please note: minor spoilers!
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ is the latest chapter in the slug-fest that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Set in the aftermath of ‘No Way Home‘; several years later with Peter’s friends, MJ and Ned, having moved on and forgotten who Peter is or his role in their lives, and MJ a new partner in tow – Peter now finds himself developing an anomaly of a DNA mutation brought about by his shock reaction to learning MJ has moved on – he now shoots web-shooters out of his wrists rather than machines, and comes closer to the Peter Parker of Tobey Maguire than the one that we’re familiar with Tom Holland. This is essentially; the first chapter then – of Spider-Man that we know – closer to the comics, depressed, miserable – aka the best kind of Peter Parker.
Holland does a fantastic job at capturing the miserable state of Peter Parker from the ground up. He’s friendless, alone – living in an apartment and having never experienced the university lifestyle has sunk himself full on into committing to Spider-Man as a role; as a job – as everything. His Aunt is gone, people from his old life – including the Avengers – don’t remember him – and his best friend in fact may well be the murdering, ruthless psychopath that is Frank Castle played by the equally charismatic Jon Bernthal – who is a match made in heaven opposite Holland’s character. Given the nod this time rather than Jon Watts; Daniel Dustin Crettin brings his character work from indie darling ‘Short Term 12’ and ‘Shang Chi: The Legend of Ten Rings’ to the table, switching filming locations to Glasgow and the like, meaning that ‘Brand New Day’ feels like a proper movie for a change – allowed to breathe for the most part with real locations, real action – and turns out Glasgow really was the perfect stand-in for New York all along.
This is the closest the MCU have gotten to replicating the Cronenbergian style body horror yet – where the Man becomes the Spider; there are elements of ‘The Fly’ and it feels like a maturing role for Holland that represents his last chance to “play a boy” that was also felt in Telemachus in Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. It is a down-to-earth reset that asks the question where do we go after the multiverse chaos of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ – courtesy of Dr. Strange – and the result, for the first half of the movie – is a grounded, character driven coming of age story about losing your old school friends, not being able to let go – and oh – a sinister new entity emerges, possessing the bodies of people around town at will.
The first victim is Scorpion (Michael Mando) among others with a view to infiltrate Damage Control; headed by the ‘Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning’ and ‘Severance’ scene-stealer Tramell Tillman. Here he is excellent as Bill Metzger and salvages a rather subpar storyline – you know Metzger’s arc from the second he comes on screen, and the rest of the film you’re stuck waiting for Peter to play catchup. It shouldn’t take Peter this long to get there but it does allow for his place in the Wider Marvel Cinematic Universe as is now to be re-established – with cameos with Florence Pugh’s Black Widow and an academic Dr Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) in a new role that goes exactly where you’d – again; expect – but especially Ruffalo and Bernthal feel like real foils for Peter in this new world; he builds and learns from them as he progresses.
They make the connections to the Marvel universe that feel there by its need to *say* it’s part of the Marvel universe – like a mandatory box-ticking exercise and once it gets into the X-Men origin story involving Sadie Sink, things kind of feel a bit too focused on asking “where do we go in the next film?” as opposed to “how do we end this story” and the result feels like a set-up for a future Marvel instalment as opposed to offering up a concrete resolution to the in-movie events, which is a real shame as on its own, taken into focus – the grief about losing MJ and Ned, the themes of becoming Spider-Man over Peter Parker; the need to remain Peter Parker and the dilemma of having to choose is fascinating. But it bogs down by a need to jump one second between Frank, the next between Black Widow and then the next between Hulk just as we’re getting into this world. Some of it works but there’s just too much of the “oh this is the character from the wider Marvel universe” and when Pugh shows up for a total of a few minutes in a bathtub as a kind of comic effect role when these two have never really interacted on screen before it just kind of feels eye-rolling.
Equally eyerolling is the need for the film to point out how clever it thinks it is without being as clever as it thinks it is. It sets up the big villain reveal like it’s a big twist; but anyone paying attention will figure out from the word go. Several shots feel like direct copies from the comic books especially early on in montages which are cool, video game-esque homages but there is a sequence towards the end where the film sits you down and has Spider-Man tell you that this is cool – completely unnecessary and almost robs the tension in the room in the first place; but it’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time Marvel have gone there. There’s an aura of self gratification that this film has that makes it almost feel like a victory lap; part of a never-ending story that fails to undo the damage done to the Marvel brand since the high of ‘Avengers: Endgame’. It clumsily blends about three dramas together: Peter’s grief drama, the Frank Castle buddy comedy that feels forced but has moments of drama in places – and a set-up for the X-Men of all people that feels even more forced and just totally laborious and groan-worthy of its inclusion.
Holland’s performance in ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ is excellent. He puts in a real shift – capable of basking in his tremendous performance of ‘The Odyssey’. It’s one of the best iterations of the character yet and his most nuanced performance thus so far. The 30 year old actor embraces the nostalgia of Spider-Man and the charm with effortless ease and his energy on capturing a mysterious telepath gives him a sense of focus and there are times when the film is dealing with grief that it touches on a subject that’s much meatier than what most superhero films usually tend to do.
Where the film lets itself down is how lazily it shoe-horns the Marvel characters in at every chance – Bruce Banner bogs down a Spider-Man story that almost loses the focus on its hero; and what’s worse is that there’s never been a less romantic superhero couple than this iteration of Peter and MJ both past and present – this Spider-Man feels entirely sexless – there’s no yearning, there’s no belief that these two were ever together at all: which is a shock considering Zendaya has proven in roles like ‘Challengers’ she can yearn – and these two are actually married now. Long gone are the days of ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ or ‘Thor’. Both characters’ mismatched feelings would’ve benefited from more depth and room but the main drama is sidelined to the point where it’s barely a focus – and only feels like a backdrop to the villain’s backstory that feels even more generic and ultimately short of growth given the fact that when we establish who this character is – you realise that they can’t actually end up being a villain at the end of the day at all.
Whilst the Spider-Man half of the story is some of the best material that Marvel have had since ‘Avengers: Endgame’ it lacks the depth or growth needed to establish its unique identity as a film; too focused on doing about three different things at once.