Spider-Man: Brand New Day is Spinning Something Special

It’s crazy that the world isn’t yet sick of Spider-Man. In the MCU era there have been eight stand-alone live action films, soon to be three Spiderverse animated movies and a modern Disney cartoon series. That hyphen has become ubiquitous.

Here comes Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a great responsibility for new (to Spidey) director Destin Daniel Cretton. Cretton meets these expectations head on, with an entertaining movie that balances the sombre and fun parts of everyone’s favourite friendly neighbour’s story. Brand New Day is not a short movie, as it’s also tasked with moving along the next phase (if we’re still calling it that) of the MCU. It does this well, allowing Spidey to re-forge old bonds and form new ones. Thankfully, Spider-Man is no longer alone.

Brand New Day has to ensure that all that devoted time and energy to a masked kid from Queens wasn’t for nothing. This lightness of touch comes with a new approach by Tom Holland to his Peter Parker: He has a heavier, athletic body and doubles down on Peter’s New Yorker roots and the character’s dedication to being a superhero.
Spider-Man has always been a good kid, but now he’s a good -MAN.

The film is loaded with comic-book characters making it hard to talk about the twisty story developments without revealing spoilers. And there’s more, with Peter becoming increasingly more arachnid (a mutation, if you will) which has interesting connotations for Peter’s future mindset and alliances.

A brief plot summary: Peter suffers with loneliness in a dingy rooftop apartment. He hones his body, mind and bio-engineering skills for three years, periodically checking in (via social media stalking) on MJ and Ned as they study at MIT. He builds a sweet working relationship with NYPD officer Jean De Wolff (The Bear‘s Liza-Colon Zeyes) making sure that the Scorpion and other criminals are put away in high security units managed by Damage Control‘s head, Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman). Then someone keener on mind control than damage control breaks in to the units, seeking the mysterious V-MAX, while Peter undergoes strange genetic development. He must ask for help from the only person available: the Punisher (Jon Bernthal).

What elevates Brand New Day to new heights is two-fold. The first is how much care is taken with each of Spider-man’s relationships, particularly the central love affair between Spidey and MJ. Previous films have seen Peter’s love interests suffer a miserable fate. This film finally treats MJ as a separate character with her own life and agile mind.  Zendaya’s take on MJ as nerdy and assured, uninterested in the trappings of a young woman’s life was always novel. But in Brand New Day she develops MJ into a wise but guarded MIT grad. Zendaya and Holland’s natural chemistry is beautifully rendered on screen in a way it hadn’t been before, as their burgeoning relationship had to take a back seat to saving the world from Thanos. Here their relationship (or initial lack thereof ) is allowed to breathe, settle and potentially grow. The same kindness to paid to Peter and Ned’s lost friendship, to the deepening strange buddy-buddy friendship with Frank Castle and myriad other Spidey team-ups. Holland gives his best Spidey performance here.

Secondly, this movie is a real stunner when it comes to visual effects. Brand New Day is reminiscent of the fantastic Spider-Man video games and of the many comic strips. The choreography of the fight scenes is clever and cool, and no battle ever outstays its welcome.
Of course the movie isn’t perfect. With so many female characters on screen (and there are many surprises) they rarely talk to one another. And the film makes a late story swerve which is only really designed to link this film to the next MCU outing. But other than that, this is simply spectacular.

Brand New Day is what the MCU needs – as it builds towards the huge Avengers Doomsday – a focus on the ‘small potatoes’ stories (IYKYK) giving plenty of heart. Amid the chaos there comes a costume – Spidey is here to stay.