Review: SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

 by Rob DiCristino

With waning franchise power comes unreasonable franchise responsibility.

When we last left our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, he was rescuing the multiverse from a reality-bending catastrophe — one which was admittedly his fault to begin with — and wiping his memory from the minds of everyone who ever knew and loved him. Four years later, Peter Parker (Tom Holland), now without the largesse of the late Tony Stark or the guidance of his beloved Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), has settled into a rickety studio apartment and doubled down on his solemn commitment to protecting the city of New York. Watching from afar as MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) live it up at M.I.T., Peter can at least take solace in Spider-Man’s successes: He’s popular with the citizens he serves, he’s trusted by the NYPD (led by The Bear’s Liza Colón-Zayas), and he’s even made a reliable frenemy in vigilante Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal). But when a mysterious body-hopping telepath threatens to undo all of that good work, Spidey must learn that no man is an island; we all — even super-heroic spider-humans — need a little help from our friends.

In other words, Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day presents at first as an old-fashioned Spider-Man story. No longer just a pawn in the galactic vagaries of the MCU — and, mercifully, no longer just Tony Stark’s overeager chihuahua — our wall-crawling pal is now his own man and free to navigate the trials of early adulthood as he sees fit. Written by series regulars Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, the film presents a more aloof and taciturn Peter Parker, a twenty-something at a crossroads between his old identity and his next one. Tom Holland, in the midst of his Big Odyssey Summer, brings new interiority and confidence to the role he’s refined over thirteen years, and much of what works here is owed to his ability to make punching villains like the Scorpion (Michael Mando) seem like a reasonable coping strategy against the heartsickness Peter’s tamping down. When Peter’s inner imbalance manifests as new arachnid traits — organic webs, increased sensitivity — Holland imbues his normally mild-mannered hero with a surprising jolt of fury and menace.

Charitable though it may seem to call Brand New Day “old-fashioned” and not simply “a rehash of other Spidey adventures” — most notably Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, still the best superhero film ever made — it’s earned with an encouraging focus on Peter’s journey toward existential realignment: He misses Aunt May, sure, but he’s proud to carry on her legacy of charity. He wants to be in college with his friends, of course, but he knows that the good times he’s missing would have inevitably been interrupted by battles with Tombstone (Marvin Jones III) or the ninjas of the Hand. He’s trading dates with neighborhood girls for meetings with Damage Control’s Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) and playful squabbles with the Punisher. In short, he’s doing Spider-Man things. Coupled with street-level battles right out of Sony’s Playstation game series — veterans will recognize a few costume variants and combo moves — these stretches of Brand New Day feel the most like classic Spider-Man exploits, a welcome reprieve from the MCU bullshittery that poisons other installments.

Of course, that MCU bullshittery was always destined to rear its ugly head, especially after the decade of misfires, resets, do-overs, and Hail Marys that have plagued Marvel since Avengers: Endgame. Spider-Man has become the only reliable weapon in Kevin Feige’s once-invincible arsenal, and he now has corporate brand responsibilities that extend far beyond the boundaries of the Five Boroughs. Therefore, a thoughtful story about a young person’s reckoning with new maturity must necessarily become an exercise in franchise management: Spider-Man needs help developing a device that will inhibit his unwelcome mutation? He’ll go see Professor Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). He needs to unlock classified information on his elusive shape-shifting enemy? He’ll call Black Widow Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh). That enemy’s identity, by the way, is another groan-worthy piece of the franchise puzzle; any more would spoil, but you’re free to compare the cast list with actors I haven’t mentioned yet and deduce which legendary Marvel character they might be playing.

To its credit, Brand New Day tries to temper all the IP dumb-fuckery by pivoting to a bonus final act — you will literally feel your movie clock restart around the 105-minute mark — that forges a stronger thematic connection between that villain and our web-headed hero. While this additional piece does give the unnamable actor a chance to show off some powerful performance chops, its clumsy placement and cynical undercurrent make it feel more like a prelude to someone else’s story than a resolution to Peter Parker’s. It takes up time that would have been better spent developing Frank Castle as a cautionary example of the perils of isolation — Holland and Bernthal share excellent chemistry, having first worked together in 2017’s Pilgrimage — or giving MJ more time to unpack her lost past with Peter — Holland and Zendaya share excellent chemistry in that, you know, they’re fucking married — and decide how best to move forward with her life. But no; lonely as he may feel, Spider-Man is still web-swinging at the pleasure of shareholders everywhere.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits U.S. theaters on Friday, July 31st.