Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review – Spidey’s Most Grounded Film is His Strongest in Years
Images courtesy of Sony Pictures.
Ahead of the already polarising Marvel blockbuster Avengers: Doomsday, Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a Marvel movie that feels like a Marvel film.
Following the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home where the entire world has their memory wiped of Peter Parker (Tom Holland), Peter has to grapple with the “great responsibility” that comes with the mantle of Spider-Man. Isolated from his once girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), he begins to ignore his life as Peter Parker, and instead finds himself spending more and more time as Spider-Man. As a mysterious new villain (Sadie Sink) appears in New York hijacking people’s bodies, Peter finds himself undergoing a metamorphosis as his body begins to change, granting him new powers and abilities at the cost of his humanity.
In the midst of ‘multiverse fatigue’ (the disillusionment with superhero movies becoming more reliant on nostalgic characters and “dangers to the multiverse”), Cretton brings a much more grounded take on Spider-Man, emphasising Peter’s struggles as Peter, not as Spider-Man. The film handles this in a very tactful way, clearly dividing scenes between his two identities – using the steadfast rule of not removing his mask in front of anyone – before they begin to intertwine as Peter’s separation of the two falls apart. Cretton uses the fallout of No Way Home as an opportunity to mature Peter as a character, despite Jon Watts (dir. Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: No Way Home) completely resetting a decades worth of his character development.
The script is strong, and the overall direction of the plot is very engaging, being a more grounded, well paced character-focused story instead of a big mindless blockbuster. The pacing of the narrative is less relentless than the previous trilogy, being more focused on showing the characters developing in meaningful ways rather than constantly showing something flashy and cool to get the audience's attention. The writing of Spider-Man allows him to be funny, without giving him cringe-inducing ‘MCU quips,’ with his interactions being genuine and entertaining, not self-aware and post-ironic. Thematically, the story retreads a lot of ground established in Thunderbolts (2025) but does so without feeling too derivative. It tackles similar themes of mental health and isolation, but tailors it enough to Peter’s character that it feels fresh, not boring. It is rather hard for the MCU to make a movie about embracing change and moving on when it’s so afraid of making any big changes and doing anything different with its characters, but it’s a good start, especially within the film’s metatextuality of Spider-Man having to learn to move on after he’s forgotten by the ones he loves.
Fresh off the heels of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Tom Holland brings a much greater maturity to the character of Peter Parker. Gone is the Spider-Boy of the 2010’s with the Marty McFly accent; here is a Spider-Man whose overbearing responsibility matches his great power. Zendaya’s performance as MJ feels completely different to the one she gave in the previous trilogy, with her greater maturity and subtle acting making the passage in time between films feel tangible. Sadie Sink’s depiction of ████ ████ (no spoilers) is genuine and is constantly changing, even if it feels like she’s repeating similar beats as her character from Stranger Things. Sink’s character works well as a reflection of Peter Parker and draws some interesting parallels between his current situation and hers. The film shies away from gratuitous cameos, beyond the brief appearance of Florence Pugh’s Black Widow, and also Jon Bernthal’s The Punisher appearing in a supporting role.
The film is visually vibrant and colourful, a far cry from the washed out colour palette of Jon Watts’ previous trilogy. While it unfortunately retains some of the glossy sheen of most MCU movies (especially during larger action set pieces), its strong visual direction and aesthetic sets it aside from the rest of them. The action set pieces look fantastic, with finely choreographed fight scenes and inventive camerawork. Any time Spider-Man is swinging through the city, it’s a lot more impactful than it has ever been before, using a lot more techniques like POV shots, GoPro footage inspired by parkour videos to really immerse you in the action.
Michael Giacchino’s (The Batman, The Incredibles) soundtrack is incredibly moving, reminiscent of his score for the film Up, as it contrasts soft and introspective piano melodies with rousing orchestral themes. While there are some jarring licensed music needle drops throughout the film that break your immersion occasionally, they usually justify themselves quickly, like hearing Tame Impala’s “Loser” play during a serious sequence, before transitioning into a more suitable gen Z house party scene.
The film's main problem is that it never goes far enough into any of its promising aspects to feel substantial, and constantly leaves you wanting more. It never goes far enough with the motives (and implications) of Sink’s character, it never goes far enough with Peter’s Cronenbergian bodily mutations, and it never goes remotely far enough with the themes of superheroes being used as a tool for fascism that it ever so briefly touches upon. The third act climax felt flat and uninspired, turning a very personal and interesting confrontation between parallel characters into just another “Avengers level threat” causing a big catastrophe in Manhattan. Again. Cretton made a quite good film by all means, but if he had chosen to focus the plot more on even just one of the compelling plot devices, or lengthen the film to give him more time to consolidate the films themes together in a satisfying way, it would have been a better movie for it.
Cretton’s rendition of the character finally gives the audience a chance to see Tom Holland really embody the idea of a Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, instead of another action figure to throw at a multiversal threat. Marvel isn’t back yet, but this is a breath of fresh air that could lead to a Brand New Day full of new and interesting films, especially ones that don’t rely on bringing back old superhero actors from the 2000’s.
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Spider-Man: Brand New Day is screening in cinemas from Thursday the 30th of July. For tickets and more info, click here.