit a bullseye. While Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings in too many directions at once to fully explore them all, its strengths make it worth crawling to your nearest cinema if you’re a fan of the series. See it.
Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Action/Violence and Some Language