Editor's note: This review contains spoilers
If you listened to a comic book fan gush about the first trailer for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” after it was released in March, you might think they were crazy.
By all accounts, the trailer made it clear that Peter Parker (Tom Holland) was not having a good time following the events of “No Way Home”, the last entry in the series, during which Peter employed the help of magician Doctor Strange to erase all knowledge of his secret identity after it was exposed by Mysterio in “Far From Home”. Peter is fighting crime full-time, sad and alone, without his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) after her death and without his girlfriend and best friend as a result of Strange’s spell. But on many levels, this at times darker, more focused Spider-Man is exactly what many fans, including myself, were waiting for from the character.
Because he can now devote all his time to being Spider-Man, Peter has built up his confidence and network as a hero — working closely with the NYPD and fictional Department of Damage Control — along with becoming truly beloved by the city of New York and even receiving the key to the city, but we can tell it’s not enough for him. A chance encounter with a Ned (Jacob Batalon) and MJ (Zendaya) who don’t remember him sends Peter into a spiral that kickstarts his development both in a literal sense and as a character.
This feels so reminiscent of the hero we know and love from the comics: he can try to be the best Spider-Man, and he can try to be the best Peter Parker, but he can’t ever be one without sacrificing the other, and in “Brand New Day” we see what happens when all he can do is be the former.
Tom Holland is fantastic, bringing real depth to the role and lots of emotion when needed. It’s not that he hasn’t been great in his previous appearances across the MCU, but in this film he really falls into the role in a way that feels obvious from the first 20 minutes. Zendaya also shines as MJ, easily matching Holland’s on-screen presence and really personalizes the brutal honesty demanded of her. Jacob Batalon is still hilarious as the nerdy Ned, and effortlessly gives the impression that he and Peter have been friends for years at this point.
The biggest supporting presence comes from Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, the troubled Punisher, in a role that actually pulls double duty in giving Peter a measuring stick for how dark, violent or removed from society he could become while dealing with his changing life and powers, while also supplying the unlikely comedic relief. The character still preserves his edge while obviously being played for laughs at times, and Bernthal’s line delivery in particular had the audience at my theater howling during certain moments.
Sadie Sink is amazing here in her superhero debut as Jean Grey, with an emotional performance that plays well into the film’s themes of social isolation. Her role isn’t just the introduction of one of the most complicated characters in Marvel history, but also the first mutant to be featured in a film directly connected to the mainline MCU. While the excitement from fans is palpable, there’s no explicit mention of capital M “mutants” in the film, but I think this actually helps not to overcomplicate things, or overpromise, as Marvel Studios has been wont to do with gratuitous post-credits scenes and easter eggs.
In fact every cameo, including Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Yelena Belova/Black Widow (Florence Pugh), feels intentional and less like fan service than previous entries.
Speaking of “intentional cameos”: the needle drops throughout the film were amazing, with hits from some of the world’s biggest artists at the moment like Tame Impala (“Loser”), Bad Bunny (“Eoo”) and Steve Lacy (“oh yeah?”) that seek more to set the emotional tone of the scenes where they’re featured than wow viewers with popular names.
Some final words of appreciation should also be reserved for director Destin Daniel Cretton for his efforts to change the tone of the movies after Jon Watts’ exit from the franchise, and the performances he coaxes out of not just the stars, but also the more minor actors brought in to be “hosts” for Jean Grey during the sequences where she’s speaking to Peter and others through the bodies of random New Yorkers.
While “Brand New Day” will undoubtedly have greater implications for the larger MCU (don’t get me started on Peter’s inhibitor device), the film as a whole reads as a love letter to Spider-Man as a character, the city of New York as his home and its citizens as his family, and feels like a new lease on life for the hero — just in time if the discussions of a new Spider-Man trilogy are to be believed.
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Elliott Wood is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or @DailyLobo on X
