Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, Mark Ruffalo
Screenplay: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
145 mins. Rated PG-13 for sequences of action/violence and some language.

I think it’s safe to say that Spider-Man: Brand New Day carries a lot of weight for the MCU as a franchise. In fact, most of the Spider-Man MCU films have been quite integral to the larger franchise that one would assume given that it isn’t a Disney property, but the importance of the character and his ability to interact with seemingly any of the heroes without issue makes him very malleable. Given that this sequel is the last film to release before the heavy-hitting Avengers: Doomsday as well as Sony’s super-secretive campaign, Brand New Day is definitely worth discovering its secrets and embarking on a return to street-level Spidey stories.

NOTE: Given the secretive nature of the film, I’m going to do my best to avoid anything spoilery but I’ll be sticking with basic plot details and anything revealed in the marketing. Nothing I reveal will take away from your experience, but if you’d rather go in without anything, come back when you’ve seen the movie.

It’s been several years since the world forgot about Peter Parker (Tom Holland, The Odyssey), and our hero has been grinding to earn his reputation as a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but he’s lonely. His best friend and the woman he loves no longer know he exists, he still blames himself for the death of Aunt May, and he hasn’t been able to find a new place to call home, but when a group of villains begin repeated attacks on the Department of Damage Control, led by a shadowy figure with the ability to evade capture, Spider-Man finds that the people who have forgotten him are still in danger, and he’ll need to take on a support system to discover the truth behind the mystery, all the while dealing with an increase of his arachnid powers.

Brand New Day is a very good Spider-Man story that sees Peter dealing with the shadows of his past and trying to find a mix between his life as Spider-Man and his life as Peter Parker. I love the street-level simplicity of Spider-Man, and most of this film feels like a classic take on the character while also servicing the future stories of the larger MCU. There are lots of ties to legacy characters and major reveals at play, but much of it feels tied to the story that director Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy) is telling, so it doesn’t feel too self-indulgent.

That being said, this is a lot of movie, and it often feels like it. The pacing suffers with the amount of disparate plot threads, and even though most of the setups get worthwhile payoffs, there are a lot of stories being serviced here, and the bloat is at times noticeable. I was consistently entertained, but I felt the weight (for example, The Odyssey, a much longer movie, felt shorter by comparison).

Peter’s character journey is excellently handled here, playing off his guilt for Aunt May and his choice to sacrifice his relationships to keep the people he loves safe. There were choices made with his journey in the film that I didn’t think would work, but Cretton’s skill as a director and the combined performances of Holland, Zendaya (Dune), and Jacob Batalon (Novocaine) as Peter, MJ, and Ned, make it all work so much better than I had thought. I love seeing Peter poke the bear and keep putting himself in painful situations, knowing that I’d be doing the exact same thing in his shoes.

It’s also nice to see some legacy characters (shown in the trailers) interacting with Spider-Man in new ans interesting ways. As seen in the marketing, Spider-Man shares scenes with Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal, The Wolf of Wall Street), and these are where their unique but often similar character stories find a lot of the film’s heart.

Sadie Sink (The Whale) who appears as a mystery character in the film is quite good as well, but I’ll say no more on the character’s identity but to say that it’s more fun to find out in the movie, so avoid seeking out answers online and just see the film.

There are a ton of minor villain characters, but I’d tell you to temper expectations about seeing your favorite villains here, as this is much more of a mystery story that a traditional hero vs villain narrative and many of the villains have very low screen time, though I was happy to see the post-credits scene of Homecoming pay off by finally bringing in Mac Gargan/Scorpion, played by a scene-chewing Michael Mando who is clearly having a blast.

There’s so much happening in Spider-Man: Brand New Day that some of the plot threads feel underserved, and part of that is the marketing focusing on some smaller elements over some of the surprising moments that the movie offers, but this is a very good Spider-Man tale that is also mostly successful at feeding the larger MCU, and it has more than a handful of moments that my inner child never expected to see in an actual movie. The performances are strong from our returning character and I particularly liked Bernthal’s time in the film and a surprising turn from Lisa Colon-Zayas as Detective DeWolff who serves as Spidey’s only real human connection at the film’s start. It’s a lot of movie and sometimes feels like it could collapse under that weight, but I was wholly entertained and enthralled throughout. As a final note, I’ve been told there is a post-credits scene but I can’t speak to that as my screening cut out during the credits, so be sure to stick around.

3.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

For more MCU: Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Deadpool & Wolverine