Spider-Man: Brand New Day - Movie Review

If you know me, there are 2 people in this world that will always get me to the movie theater: Christopher Nolan, and Peter Parker. And they've both had a new movie drop in the last month, which means you're getting two Bean's Blog Movie Reviews!

I absolutely love Superhero movies. The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Infinity War and Endgame, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Logan, Deadpool, Captain America: Winter Soldier and Civil War, Superman. Even The Incredibles was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I've seen just about every movie in the MCU (I've skipped a few post-Endgame I must admit) and damn near every MCU TV Show (from the highs of Loki and Daredevil to the lows of She-Hulk -- holy fucking shit that show sucked) ((speaking of, the most recent MCU show Wonder Man absolutely rocks)).

But the only thing I love more than a Superhero movie is a Spider-Man movie -- a superhero we've gotten no shortage of movies about. I'd tell you about all my favorites -- but that'll be a blog in the near future as Power Rankings make yet another return to the Blog page. Today, we're just talking about the newest Spider-Man movie with a Spoiler-Free Review (Plus a light spoiler section after the score).

The newest Spider-Man movie to hit theaters -- Spider-Man: Brand New Day -- is the fourth installment of the MCU's Spider-Man franchise, with Tom Holland starring as Peter Parker. This movie picks up, more or less, where we left off in the previous movie -- Spider-Man: No Way Home. If you haven't seen that previous movie -- one: you probably didn't click on this blog, and two: you probably aren't seeing this new movie, unless you're my lovely girlfriend Emily, who I dragged with me to see it this weekend (she's a trooper but is easily persuaded by Icees and movie theater popcorn).

But regardless: Spoiler-Warning for the end of No Way Home if you're in either camp, as I set the stage for Brand New Day.

Peter Parker had Dr. Strange cast a spell to make everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man at the conclusion of No Way Home. So coming into Brand New Day, not only does his best friend Ned not remember, but neither does the woman he loves, MJ. (Or the rest of the world for that matter). And of course he doesn't have his Aunt May or Tony Stark with him anymore as parent figures/mentors -- so we're seeing our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in a much more isolated place entering this movie.

The Spider-Man franchise has been one of the MCU's greatest success -- and definitively their greatest success Post-Endgame. This movie's tracking to be one of the highest-grossing films of all time: it had the biggest domestic opening weekend in film history making $360 million, and has made nearly $2 BILLION globally in less than 3 weeks. But is the financial success a sign of the movie being great, or just a testament to the Spider-Man Brand?

Below I'll discuss the cast and the performances I liked -- the aspects of the movie that worked/didn't work for me -- and general thoughts on the film as a whole. If you want to know absolutely nothing going in, bookmark this blog and come back after you see it. But my thoughts will be entirely Spoiler-Free -- so keep reading if you want to hear my thoughts before you see it yourself! And if you have seen it, keep reading past the Score for my brief spoiler thoughts.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day - Spoiler-Free Review

Premise

Peter Parker devotes his life to protecting New York City as a full-time Spider-Man. But as the demands on him intensify, the pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence, even as a strange new pattern of crimes gives rise to one of the most powerful threats he's ever faced.

Cast

Character Name -- Actor -- (Prominent Movies/TV Shows they've been in)

• Peter Parker -- Tom Holland -- (The Odyssey, Spider-Man franchise/MCU, Uncharted, The Devil All The Time, Cherry)

• MJ -- Zendaya -- (Challengers, The Odyssey, The Drama, Dune franchise, Euphoria, The Greatest Showman)

• Ned Leeds -- Jacob Batalon -- (The Wrecking Crew, Novocaine, Tarot, Bloodfest)

• Frank Castle/Punisher -- Jon Bernthal -- (The Punisher, Wolf of Wall Street, We Own This City, The Accountant, The Walking Dead, The Bear, Fury)

• ??? -- Sadie Sink -- (Stranger Things, The Whale, Dear Zoe, A Sacrifice)

• Scorpion -- Michael Mando -- (Better Call Saul, 72 Hours, King Ivory, Orphan Black)

• William Metzger -- Trammell Tillman -- (Severance, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Good Sex)

• Detective Jean DeWolff -- Liza Colon-Zayas -- (The Bear)

There are a few other notable names in this movie that play roles, but I didn't know about their appearances coming into the movie -- so I won't spoil them.

Elephant in the room -- I also won't disclose who Sadie Sink plays in the movie (even though Google lists it at this point -- I didn't know going in, so I won't say here) but I will say that I think she's both very good in the role, and gives a really good performance. I'm not a Stranger Things guy, but I really liked her in this movie.

In my opinion, Tom Holland is the best Spider-Man actor of all time. I absolutely love the Tobey Maguire movies, I absolutely love Andrew Garfield and how he played Peter Parker -- but Tom Holland is the total package for me. And this movie was the best he's been to me. He's incredibly charismatic, endearing, quippy. He embodies the Peter Parker AND the Spider-Man of the role very well. And if you're thinking this is a recency bias take to say he's the GOAT of this role, I've thought this since since No Way Home when they all shared the screen together.

I know there's a lot of Zendaya-Haters out there -- and I haven't always been the biggest fan myself, as recently as The Odyssey even. But despite limited screentime in this movie, I really enjoyed MJ in this movie. I think her chemistry with Holland has gotten so much better with every movie (No shit Sherlock, they're married in real life now) and their characters' relationship is the emotional center of the movie. Hell, of the franchise.

I always love Batalon (The CEO of Sex) as Ned -- just a goofball that makes me laugh, and I've always thought his and Peter's friendship was one of the most endearing factors in these movies. And if you read my The Odyssey review, you know how I feel about Jon Bernthal. And him as The Punisher is the most Bernthal-role imaginable -- I was skeptical about his inclusion, but it worked well enough for me in the story.

To close things out with the minor characters -- none of them play real consequential roles, and their performances are just fine, nothing special. But I love them because it's 3 actors that play 3 TV characters I absolutely love -- Trammell Tillman (Mr. Milchick in Severance), Liza Colon-Zayas (Tina in The Bear), and Michael Mando (Nacho Varga in Better Call Saul -- genuinely one of my favorite TV characters ever).

Why It Works

Return to Classic Spider-Man

The Spider-Man movies of my youth were always set in New York, and it felt very nostalgic to see Tom Holland's Peter Parker swinging through the streets of NYC. I love when Spidey pops up in the Avengers movies and teaming up with Tony Stark in Civil War, and I thought it was cool to see them go to Europe and drop Spider-Man into a different setting like that. But at the end of the day, he's the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, so my preference will always be seeing him in NYC.

I also enjoyed getting to see a different side to Peter Parker in this movie -- he's not a high-schooler anymore just learning the ropes and relying heavily on others. He's not sharing every scene with his pal Ned or his girl MJ, he doesn't have his Aunt May to lean on or Tony Stark to mentor him. He's figuring out the world on his own, and he's figuring out how to become a better hero on his own. Throughout the film there are definitely other people to lean on and share scenes -- it's not just him all the time. But it felt like a more independent Peter Parker in this movie, which was also nostalgic to the movies I grew up on.

Emotional Pay-Offs/Great Visuals

I don't believe the reason this movie has a chance to make $2 Billion dollars at the box office is that "Superhero movies are BACK" -- in fact I think the recent trends indicate the opposite. But I think it's a sign of how emotionally connected audiences are with Spider-Man in general, but specifically -- Tom Holland's Spider-Man and Zendaya's MJ. People have been waiting almost 5 years to see what would happen with Peter and MJ following No Way Home -- compounding the actors' real life relationship with one of the most famous relationships in franchise films is something moviegoers genuinely care about.

And I think the movie very cleverly navigates this -- there's a lot of "will they/won't they," misdirection, tension-building throughout that plot. I found myself fully bought in emotionally to not only that aspect, but to Peter and Ned's friendship and how things play out with Peter missing his friend. Throw in the fact that his Aunt May isn't around anymore, and how they use her memory as such a profound motivator for Peter, I found super effective and well executed.

I also think in the age of recent MCU where everything looks like CGI goy-slop that this movie looked FANTASTIC visually. Maybe Holland really did bring some ideas/tips from Chrissy Nolan after The Odyssey, because I thought this was the best looking MCU movie, and a massive improvement from No Way Home. From the shots of New York to swinging through the city to all the fight scenes -- it's just a really good-looking movie with a lot of style and sleekness.

The MCU Effect -- Done Well

It's no secret that the MCU has been trending downward in the years following Endgame. 15 years of build-up with characters we cared so deeply about all culminating in one (really two, because Infinity War goes hand-in-hand with Endgame) epic, fan-serving phenomenon is something we'll probably never see again in movies. Marvel's had some successes post-Endgame -- all 3 Spider-Man movies and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 were very successful, and I enjoyed Shang-Chi, Thunderbolts*, Wakanda Forever, Fantastic Four, and even Deadpool & Wolverine quite a bit.

But there have also been a lot of missteps during Phase 5/Phase 6. And even the upper echelon of projects from post-Endgame have more flaws than the upper echelon in Phase 1-4. Those movies I like above are not in the same stratosphere as the movies I like in the earlier MCU days. There are a lot of factors to why they haven't been as successful -- lack of confidence in introducing new characters, not having compelling villains, over-reliance on bringing in old characters in inorganic ways, and telling stories for the grand scheme rather than trying to make the movie itself a great story.

There are definitely some of those elements in Brand New Day -- shoehorning in older characters, and using this movie to set up future MCU projects are the two biggest for sure. But the difference here is I found the usage of known characters to be (for the most part) either beneficial to the story, complementary for the action of the movie, or just very funny. And the way this movie sets up future projects doesn't feel forced to me -- it felt more like when we saw Black Panther and Holland's Spider-Man show up in Civil War. Not the same usage necessarily, but it was additive to the movie rather than being a distraction.

And that's what the MCU was known for in it's heyday -- being able to balance the solo origin stories with bringing in new characters/old characters while building to it's ultimate culmination. Think Iron Man -- origin story, bring in Black Widow and War Machine in Iron Man 2, bring him into the team with Avengers, and it's off to the races. This was the first time since Endgame that I thought they were successful in introducing an on-going character while still telling a fully thought-out, impactful story about the main character.

The Mixed Bag/Bad

The Villain

This was not a major complaint for me personally, but I can see how the true/main villain of the movie could fall flat for certain people. I really liked how the villain played out or the first 2 acts of the movie, and do think in the 3rd act it's not quite as strong -- but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the story at all. There's a lot of really cool things that the villain does in the middle-part of the movie that I was fully bought in for. But if you're the type of viewer that prefers the classic Spider-Man movies with classic villains that we've seen on screen like Dr. Octopus, Green Goblin, The Vulture -- I could see this aspect being a let-down.

Long Run-Time

You're reading a blogger that saw Oppenheimer twice and The Odyssey recently in theaters -- both nearly 3 hours long -- and saw Endgame twice in theaters which is a full 3 hours -- and couldn't have enjoyed them more. But Brand New Day is encroaching on 2 and 1/2 hours, and I do think with some tighter editing and less prolonged dialogue scenes in certain spots, they could've gotten this down to like 125-130 minutes, which would've been ideal. Runtime is never going to run me off as long as the time is used well -- and I think there are a few points where it drags in this movie.

There's one other plot-point that I wasn't as fond of as the others, but think it paid off well in the end. I won't get into details in case there's anyone that hasn't seen it still reading -- but all in all, I didn't have any huge complaints here, just a handful of nitpicks.

Conclusion

This, to me, is a Spider-Man fan's Spider-Man movie -- especially those that grew up on the Tobey Maguire/Andrew Garfield movies and has been yearning to get back to that nostalgic vibe, while also propelling the MCU forward and capturing the elements of older MCU moves that I always appreciated. Tom Holland cements himself as my GOAT of Spider-Man actors, it hits on all the emotional beats, has great dramatic moments, looks incredible and isn't overly reliant on CGI, and is an incredibly fun ride with a character we haven't seen in nearly 5 years.

Score:

8.4/100

Quick-Hit Spoiler Thoughts:

If you haven't seen Brand New Day -- here's your warning to click off and hit the theaters. Come back and revisit once you've seen the movie!

• Sadie Sink -- was unfamiliar with her game as a non-Stranger Things watcher, but she's pretty fuckin' good right? I knew she was in the movie but didn't know who she was playing at all, so she was the standout surprise for me

  • I'm also not a huge X-Men guy, so while I know of Jean Gray, I wasn't super familiar with her powers and thought the way they film her jumping from person to person was super cool/unique.

• Cameo corner -- obviously The Punisher was in the marketing, so that was no shocker. But I was very surprised seeing Florence Pugh and Ruffalo pop up

  • Liked Pugh's cameo a lot more -- really funny (she always is in this role), super low stakes and fun

  • Was super skeptical about The Hulk being a factor in this move -- but it worked out way better than I expected. Was cool to see Hulk/Spidey/Punisher all sharing the screen, and his involvement made sense

• Speaking of why he was involved -- the Arachnid DNA overtaking Peter's human DNA is the plot-point I referred to in the mixed bag that I wasn't huge on

  • I really liked the payoff of it and the storyline it creates in the end of the movie about how Peter can "be both" -- but the scenes earlier in the movie slowed the story down in my opinion of him trying to work it out and figure out how to supress that part of his DNA

• My favorite scene of the movie was Peter getting MJ from her apartment and trying to swing her away so Jean couldn't get to her

  • In hindsight the reveal of Jean already taking over MJ is obvious, but in the moment it shocked the hell out of me I won't lie

  • I think the bigger part of me just wanted to believe it and see MJ/Peter be reconnected that I was blinded by it -- but this was Zendaya's best acting scene of the whole movie and was a great twist

• Back to Punisher -- I really did enjoy his involvement in this movie and think it was a good switchup from the Tony Stark/Aunt May mentor role with Peter

  • I do think it's pretty goofy that the most dramatic point of the final act is Peter trying to save Jean because Frank Castle's about to light her up with a sniper rifle from a mile+ away

  • And it's hilarious to think that the hospital would just let Frank sit next to Peter waiting for him to wake up after fucking shooting him

  • But -- the ending with Peter walking out and Frank waving to the crowd in his mask was just perfect for me. hilarious and super cheesy, but I didn't give a fuck. That's what I want from Spider-Man movies

• The other thing in the final act I shockingly liked a lot was Jean finally getting in Peter's head and the dreamlike sequence with Aunt May -- very sweet and I just love Marisa Tomei as Aunt May so much. Worked like a charm on me.

• Loved the final scene of Peter and Ned doing their handshake -- nearly brought a tear to my eye

  • them hanging out in the apartment was also great -- the little things like that worked super well for me

• Liked the villain montage early in the film of him taking down Scorpion and Tombstone and other classic villains

• Liked the fight choreography against the ninjas in Act 3

• I called it the moment Mr. Milchick told Peter that Sarah was just the name of a relative that passed away and that's why Jean was saying it -- I didn't even know Jean Gray had a sister. That just was way too easy of an answer to give, and it was pretty clear the entire movie that the department of Damage Control were not good guys. I whispered it to Emily immediately, they didn't bury the lead great with that reveal.

That's all I got off the top of my head -- if you have other spoiler plot-points you want to hear my thoughts on, comment below!