Why You Should Watch ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ This Weekend

This truly is the Year of Tom Holland

Death. Taxes. Spider-Man.

A tale as old as time (or Gen Z). Since Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man film brought the character to the big screen, there have been 11 solo projects centered around our “friendly neighbors” from Queens and Brooklyn. The IP has proven time and again to be a major cash cow for Sony, generating $9 billion at the box office over the last 24 years. Audiences have consistently flooded theatres to see the latest project featuring Peter Parker or Miles Morales.

This latest installment, Brand New Day, comes on the back of the most successful solo IP film of all time, Spider-Man: No Way Home, which featured a heartfelt crossover between Tom and the other two live-action Spider-Men, Andrew Garfield and Toby Maguire. That movie, which closed the arc for the high-school version of Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), tied a nice bow around the Jon Watts trilogy (Homecoming, Far From Home and No Way Home) and set up Tom Holland’s character for a sort of “soft reboot” in the next set of films.

Despite the critical, financial, and cultural success of the first three solo Holland films, this was a welcome opportunity for change. While Spider-Man was back on the big screen and incorporated into the larger universe of Marvel, it felt like something had been lost in the emotional resonance of Spider-Man’s earlier films, particularly the Raimi trilogy. Jon Watts, for all the good he did, seemed to fundamentally misunderstand the character of Spider-Man. His life was too simple, too neat. Whereas past iterations of Spider-Man, including the maligned Amazing Spider-Man run with Andrew Garfield, leaned into the complexity, emotional weight, and impossibility of navigating a life as a teenager with a secret identity who is constantly wrestling with the potential of putting his loved ones in danger, Holland’s Spidey’s low point before halfway through Spider-Man: No Way Home was the death of his mentor Tony Stark in a movie that wasn’t even his own, Avengers: Endgame. Watts’ movies featured little drama.

It also never felt like any of Watts’ movies took seriously that Spider-Man is a “friendly neighborhood” hero who is a quintessential New Yorker. Even to the point where an entire movie was set in Europe, which, while it was a great movie, was also definitively the worst Spider-Man film. The most egregious transgression, however, was the lack of imagination in the action sequences. Despite the new technology available to Watts, the web-slinging and fights of his Spider-Man films were below average at best when compared to what the previous Spider-Man films were able to pull off (with far more limited technology).

In the aftermath of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s ending, audiences were given the possibility of seeing a more emotionally mature and evocative Spider-Man film in Brand New Day where Holland’s Peter Parker would wrestle with the consequences of his decision to erase his memory from existence to save those he loved.

That possibility has become a reality. Spider-Man: Brand New Day painstakingly delivers on everything that was missing from Watts’ trilogy, and is thus the greatest entry in the Holland era of Spider-Man (I cannot emphasize this enough; it is in an entirely different stratosphere).

Brand New Day is a grounded, back-to-basics adaptation of the Webhead from Sunnyside, Queens. The multiversal disarray is traded for a heartfelt, weighty, and emotional character-driven drama. It is, as my friend LJ said in his Letterboxd review, “A love letter to NYC and a reminder why Spider-Man IS the face of Marvel.” It is everything good about the previous installments baptized into a refreshing layer of maturity. Brand New Day is enthralling, frenzied, earnest, captivating, and filled with love for the ethos of Stan Lee’s most iconic creation.

There is so much to love about this project, but the following points are some of the stand-outs.

The Positives:

This Spider-Man is Different

I am seeing a lot of instant reactions that compare Brand New Day directly to Spider-Man 2 (2004). While I understand the sentiment, I think it is a disservice to both films and particularly to Brand New Day. As I watched Brand New Day, I saw many similar themes to the early Raimi movies, but the delivery and execution are different. Brand New Day doesn’t just feel like a new type of Spider-Man movie. In many ways, it feels like a new type of superhero movie. I need to see it again to put my finger on specifically what I mean by this, but Brand New Day felt different. The pacing was frenetic and well executed. The chemistry of the ensemble cast was impeccable. New York comes alive and is a character of its own. I think Destin Daniel Cretton deserves an immense amount of credit for just how distinct this movie is from other comic-book movies.

Tom Holland Shines

I have loved Tom Holland as Spider-Man since he first appeared in Captain America: Civil War back in 2016. He is the best Peter Parker ever. He nailed the awkward high school nerd vibe of a young Spidey in the first three movies. As Spider-Man matures in this newest installment, so does Holland’s acting. While I loved The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day confirms to me that Nolan’s biggest whiff outside of Charlize Theron’s Calypso was his utilization of Holland as Telemachus in the film. The beauty, the sincerity, the earnestness and relatability of Peter Parker is elevated by Holland’s line delivery and presence. Only Holland could make a scene where he’s building legos the most moving scene of the entire film (shoutout to male friendship).

Zendaya’s Best Performance

Zendaya is beautiful. We all know this. Zendaya is an actress in high demand. We also know this. But did we know she could do this? You probably did, but I didn’t. That is probably my fault, as I have had limited interaction with her filmography. I have only seen her in Spider-Man films and the Dune franchise. She has been serviceable up until now in Spider-Man, and she was good in Dune: Part Two. This was the first time I have seen Zendaya on the big screen and left the theatre thinking she was potentially the best performance of the film. In this movie, she is at worst a standout. Every time she is on screen, her charm and range are on full display. Her and Jon Bernthal’s interactions are the most entertaining of the project, and her scenes with Peter drive the emotional core of the film. 9.4/10.

Sadie Sink, future face of the MCU?

Sink’s role has been highly speculated in the film for months, but was (officially) kept secret until the film’s launch. I will not reveal who she is, but my friend Sam characterized her performance as “the best character introduction in the MCU since Spider-Man debuted 10 years ago.” I agree. She and Zendaya combined for the best characterizations of the project.

Jon Bernthal

The MCU for years has been plagued by soul-sucking comedy. Since Endgame (and even before that), Marvel has ruined countless scenes with poorly-timed comedy. It seemed like their writers had forgotten how to let a scene breathe on its own, and how to integrate comedy into the film organically through the particulars of characters. Perhaps the best part of Brand New Day, and a sign of its maturity, is that the comedy only serves to advance the plot and development of its characters and their relationships. Nowhere is this more present than the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Spider-Man’s partnership. Any time they are on screen together it feels like a buddy comedy I would pay copious amounts of money to experience. In every moment of comedic relief, there is a depth of character revealed. Bernthal is not an arbitrary add-on, but an integral part of the emotional pay-offs of the film’s central theme. More Punisher, please.

Web-Slinging and Fight Choreography

As alluded to earlier, Jon Watts Spider-Man trilogy was severely lacking in on-screen exploration of how new technology in film and editing could truly bring to life Spider-Man’s powers and abilities. Several sequences in here are jaw-dropping. Tip of the cap to Cretton, Holland, and everyone who brought it to life.

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These are the biggest successes of Holland’s film, and they far outweigh the negative, but there are two minor problems I had with the film.

The Negatives

MCU Bloating - Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

The additional characters and entities (Hulk, Punisher, Department of Damage Control) add a lot to the film, and the writers did a phenomenal job eliminating any “pre-work” necessary to follow the film. Simultaneously, there is a lot that could have been cut out and everything that could be cut out actively takes away from the more resonant beats of the project’s themes. The Hulk appearance alone was a mess. They could have kept the scenes with Professor Banner as a small cameo, and removed the Hulk. The integration would have kept its purpose and removed the fluff.

Tramell Tillman

I am profoundly disappointed in the script for Trammell Tillman’s character. I had high expectations for his inclusion after his mesmerizing performance as Milchick in Apple TV’s Severance, but he was not given space to shine at all. I hope he is written better in future projects.

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While it will most likely not surpass the love most have for Spider-Man 2, my initial reaction tells me Spider-Man: Brand New Day will become my favorite live-action Spider-Man film. It does not change my skepticism about the quality and future of the superhero genre, but it is certainly an exception to the general lack of creativity that plagues recent comic book movies and is worth a trip (or two) to your local theater.

It is more than a welcome addition to the Spider-Man franchise, and scores an 8.4/10.

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