I’ve seen every MCU movie and every live-action Marvel TV show that’s carried the banner. Every Sony SPIDER-MAN + the VENOM trilogy and even MADAME WEB. Every Fox X-MEN movie, original and reboots, and the DEADPOOL films. I say that not to flex, but so you know exactly where I’m coming from: I love Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. I love Zendaya’s MJ. My favorite of the Holland trilogy has always been FAR FROM HOME, mostly because Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio remains one of the MCU’s most purely enjoyable villains. NO WAY HOME earned every single one of its multiversal cameos and then some. SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY had a chance to be my favorite Spidey movie yet, and it hurts that it isn’t. BRAND NEW DAY takes a lot of big swings, and when they land, they’re wonderful additions to the MCU. But most don’t. They’re still flying through the sky, leaving us hanging, and SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY doesn’t move the MCU nearly as far forward as it could have.
Before we get into the movie itself, let’s talk about how I saw it. I caught an early screening in Real 3D ScreenX, a newish format where the picture doesn’t just live on the screen in front of you; it wraps partially down the walls on either side of the auditorium. BRAND NEW DAY is the first feature-length film to be partially shot with this format in mind, and it shows. During the sequences where Spider-Man is slinging through the streets of New York, that wraparound image made me feel like I was flying alongside him. It’s the kind of gimmick that could easily be just a gimmick. BRAND NEW DAY; Brand New Technology. I was invested and thought this was a fun, immersive way to experience this title. SCREENX gets a 🤩.
Onto the movie itself. There’s a lot to like here, especially how much heart this film has. Earnestness can go a long way, but it’s still just one piece. BRAND NEW DAY picks up roughly three or four years after the events of NO WAY HOME. The time jump has given Peter Parker / Spider-Man (Tom Holland) a lot of time to focus on fighting crime, but not much else. THUNDERBOLTS took an interesting look into mental illness, and BRAND NEW DAY dives into neurodivergency, in a way we haven’t seen onscreen in the MCU nearly enough. There is so much potential put into the early scenes with Peter/Spidey, and these are the best in the film.
Beyond that, there are some great interactions between Spider-Man and other Marvel characters. New additions to the cast include Tramell Tillman from SEVERANCE and Sadie Sink from STRANGER THINGS. And of course, an ever-looming question of will Peter ever get back everything he lost? Director Destin Daniel Cretton, who previously did SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS, has pulled together some incredible set pieces, together with SPIDER-MAN’s usual snappy dialogue and Michael Giacchino’s 8th MCU score. BRAND NEW DAY is frequently a blast, and then… it just doesn’t come together.
With so much good going into this movie, I’m genuinely sad to report that it never puts it all together the way it should. There are so many characters and so many ideas moving through the story at once, and these characters are often making the strangest, most unearned decisions. By the time the credits rolled, my initial hot take was “…is that it?” It’s anticlimactic in a way that stung, especially knowing how much more of Peter Parker’s story there still is to tell. The time jump does a lot of heavy lifting to give us a more mature SPIDER-MAN story, and the <no spoiler> antagonist takes things to some really dark extremes. This is a very different Spider-Man story than we’ve seen on the big screen before, but it never feels fully baked.
There’s real, palpable buildup toward moments MCU fans have been waiting decades to see, the kind of thing where you can feel the whole theater lean forward; and then it just doesn’t pay off. New organizations and coalitions get introduced with basically no explanation for why. And as alliances are formed or broken and secrets come to the surface, I expected a bigger move toward Marvel’s next big canon event. Instead, I left the theatre feeling like I had seen just a piece of what SPIDER-MAN has to deal with now.
There are 3 major Marvel characters from other MCU projects we’ve seen that Peter comes into contact with in BRAND NEW DAY. Teenage Peter was eager and loved working alongside The Avengers. Young adult Peter is still paying for the trauma inflicted upon him through the events of INFINITY WAR, ENDGAME, and NO WAY HOME.
Whatever else BRAND NEW DAY gets wrong, it does not get its cast wrong. I know plenty of people my age are permanently loyal to Tobey Maguire, but Tom Holland is it, the quintessential Spider-Man of the century, and an exceptional Peter Parker on top of it. Zendaya’s performance is absolutely wonderful. Jacob Batalon, as Ned, is great as always. The new actors the MCU has introduced to this world and those they’ve brought back hold their own. The trouble is that the script doesn’t always give them a reason to be there. Stop and ask yourself “why is this happening” at various points in this movie, and you won’t get a satisfying answer. I get that comic book logic is often all we’re given. But too often here, the story is stretched to coincidentally drop certain characters into specific places whenever it’s convenient, yet not necessarily because it serves the story.
BRAND NEW DAY isn’t hollow. There’s something real beating underneath it. And some of the MCU’s best action in years, thanks in part to ScreenX. Plus a cast that’s clearly giving everything they’ve got. But it’s carrying too much: too many supporting characters and too many unfinished ideas to ever fully swing where it’s aiming.
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY is now playing exclusively in theatres. You can experience it in ScreenX at select theatres, including some AMC, Regal, and Cinemark locations.
