Rating: 7/10
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton | Screenplay: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, based on the Marvel comics by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko | Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Mark Ruffalo, Marisa Tomei | Cinematography: Brett Pawlak | Music: Michael Giacchino | Runtime: 145 min | Rated: PG-13
The intro is amazing. It sets the tone immediately and pulls you straight into where Peter is now: alone, in a city that no longer remembers him, treating crimefighting as the one thing he has left. That's the whole premise, following the spell at the end of No Way Home, and the film leans all the way into the loneliness the character has needed for a while.
The web-swinging is the best I've seen
The swinging scenes are some of the best I've ever seen, full stop. They immediately reminded me of the Spider-Man games I loved, that weight and momentum and flow through the city, and I'd bet money the filmmakers took a lot of inspiration from them. Director Destin Daniel Cretton has talked about wanting the web-swinging to feel real, and it shows. This is the first time a Spider-Man movie has made traversal feel like the game does, where getting from A to B is its own reward.
The emotional core is what carries it
The emotional side of Peter Parker is at the heart of this movie, and today I realised I can completely relate to how he feels. That's the part that stuck with me. This isn't the quippy kid from the earlier films. Holland plays a heavier, more isolated version of the character, and critics have zeroed in on the same thing: he finally nails the angsty loneliness the fanbase has been asking for.
I loved every scene with MJ and Ned. Zendaya and Jacob Batalon are the warmth the film needs, and the movie is smart about how it uses them given where Peter's story now stands. Jon Bernthal, meanwhile, walks off with big chunks of the film as Frank Castle. He's the perfect foil for this version of Spider-Man, and reviewers across the board have singled him out as a highlight.
What didn't fully land
Two things, and one of them changed on me.
I wasn't feeling Sadie Sink's character. I expected more from that role going in, and my first reaction was mild disappointment. But sitting with it a day later, that storyline actually worked much better for me. It's the kind of thread that plays stronger once you stop waiting for it to be what you assumed and take it for what it is. I'll leave it there, since the film is keeping her role under wraps and it's worth going in cold.
The other thing: what Peter goes through early in the movie could've been explored more deeply, or pushed even darker. There was room to sit in that discomfort longer, and I think a braver cut does. It's also, fairly, an overstuffed movie, with a lot of guests and moving parts competing for space that the darker character study could've used.
The verdict
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a more mature, more melancholy Spidey film with the best web-swinging in the series and a Peter Parker who finally feels his age and his isolation. It doesn't push its darkest ideas quite as far as it could, and it's carrying more than it strictly needs to, but the emotional core landed for me in a way I didn't expect walking in.
It's a 7/10.