The Tom Holland run as Peter Parker/Spider-Man has been a series of “bit better than okay,” in my opinion. Though I’d listen to arguments regarding 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, the only entry in this iteration of the character I can rewatch without getting aggravated. Yes, it’s still too beholden to other aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I still maintain that making Peter something of an adopted son to Tony Stark wasn’t a good idea. But, overall, I do find the film charming.
While I found it a little long (at 145 minutes), and even though I continue to wish the minds determining the future of the MCU would get rid of the crutch that grants Peter access to remnants of technology gifted to him by the late Tony Stark, the supremely entertaining Spider-Man: Brand New Day still manages to take the character back to his street-level, crime-fighting roots. Director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and the film’s creative team have structured a journey that tasks the superhero with protecting New York City — and it alone. No otherworldly Avengers-level threats. No invading alien armies. Just a mysterious adversary with the ability to possess whomever they want, seemingly whenever they want to.
While events aren’t quite as simple as that (the mutated foundation for a new era of the MCU is laid down), Cretton is more interested in focusing squarely on Peter and how he’s dealing with everyone he once loved having no idea who he is, which does keep things emotionally intriguing. The college-aged young man is a solitary Spider-Man, who refuses to make personal connections with anyone he saves, works with, or encounters in his day-to-day life, and this seclusion is taking its toll. Peter’s purposeful isolation leaves him unprepared for some rather big changes (his DNA is mutating), and without another person around to ground and center him, this could prove catastrophic.
Even though there is a whiff of ideas pulled straight from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, it’s nice to watch Peter interacting (even if sometimes far too briefly) with characters he’s often worked with — and against — in the comic books. Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) becomes a major player, his almost fatherly concern for Spider-Man being a notable aspect of the story. There’s also a much-ballyhooed bout between the webslinger and a very, very angry Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) that’s well worth the wait. Watching the duo destroy one of the top floors of a federal government building is a goofy, energetic blast. Michael Mando also finally returns as Mac Gargan, aka Scorpion (his last appearance was in Spider-Man: Homecoming), but that's sadly a bit of a red herring. I wish the film had done more with him.
If I’m being vague about the plot, that’s for good reason. The central conceit is that Peter is having to balance getting a handle on his mutating DNA while also assisting the NYPD to figure out who is possessing random citizens. They are using these individuals like puppets to infiltrate a cadre of government buildings around the city that house Damage Control, a federal agency charged with defeating, capturing, and studying enhanced humans.
All of that sounds fairly straightforward, but Cretton plays so much close to the vest that digging too deeply into these events could easily wander into spoiler territory. The character central to all of the madness is played by Sadie Sink, whose presence opens a doorway for a whole slew of new characters in the MCU. However, as the filmmakers go to so much trouble to conceal her identity until the narrative enters into the final stretch, all I’ll say is that the actor is excellent. I’ll be interested to see how she makes this fan-favorite character her own in the future.
However, because so much time is spent on Sink’s subplot, Peter’s attempts to reenter the lives of Ned (Jacob Batalon) and MJ (Zendaya) come across as ungainly, shoehorned into the proceedings. Thankfully, the core trio is so at ease with one another that they’re able to use emotional shorthand to make their interactions count. Still, one gigantic reveal involving Peter and MJ is rushed and lands with shockingly little impact. It’s only because Holland and Zendaya work so well together that there is any semblance of resonance.
Even if the mutating DNA angle does feel ripped directly from Spider-Man 3 (its connections to the “Man-Spider” story arc from the comic books notwithstanding), Holland does a nice job conveying Peter’s fear and uncertainty as his body starts to betray him. There’s a pretty nifty bit where Spidey loses control of himself while facing off against Scorpion and stops pulling punches for a couple of seconds, resulting in some significant collateral damage. The aftermath of this weighs heavily on his conscience from that point forward.
From a purely visual standpoint, Cretton channels his inner Chloé Zhao or Jake Schreier, two MCU veterans who shot the majority of their franchise entries on actual sets and in real locations. This is easily the best-looking of all of the Holland-centered features, and the first one where every second was meant to be viewed in a theater. It doesn’t look like a digital video game or an episode of Disney+ television. Director of photography Brett Pawlak also lensed Cretton’s magnificent Short Term 12, and he brings the same sort of subtly immersive visual aesthetic to this. There are moments in this comic-book opus that are breathtaking in their uncluttered, realistic simplicity.
Add all of this together, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day instantly becomes my favorite of the Holland films, and this includes his side-story excursions into the greater Avengers universe. It’s the only one I’m eager to rewatch. It’s the only one that has moments involving his version of the superhero that I think rank up there with Raimi’s trilogy or what the team behind the outstanding animated Spider-Verse epics have conjured up. This street-level adventure of our friendly neighborhood MCU Spider-Man is a breath of fresh air.
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