The 2021 blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home ushered in a pile-up of villains from the superhero’s past, multiplying the title character by three to even out the odds and extend its embrace across the Marvel property’s modern screen era, dating back to 2002’s “Raimiverse” kick-off. Five years on, Spider-Man: Brand New Day reins all that in to find a more introspective Peter Parker in emotionally bruised isolation following his self-sacrificial decision to save the world by erasing its memory of him.
Directed with adrenaline and feeling if not always an ideal grasp of pacing by Destin Daniel Cretton and penned by returning screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, the entertaining new entry has the good sense to stop banging on about the damn multiverse. Instead, it foregrounds the humanity that has always been Spidey’s greatest strength — with an extra dash of angst. But fear not, that doesn’t mean the man in the red and blue webbed suit (don’t call it a leotard!) is stuck whining away on a psychoanalyst’s couch or poring over self-help manuals.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
The Bottom Line
Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man grows up.
Release date: Friday, July 31
Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Mark Ruffalo, Liza Colón-Zayas, Michael Mando, Marvin Jones III, Marisa Tomei
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Screenwriters: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko
Rated PG-13,
2 hours 25 minutes
Naturally, he still spends a lot of time fighting villains and thwarting crime, most notably a threat of almost unprecedented magnitude through which telepathic mind games enable the misunderstood fiend to hop from one host body to the next like a nimble trickster — with help from some cool, woozy freeze-frame effects. Anyone in New York City could be the menace, including those who set themselves up as peacekeepers.
Trailers have already given away the presence of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, now teaching college physics to students who mostly just want to hear about the not-so-jolly green giant. No surprise that where Bruce goes, Hulk follows. Ditto a terrific Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, who acts like he and Spider-Man are old frenemies though that will be somewhat confusing to those of us without a comprehensive knowledge of the comics.
But there are two more MCU crossovers — one from The Avengers and one from X-Men — that go beyond fan service to bring welcome touches, respectively, of mordant humor and unpredictable danger. Spoiler ettiquette forbids me from naming those characters or the actors playing them, even if they will probably be all over social media by the time this review runs. But if you want to try figuring it out, one quite hilariously treats a Russian bathhouse in Brooklyn as their HQ and the other was often described by Professor Xavier as his most talented student. IYKYK.
The dominant thread, however, at least until full-scale mayhem erupts, is Peter Parker’s identity crisis, which gives a never-better Tom Holland soulful new notes to play in his fourth solo turn in the tights. This is a heavily burdened Spider-Man, rendered more vulnerable by his sense of loss, mourning his beloved Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and pained by having to watch from afar as the love of his life, MJ (Zendaya), and his geeky best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) carry on with their lives with no memory of him.
Peter obsessively rehearses the reunion speech he has written for MJ — “We used to know each other. We were together.” — going on to explain that the only way to stop something terrible from happening was to make everyone forget. But rekindling the spark proves complicated, even as he slowly reintroduces himself into MJ and Ned’s lives, soon after they graduate from MIT and move back to NYC.
In his bleakest moments, Peter tries to reconcile his loneliness with his self-diagnosed new responsibility: “To live alone with the truth.” But his mental anguish is upsetting the balance of his cross-species DNA, first with paralyzing headaches and gradually with an internal battle as his arachnid side starts overpowering his human side. That also plays havoc with his control over his web-shooting capabilities, both the old-school organic method and the tech version built for him by Tony Stark.
While separated from his inner circle, Spider-Man has been busy reducing crime to a record low, earning much appreciation from Det. DeWolff (The Bear‘s Liza Colón-Zayas, nice to see you), with whom he maintains a bantering phone friendship. But he comes up against a greater challenge when he responds to a crime alert about a hijacked tank careening through the city, headed for the Damage Control Headquarters.
That high-speed, major-destruction chase is one of several supercharged set-pieces impressively executed by Cretton, DP Brett Pawlak and an ace stunt team. The tank’s arrival coincides with the transfer to maximum-security lockup of the mutant criminal known as Scorpion (Michael Mando), last seen wielding his armored tail in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Or is the Scorpion just a red herring, under the spell of a darker force?
That encounter gives Spider-Man a taste of the mind-control phenomenon that will be the action’s principal driver — described as something closer to “possession” by a savvy insider who makes teasing mention of the erotic gay fanfiction Spidey has inspired. (Maybe Sony should market that to broaden their audience?) While at Damage Control, Spidey meets the center’s director, Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman, coolly composed and authoritative), who reveals that they are studying captured villains and their weaponry, with the aim of repurposing that knowledge for law enforcement.
One of Metzger’s success stories is The Hand, a band of red-clad ninja badasses whose destructive energy supposedly has been redirected into more useful service. Don’t be so sure. This group allows Cretton to revisit similar territory to his enjoyable first MCU movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, with some spectacularly choreographed, gravity-defying wire-fu fight action.
All this chugs along satisfyingly even with the occasional patch of sluggishness and the usual overly convoluted plot contortions. As much as the movie revels in the thrill of Spidey swinging between skyscrapers with erratic command of his shooters, the more intimate scenes with MJ and Ned are what supplies the emotional charge.
The dynamic of these three together — and of Holland, Zendaya and Batalon in the roles — has been lovingly nurtured over four films and pays off here with genuinely affecting moments that will have some fans getting misty-eyed. Likewise, the spiky cameraderie between this more mature Spider-Man and rough-hewn vigilante Frank provides an extra dose of heart
The heat gets fully turned up when the identity of Sadie Sink’s character is revealed, at first driven by fury, contempt and manipulation mastery but eventually revealed to have much in common with Peter in terms of devastating loss. Without giving too much away about the role, the Stranger Things star’s compelling performance puts a new face on a familiar character and a painful new backstory to drive her actions, perhaps setting up future appearances.
In addition to the actors, Cretton’s biggest asset in balancing the tone between excitement and tenderness is Michael Giacchino’s excellent score, interspersing melancholy passages that echo the characters’ internal unrest with more rousing action accompaniment.
Whether this latest entry can match the series high of No Way Home’s $1.92 billion in global box office remains to be seen. But it should give fans what they want, which is a good start. And though Holland has not yet confirmed his intention to continue in the role, a cute post-credits tease involving an app invented by Ned gives credence to the closing text card: “Spider-Man will return.” Besides, Brand New Day hardly sounds like a farewell.
