This review does not contain major spoilers for the film, but proceed with caution!
Five years after Peter Parker (Tom Holland) erased himself from the memories of everyone he loved, Spider-Man: Brand New Day finds him still living with the aftermath of that sacrifice. MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) no longer remember him, Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) is gone, and Peter has withdrawn almost completely into Spider-Man. He spends his days protecting New York while his own life disappears beneath the mask. Director Destin Daniel Cretton takes the familiar struggle between Peter Parker and Spider-Man and approaches it from a more adult perspective. This is no longer a teenager trying to balance homework, first love, and superhero duties. Peter has no support system, no clear future, and very little sense of who he is outside the suit. His loneliness begins affecting his powers, leading to heightened senses, organic webbing, and bursts of aggression he cannot always control as his arachnid hormones increase and become more volatile.
The mutation gives the story a darker edge, but the film is just as interested in what is happening to Peter emotionally as it is in the changes taking place in his body. Even after choosing to keep his distance from Ned and MJ, he continues watching over them from afar as they live out the MIT future he once imagined sharing with them. That self-exile gives Tom Holland some of his most affecting material yet, allowing him to play a Peter who is more guarded due to his isolation without losing the awkward humour, compassion, and stubborn goodness that have always made him so easy to love.
The emotional core of the film, unsurprisingly, comes from Aunt May, whose presence survives through a memory Peter repeatedly returns to. At first, the flashback arrives only in fragments, with a few wise words he cannot quite bring himself to face in full, even as a mysterious new character, played by Sadie Sink, tries to make him confront it. More of the moment is revealed each time until it is finally completed during a heartfelt climax, allowing May’s guidance to reach the people who need it most.
Zendaya brings a new ache to MJ, who no longer knows the person beneath Spider-Man’s mask but still feels compelled to help him. Their chemistry remains palpable even in scenes that are not overtly romantic, carrying through to the painful moments that highlight everything that has been lost between them. Jacob Batalon is equally important to the film’s emotional arc as Ned. Peter did not only lose a romance at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the film does not treat friendship as a lesser form of love or connection. Ned was the first person to make being Spider-Man feel less solitary, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day places weight on what it means to lose that.
While there are several characters from the expansive MCU present in the film, alongside new faces, the wider cast is mostly folded into Peter’s journey rather than pulling focus from it. Sadie Sink delivers a compelling performance with unsettling intensity, playing someone whose identity is best left for the film to reveal, as she seeks answers from the charismatic and commanding director of the Department of Damage Control, Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman). Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), becomes a harsher moral counterpoint to Peter’s refusal to give up on saving people, and it’s quite satisfying to watch Spider-Man and the Punisher evolve from two fundamentally opposed crime-fighters into a wonderfully bonded duo. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) makes an appearance when Peter seeks him out to understand how he might control the increasingly unruly arachnid hormones altering his body and behaviour, while Hulk fans will be happy to see that the big guy is given room to make an impression too. Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) appears mostly for comedic purposes, beginning when Peter seeks help and is told that his problem is “small potatoes” compared to what is on the New Avengers’ plate. She eventually offers more useful advice as the situation grows, and her presence allows the audience to draw connections to Thunderbolts* as the film echoes some of its themes about loneliness, identity, and the danger of carrying pain alone.
Cretton’s action direction is another major highlight. Spidey fans will find that the influence of Insomniac’s Spider-Man games is easy to spot in Peter’s fluid dodges, aerial attacks, environmental movement, and combat rhythm. The creative team also artfully stages several shots to resemble fan-favourite Spider-Man comic book covers during a sequence chronicling Peter’s years of crime-fighting, paying tribute to the character’s visual history without interrupting the momentum. A major fight involving The Hand includes an especially clever use of his new organic webbing as Peter begins to embrace the physical changes he has spent much of the film resisting. The swinging is equally impressive, particularly during brief first-person moments that place the audience inside the speed, height, and dizzying freedom of moving through New York. It’s truly immersive, and something that the previous set of movies headed by Holland lacked.
The film succeeds because it remembers what has always made this hero special: Peter Parker is not inspiring because he never falls apart, but because he keeps choosing to care even when getting back up feels impossible. He becomes overwhelmed, makes mistakes, carries far too much on his shoulders, and faces near-death experiences, yet still reaches for the chance to help someone else. His life may be wrapped in comic-book chaos, but his fear of failure, loneliness, and fierce need to protect the people and the city that he loves remain painfully recognizable.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day leaves Peter bruised but moving forward, while opening several exciting paths for Spider-Man, as well as the characters and storylines surrounding him. Stay until the end, because the post-credit scene may be brief, but it offers one final, exciting glimpse at the possibilities ahead.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing exclusively in theatres everywhere, with tickets on sale now.
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