The newest MCU entry creates a new era for its more reliable hero.
Since 2002, with the release of Sam Raimi’s operatic Spider-Man, a staggering 11 Spider-Man movies have been released. That doesn’t even include three additional films that have significant cameos from the Webhead, or myriad of films that are based on secondary or in some cases tertiary Spider-Man supporting cast. The only film franchises that came out at a faster clip is James Bond and Godzilla, and both of those originated in an age of much faster production turn around on films.
This all feels significant to give context to make the obvious point: Spider-Man is maybe the most reliable, consistent and loved box office figure in cinematic history. People love Spider-Man, and they especially love Spider-Man movies. The current man behind the mask, Tom Holland, is also the most prolific actor to portray him in films; his latest, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, is his seventh time to appear in a Spider-Man film; his closest competition is Tobey Maguire with a mere four appearances. Other than creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Tom Holland is responsible for solidifying the public imagination of who Peter Parker and Spider-Man are to modern audiences.
Which begs the question: what more does he still have to say as the webslinger? With that many times around, what is it going to take to feel like his latest outing is fresh, exciting and still has the juice? Brand New Day’s answer is to allow Peter to grow up a little. Holland’s performances have been marked primarily by his boyishness, a public screen persona that extends even as he enters his 30s and in his performance of Telemachus in The Odyssey. By contrast, one of Brand New Day’s clear objectives is to give Peter Parker as a character and Holland as an actor space to grow up, to move past a childish chapter in Spider-Man’s identity, and to allow him to emerge as a grown up. On that front, Brand New Day mostly succeed.
The film opens with a sprint of a montage, showing us the last four years of Peter Parker’s life post his last adventure, No Way Home. With no one in the world knowing his identity, he establishes his new life of an isolated vigilante, essentially cutting out any personal life in an attempt to protect those he cares about. He is a full-time Spider-Man (no real explanation how he pays rent), which has allowed him to become a popular figure in New York City as he thwarts a myriad of criminals, both standard and comic bookish. He has even developed a cordial relationship with the NYPD. He has an especially good, if strictly professional, relationship with Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas).
After this brief but frenetic time jump, we get to our core story, which has two prongs that naturally intersect. First is the introduction of a new mysterious villain who has the ability to possess individuals, using them as hapless pawns to attack the Department of Damage Control. Damage Control has been a plot thread for a while in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; essentially they are Homeland Security but specifically with an eye towards superheroes and villains. Here we are introduced to Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman), the head of Damage Control, who recruits Spider-Man to help him figure out who is responsible for these attacks.
This part of the story is an interesting departure for the franchise, as it starts as something of a detective story. At one point, Spider-Man all but does a Columbo impression as he is questioning individuals in regards to the attacks. One fault of it is that in other MCU incarnations, it’s been shown that Damage Control is duplicitous at best, and outright evil at worst. The fact that they establish early on that they have recruited the Hand ninja clan makes it clear very early on, they may not be the most trustworthy.
The other plot thread is more of a direct follow-up from No Way Home. Even with his ongoing growth as a hero, Peter misses his friends that he forced to mystically forget about him. This is complicated when after four years at MIT, his former girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) return to New York City to live their lives. When Peter crashes their housewarming party and sees MJ has a new boyfriend, it causes a full-on metamorphic change within him, with more of his DNA becoming arachnid. This includes developing organic webslingers, ala Sam Raimi’s films.
These plots converge when Peter’s big feelings and physical changes potentially endanger his Damage Control investigation. By the time he encounters the actual cause of the attacks (Sadie Sink in a role I won’t reveal here,) he is having to repress the ways his new found powers increase both his strength and aggression. All olf these things collide into a series of growing climaxes that more or less follow familiar waves that the past two decades of superhero cinema have trained viewers to recognize.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton cut his MCU teeth with the underappreciated Shang-Chi, and his eye for readable action sequences pays off here. Spider-Man lithe athleticism plays to his strengths as a director, blending elements of Justin Lin and martial arts films to create something that has a sense of weight that is sorely missing from several later MCU outings. He handles the emotional weight of the quiet moments with more mixed success, though a scene between Peter, Ned and MJ in the final act of the film is suitably sweet and communicates a familiarity between characters audiences have gotten to know for nearly a decade.
With one glaring example surrounding the solution of the mystery, the requisite cameos are mostly effective. Jon Bernthal has an extended supporting role reprising Frank Castle, AKA the Punisher, and he has some of the best onscreen chemistry with Holland’s Spider-Man to date. Mark Ruffalo also appears, both as brilliant Bruce Banner and rampaging Hulk, a role he can do in his sleep at this point. There are a handful of other cameos that aren’t quite as central to the plot, but still ultimately will please longtime fans are of certain recent additions to the Marvel epic.
In some ways, Brand New Day is the most comic booky of the Spider-Man films for a narrative position. It has multiple plot threads, some new, some extending from past entries, that all converge and disperse from each other. There are elements that are setting up future stories, while others are closing specific loops from previous Spidey adventures. It works surprisingly well as a singular chapter however, with a story that establishes stakes and then resolves them. And it sets a new template for Peter Parker to be an adult going forward.
While there are a lot of question marks about what the future of the Marvel films entails past next year’s Secret Wars films, it is a given that Holland’s Spider-Man has cemented himself as a central hub for whatever the next phase may look like. Nine years, seven films and countless media junkets later, Holland has proven himself a reliable on-screen presence and ambassador for Marvel in general. The kid has become the lynchpin, and while the future remains to be seen, this film positions him as a reliable center to hold the wide multiverse together.
