‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Review: The MCU Finally Gets Its Groove Back
It’s been a while since a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie didn’t suck. I forgot how that felt. We can thank Destin Daniel Cretton as one of the architects of the MCU’s current reinvigoration, with the introspective Wonder Man being a major highlight of their post-Avengers: Endgame projects. And now there’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The fourth entry in the current Spider-Man franchise finally gives Tom Holland textured material to explore with his character, away from the “legacy” characters who serve as mentor figures for Peter Parker.
One can’t say that Jon Watts’ “Home” trilogy was bad, but it never strayed away from a familiar, crowd-pleasing structure that, despite its entertaining nature, never fully delved deep into Peter’s psyche. Always a crossover movie with little to no impact on Peter’s evolution as a character until a pivotal turn in Spider-Man: No Way Home made me appreciate what Holland was doing with Spider-Man even more.
With Cretton being a “character-first” filmmaker, as evidenced by his independent works Short Term 12, The Glass Castle, and Just Mercy, there’s finally a chance for this iteration of Spider-Man to feel more psychologically riveting. The good news? It’s precisely what he does in his third go-around within the Marvel sandbox after introducing us to the filmic universes of Shang-Chi and Simon Williams.
The plot of Spider-Man: Brand New Day
It’s difficult to discuss a movie whose plot (not a reveal or a plot twist, but the main throughline of the film) is shrouded in secrecy via Sadie Sink’s antagonist (which this review will avoid talking about). However, much of my appreciation of Spider-Man: Brand New Day stems from the Sadie Sink of it all. Because of where Cretton puts that character in relation to Spidey’s internal (and external) struggles, as Peter’s sensory abilities begin to transform themselves, riddled by his guilt about erasing the memories he shared with his best friends Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) and Michelle Jones (Zendaya).
The primary antagonist, who can jump into the minds of anyone in their vicinity, attempts to peer into Peter’s psyche but is continually rejected, as he doesn’t want anyone to look into his most repressed memory. This is a recurring motif that begins to unlock itself once we get to know more about Sink’s character.
Again, it’s challenging to discuss this aspect without spoiling a single thing But it’s easy to talk about what works and what doesn’t in Spider-Man: Brand New Day if one approaches a review in two halves, before we learn who Sink’s character is and after.
Destin Daniel Cretton’s film works extremely well as a character study
Beforehand, Brand New Day is incredibly rudimentary, with a slew of unimpressively constructed action sequences that don’t do much to reinvent the language of web-slinging (Cretton seems to be a fan of Marc Webb’s visual approach). That is, despite a dynamic opening chase that includes fun banter between Peter and Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal, who surprisingly adds layers to the character we haven’t seen before??? Impossible!).
There are many moving parts. This includes a few cameos that tie into the “larger universe” without really serving the main story at hand, while also being conflicted on whether it should primarily focus on Peter’s physical (and psychological) changes or showcase as many Marvel characters as it can. Notably, Mac Gargan/Scorpion (Michael Mando), Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone (Marvin Jones III), and even Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).
It can get overstuffed, and some of these beats sadly vary in quality, especially when some of these aforementioned characters appear and immediately vanish from the picture. The visual language of the film’s first half is also painfully unimpressive, with static, center-framed compositions that seem more akin to television than genuine blockbuster cinema.
That said, I’m not immune to a Punisher vs. The Hulk confrontation. It’s at that point where Cretton begins to lock in and give us an unexpectedly moving character study of tormented souls who long to heal from their wounds.
Following the plot device being revealed, Holland gives his best—and most emotive—performance as Spider-Man, especially when Cretton begins to tap into his vulnerabilities during a climax that’s strangely smaller in scale but profoundly moving.
I had thought that, with so many Marvel characters present, Cretton would succumb to the CGI-driven denouements that have plagued so many of these superhero movies these days. But he never does so and prefers instead to ruminate inside Peter’s mind to see what has been holding him back all this time.
Such textures might not have worked if Cretton didn’t make the character the beating heart and soul of Brand New Day. While he certainly has difficulty finding his footing, it won’t take long for you to care about not only Parker’s journey of self-actualization but also how it’s connected to the torments of Sink’s character.
While I won’t mention a thing about the character, know this: the Stranger Things actress gives the best performance of her career, one that has made me excited to see how she will evolve as a performer after a few missteps with Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale and Geremy Jasper’s O’Dessa. She channels so much internal anguish that it’s hard not to see her side of the story; even when the arrival of the Damage Control director begins to blur the lines on who Peter can fully trust while attempting to neutralize a threat no one entirely understands.
Once Spider-Man: Brand New Day begins to tap into emotionally vulnerable territories, the action greatly improves, especially in that aforementioned Hulk confrontation.
Upon reaching a pivotal turn during a fight scene with The Hand, the web-slinging language of Spider-Man’s mechanics is fully reinvented through Cretton’s own filmmaking sensibilities. The martial arts-inspired choreography is thrillingly tactile, and Brett Pawlak’s photography is kinetic, as the camera moves in a thousand directions to follow the character’s full evolution, a transition from adolescence to adulthood!
Cretton seems one of the few MCU filmmakers working today to understand that action is primarily driven by emotion, not “hype moments and aura.” When Spidey and The Punisher fight against The Hulk, there’s a reason for that scene to happen. Ruffalo’s portrayal of the character is probably the best he’s ever been, after being reduced to a quip-heavy joke in both Avengers: Endgame and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Each subsequent action scene after we know who Sink is playing has intent and feels urgent. The back half of the movie is far more emotive than I imagined. Cretton always returns to one pivotal conversation that, by the end, helps us understand who Peter Parker truly is, away from the monsters that have been lurking inside his mind and body.
The film feels made with actual purpose and thought, even the conversations Peter has with MJ and Ned after they reunite. I foolishly thought that Cretton would immediately retcon that emotional progression, but he doesn’t. This surprisingly opens up the character relationships to previously unexplored territory, with Zendaya and Batalon always being great emotional counterpoints to what Peter is feeling on the inside and outside.
Final thoughts on Spider-Man: Brand New Day
While the Marvel machine will undoubtedly never die down, Spider-Man: Brand New Day will hopefully act as the shot in the arm the franchise needs, offering audiences aesthetically and thematically compelling character studies with genuinely impassioned, comic-book-driven action. Destin Daniel Cretton is one of the few filmmakers currently working in the MCU who has nailed that aspect.
Avengers: Doomsday is still worrying me, but we should, as soon as we can, give Cretton (alongside Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead, Sam Raimi, and Ryan Coogler) the keys to the Marvel kingdom and keep Ghost Rider as far away from Shawn Levy as humanly possible. Please, and thank you very much.
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