This is the spoiler-free review. The discussion with spoilers will be posted in a few days.
It's strange, considering how long Tom Holland has been playing Spider-man, but this feels like this is his first proper Spidey outing. The switch in directors from Jon Watts to Destin Daniel Cretton is definitely an upgrade, especially the more grounded visuals and intense action sequences. There's also the environmental shift, from the prior trilogy's chintzier aesthetics to a New York City that feels more like the actual city, with ordinary people everywhere that Peter Parker regularly interacts with. Paradoxically, this is a very interconnected MCU movie where I can tell characters and concepts are being set up for future installments. However, it's all done so well that I doubt anyone will complain.
It's been several years since "Spider-man: No Way Home" and the memory of Peter Parker was erased from the minds of everyone who knew him. Spider-man is now a well-known and much beloved New York superhero, but Peter lives a lonely, solitary life avoiding human connection. However, when Peter learns that MJ and Ned have moved back to the city after college, he is forced to contend with a lot of inner turmoil and unresolved feelings that manifest in some unexpected ways. At the same time, he has to face off against a formidable new mystery villain, who can mentally take over innocent people and puppet them to commit crimes. Several familiar MCU faces make appearances in this film, and their parts are not small. Also, newcomers Sadie Sink, Tramell Tillman, and Liza Colon-Zayas appear in roles that I will not spoil until the next post.
I was a little disappointed at first that "Brand New Day" dispensed with so many parts of the original Spider-man story - no Daily Bugle, no J. Jonah Jameson, and not a camera in sight - but I quickly realized that the movie is doing this on purpose. Cretton and writers Chris McKenna and Eric Sommers are reducing Spider-man to the absolute basics, removing all of his familiar relationships, signifiers, and safety nets. This allows them to zero in on Peter going through a rough transitional time in his life that many young adults face. And in the 2020s, what's a more relatable problem for Peter to have than loneliness? I so appreciate that everything looks like it's going great for Spidey on the surface - the cops and the public love him - but underneath he's as sad and miserable as any of his predecessors have been. Peter faces a very internal problem that takes a while to dig into, and I don't think it's a coincidence that the recent MCU film that "Brand New Day" reminds me the most of is "Thunderbolts,*" which also had a big mental health component.
The action in "Brand New Day" is better than "Thunderbolts,*" however. I don't think I realized how pedestrian some of Tom Holland's previous MCU Spider-man outings looked before now. Visually, this is a big step up, getting Spider-man swinging from proper New York skyscrapers again, and engaging with more street-level crime. I know that there's plenty of CGI being used, but due to the nature of the big bad many of Spider-man's foes this time out are regular people in fairly ordinary environments. When the more fanciful comic book battles do ensue, however, they do not fail to impress. There are some very entertaining clashes in this film that should make longtime comic book fans very happy.
It shouldn't be overlooked that the performances remain strong - Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon have always been very solid in their roles, and continue to generate plenty of screen chemistry together. The prospect of new Spider-man films was a little iffy after the previous trilogy finished, but I can easily see more adventures with the Tom Holland Spider-man following this one. The more grounded, more grown-up direction for the characters is exactly what the franchise needed.
The spoiler post will be up in a few days.
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