'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' Movie Review: Tom Holland’s Most Emotional, Grounded MCU Adventure Yet

One of the themes in Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the singular ache of adulting. That time in your 20s when the built-in camaraderie of college is done, when circumstances impose isolation, when relationships are casually sidelined as life takes over, when work becomes the oxygen that fuels long days and lonely nights.  

To add to Peter Parker’s melancholy, there’s also memory loss. If you recall, in the last film Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange saves the universe from catastrophe by making the world forget Peter and his secret identity. This is done at Peter’s request and it includes his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya). So now, Peter is in an extreme version of Saiyaara; the woman he loves has no clue who he is.

Spider-Man: No Way Home delivered euphoria. The climatic sequence of the three Spideys — Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire — discussing web fluid and the various villains they’ve fought and then fighting iconic villains together was a masterful blend of wit, nostalgia, action and emotion. How do you top that? Director Destin Daniel Cretton, who earlier helmed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, opts for rootedness and emotional maturity. 

Unlike the earlier films in this franchise, Brand New Day doesn’t globe-trot and is set entirely in New York City. It’s been four years after the events of No Way Home and Spider-Man is handling what Florence Pugh’s Black Widow calls "small potatoes." It’s local robberies, an armoured truck that can’t be stopped, and baddies like Scorpion. But this is the film’s strength because after 37 MCU films, those gigantic, saving-the-world, CGI-heavy battles of sound and fury have become eye-glazing. Of course, Spider-Man also has to save the city... but along the way, he must find his way back to MJ and Spidey, restore work-life balance, and engineer the delicate equilibrium between his two personalities. Spider-Man can only be an effective crime-fighter if Peter Parker isn’t broken.

There is a lot going on and Cretton, along with writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, strains to make the storytelling personal and emotional but also pleasurable, visually alive and soaring — literally since Spider-Man spends so much time gliding through New York City. 

They don’t always succeed. The first hour of the film has plodding stretches, and the plot and stakes don’t feel urgent enough, even though major characters such as Jon Bernthal's Punisher and Mark Ruffalo's Hulk, flit in and out. Though it’s always a joy to see Ruffalo, I’m still trying to decipher why the Hulk was required in this story. But it is fun to see The Punisher who is always ready to mete out harsh justice with his many guns, and riff with Spidey who has a more humane approach. There’s also a new telepathic entity leaping in and out of minds. To reveal more would be a spoiler.

Thankfully, the pacing picks up in the second hour when new motivations are revealed and the plot twists. There is a gorgeously choreographed action sequence in which Spider-Man goes up against the red-clad Ninja warriors known as The Hand. At one point, even he pauses to look at the them and exclaim... that’s cool. But the best scenes in the film are between Spider-Man and MJ. Like Tony Leung in Shang-Chi, Zendaya brings thoughtfulness and authenticity to the film, and her performance helps to anchor it. There is something poignant about MJ, who no longer remembers Peter or that she once loved him, clutching Spidey as he zooms through New York. 

It’s been 10 years since Holland first entered the MCU as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, and has now starred as the masked superhero in more movies than any other actor. Watching him grow older as this character adds heft to his strong performance. His angst feels inevitable. There’s also the lovely Sadie Sink bringing a tragic ferociousness to her role.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day runs for two hours and twenty-five minutes and the energy dips and flows. The film gets dragged down by that nagging dissatisfaction which accompanies too many MCU movies because too much of the storytelling feels like set-up for future tentpoles. And be warned that the post-credit scene is disappointing. But there are passages of poetry here, and enough heart to make the film stand out from the superhero industrial complex.