About the Movie
Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn't remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter Parker he may not have the power to control. But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves – a powerful villain no one can even see.
Our Review
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is at its best when it stops treating Peter Parker as a piece of a larger Marvel machine and simply lets him be Peter Parker. Tom Holland gives the character a more mature, bruised quality here. This is a Peter who has accepted that the world has forgotten him and thrown himself into being Spider-Man, even as that choice leaves him increasingly isolated.
That emotional change gives the action considerably more weight. The web-swinging and fight sequences are energetic and often beautifully staged, but the strongest moments come from what those sequences mean for Peter. He is no longer the wide-eyed kid trying to prove himself. He is a young man who has deliberately chosen responsibility and is discovering that responsibility can come with a serious personal cost.
The film does stumble when the larger MCU story starts competing with that character-driven approach. There are enough moving pieces, connections, and future-facing ideas to occasionally make the movie feel like it is preparing the next chapter instead of fully inhabiting this one. That keeps Brand New Day from becoming as emotionally focused as it could have been.
Still, the balance ultimately works more often than it doesn't. Holland brings real vulnerability to Peter, the action has genuine scale, and the movie understands that Spider-Man's greatest strength has never been his powers. It is his willingness to keep caring when caring hurts. Brand New Day may not completely escape the machinery of the MCU, but it gives Peter enough humanity to make this chapter matter.
Director
Destin Daniel Cretton
Top Cast
