Spider:Man Brand New Day – Movie Review
In a post Endgame MCU, my investment in this series has slightly dwindled. And that’s not always because of the movies themselves. Films like Shang-Chi and Thunderbolts* have proven that bringing new characters into the fold through exciting and dynamic films can still breath life into this near two decade long cinematic experiment.
However, it has been the steady inclusion of “necessary” television shows to watch and “standalone” movies that include upwards of five or six Marvel characters from different corners of the universe that had muddied the waters, turning a fun film series into doing the homework just to enjoy what is to come (and there really isn’t signs of the MCU slowing down since the 20th Century Fox acquisition and announcements regarding the inclusion of X-Men and the Fantastic Four).
One of the more consistent sub-series within the greater MCU has been Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films. They might not have reached Avengers level of epic (although some may argue No Way Home and the inclusion of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield got pretty damn close), but in a world where even Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America had a couple of stinkers, Spidey has remained relatively strong with the fans, critics, and definitely the box office.
The fourth film in Tom Holland’s standalone Spider-Man series (and the 38th in the MCU overall) is Brand New Day, which has the gargantuan task of following up No Way Home – the most successful MCU film post Endgame – which ended with Doctor Strange casting a spell that made the entire world forget that Peter Parker (Holland) is Spider-Man in order to protect his friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), his family and associates. Now four years later, Peter Parker anonymously protects New York as Spider-Man, which leads to a lonely double life. As Spider-Man takes down crime syndicates and supervillains, Peter prepares for college alone, which generally leads to him spending far too much time as a crime-fighter to distract himself from the isolation and depression of his normal existence.
As Peter attempts to re-insert himself into Ned and MJ’s lives, albeit quite clumsily, he is faced with a new, supernatural threat to investigate, played secretly in the shadows by Sadie Sink in an initially undisclosed role, that is unlike any power Spider-Man has come up against. To take down this new threat, Spider-Man must team up with The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), and seek advice from Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who guides Peter through a new, unexpected evolution in his own powers.
As you can tell through that plot summary, there is a lot going on in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. And under the guidance of new director to the Spidey series (but not new to the MCU) Destin Daniel Cretton, for the most part, it manages to be a deeply heartfelt, excitingly action-packed, large scale superhero movie. But like many MCU movies that are now intertwining with other characters and story-lines, it does struggle underneath the weight of all of the storylines it is trying to juggle. Brand New Day is simultaneously a new chapter in Peter Parker’s story, but also a continuation of his journey. It’s taking a slight detour from directly continuing the MCU, but also introducing key new characters that may impact the universe going forward. It’s a story about reconnecting with old friends, and teaming up with new ones. It’s a Spider-Man action movie and a Peter Parker detective movie. It’s a lot. And when the story works, it’s up there with some of the stronger movies in the series, but it also has severe pacing and structure issues, making a 2 hour 20 minute movie feel almost 3 hours long, especially in the first half.
The story falls into the trap of making each element narratively coincide with each other, making it feel like that removing just one thread will make the entire story collapse or be incoherent. But at the same time, not everything is fleshed out enough to carry the substance to fully work. By the time the story focuses up and finds its footing in the second half, that’s when the emotionality really starts to hit, and the action that follows is fuelled by a lot of that emotion, leading to some great moments. But, it’s a lot of work to get there, and it feels exhausting by the time it arrives.
But what lacks narratively in Brand New Day, is made up for by elements that standout as series best. The action is phenomenal, with Cretton managing to blend CGI and practical stunts to bring forward Spidey action that is so exciting and dynamic, with shots that haven’t portrayed Spider-Man’s abilities this way on the cinema screen. Whether it’s a brilliant showdown with Hulk, an infiltration with The Punisher, or a climatic martial arts infused battle, the action in this film truly rocks.
The other strong element is the performances. Holland gives a career best performance in Brand New Day as he explores a much darker, emotional side of Peter Parker than we have seen within this iteration of the character. Peter is in a truly dark place in this film, as he grieves the death of Aunt May and reckons with the loss of his friends. The physical embodiment of Peter’s loneliness and depression, which complexly is sometimes self-inflicted, plays an important part into the evolution of Spider-Man too, which is something Holland does a fantastic job of blending. However, he does all of this emotional work without losing the aspect of the fast-talking, smart-mouth Spidey who loves riling people and bad guys up. It’s not just Holland’s best work as Peter Parker, but possible his best work as an actor.
The strong performances also extend to Zendaya, who is a pivotal part of the emotional stakes of the story, especially in the second half. As well as Sadie Sink, who has an initially shaky start with the ambiguity around her character (in fact, the character is more interesting than her performance due to the way the powers are shown in the first half), manages to hone in her performance into something that will be exciting to see more of in the future of the MCU. And Bernthal manages to assimilate the traditionally R-rated Punisher into the PG-13 world of the MCU as well as he could. He does feel like a different character at times that what we’ve seen before, but it works in this film.
Even though there are aspects of Brand New Day that feature series best elements for Spider-Man, including the emotional performances and dynamic action, it unfortunately does slightly crumble underneath the weight of its jumbled and overstuffed narrative.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in Australian cinemas July 30
