When people talk about the MCU, it’s understood that they’re talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  However, considering the unhappy lives most Marvel heroes usually have, the M reality should stand for Miserable.  This is very true for one Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, who can do “anything a spider can” but can’t have things you and I take for granted.  He can’t have friends or fall in love, which would make the people involved targets of evil doers who want to hurt Peter.  That anxiety is enough to force Peter into solitude, which (of course) leads to even worse problems for him.  Poor Peter Parker, if only web-slinging were enough to make him happy.

When we last saw Peter Parker (Tom Holland) in 2022’s No Way Home, he was shaken by several awful turns.  After his request to Doctor Strange to cast a spell to reinstate his anonymity went pear-shaped, Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) was killed by the Green Goblin.  In order to fix the problem caused by the first spell, Strange cast another one that made everyone forget Peter.  This included his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and girlfriend Mary Jane (or MJ, Zendaya).  Peter may have helped his former villains as his Aunt wished, but he was left completely alone.

So, what’s a lonely Spider-Man to do?  His solution, which many have chosen before, is to bury himself in work.  In the four years while Ned and MJ are away at MIT, Peter forms a partnership with Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) and works tirelessly to take down every bad guy in New York City.  He brings in Scorpion (Michael Mando), the super Ninja group The Hand and a couple of lesser villains I had to Google afterwards.  He also monitors Ned’s Instagram feed, watching him and MJ have the best time from afar.  Peter doesn’t have a life, but at least he’s too busy to fret over it.  (Or so he thinks.)

But things quickly change for Peter on two fronts.  First, a powerful and mysterious new foe makes their presence known.  They have the ability to “jump” into another person’s consciousness, taking over their mind and body.  (It’s similar to what happens in the Denzel Washington supernatural thriller Fallen.)  Peter confronts this new villain while trying to stop a commandeered tank from crashing into a Department of Damage Control (DODC) building,  where Scorpion currently resides.  

The chase to the DODC introduces Frank Castle (The Punisher, Jon Bernthal), to the larger MCU.  (He’s been in the Daredevil: Born Again series on D+.)   Naturally, Frank just wants to kill whomever is causing problems, but Peter tells him “no” while reminding Frank that he saved Frank’s life on Staten Island.  The movie never tells us how Peter did that, but I’d rather not know if it turns out to be lame like the Budapest thing between Black Widow and Hawkeye.

Despite Peter’s efforts, the villain gets Scorpion flown to a new location, where he promptly escapes.  The only good thing to come out of this episode is that Peter knows that the baddie can’t jump into his mind, which would make them all-powerful.  But they do learn Peter’s secret identity, and his connection to Ned and MJ, which is not good.

The second problem rears its head when Scorpion tries to break into another DODC building.  Peter’s arachnid DNA is mutating, and when it flexes, Peter gets terrible headaches, then his Spidey-senses become painfully acute.  The last stage makes Peter rageful, and he’s unapologetically violent with Scorpion, who was under mind control.  Peter also needlessly injured a cop, and Detective Jean warns him to ease up or she won’t be able to protect him.

Unable to handle his mutation, he seeks out another former superhero experienced with suppressing the monster within, Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo).  Bruce has resumed teaching, thanks to an inhibitor that keeps The Hulk in check.  (You know that won’t last.)  Peter and Bruce have a techie discussion about inhibitors that gives Peter an idea for a universal one, which gives Bruce pause.  What if the behavior being inhibited is neither good or bad, but simply the thing’s nature?

Peter’s not philosophical, so he proceeds down the techie path.  With his personal inhibitor in place, he reaches out to Yelena Belova, and the two have a “heated” discussion at her office–a bath house.  Peter then meets with Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman), the director of the DODC, who explains the group’s mission as rehabbing bad guys.  Remember The Hand?  Well, they’ve been rehabbed into a crack security team.  Peter, didn’t you get the memo that all non-governmental agencies (S.H.I.E.L.D, S.W.O.R.D.) are bad?

In an effort to keep MJ safe, Spider-Man convinces her to come with him at a moment’s notice, and she surprisingly agrees.  At a secluded spot, Peter has what he thinks is a heart-to-heart with his former girlfriend, only to find that the mystery person is controlling MJ and stole a kiss!  (Now, that’s just evil.)

After being forced to save MJ from a fall, Peter takes her to the safest place he knows, Frank’s “home”.  After surviving several deadly booby-traps, Frank agrees to watch over MJ until Peter can get some answers.  As it turns out, MJ appreciates Frank’s desire to be a loner.  At least Peter and MJ connect little while solving the issue with his faulty inhibitor.  If any two nerds can bond over science, it’s them!

Before long, the mystery telepath takes over The Hulk to break into a huge vault in the DODC.  This leads to a showdown that every MCU fan will appreciate, with Spider-Man and The Punisher tag-teaming on The Hulk.  In the aftermath, Peter has subdued the mystery villain, with much gratitude from Metzger.  However, despite doing the right thing, Peter feels something’s wrong.  

Yelena’s timely intel on the mystery villain confirms Peter’s suspicions.  Turns out the telepath had good reasons to attack the DODC, and yes, they’re personal.  That leaves it up to Spider-Man to break into the DODC and stop some bad stuff from going down.

Recommendation

What amazes me (sorry) is how consistently all ten of the Spider-Man films have captured the essence of Peter Parker.  The films themselves haven’t always been great, but the character at the core has always been compelling.  Brand New Day is Tom Holland’s fourth go-around wearing the signature red and blue outfit, and he epitomizes Peter just as much as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield did.  Holland’s great responsibility to the legion of Spider-Man fans is to make us care about Peter and his anxiety over his insane dual life.  He not only hits all the right notes yet again, but his take on the lovelorn Peter and his crime-fighting alter ego are even more convincing than before.

Now that Peter isn’t a high-schooler anymore, Holland can play him with more maturity.  He makes him more introspective and cautious.  Of course, this Peter is wary for good reasons, considering what happened in No Way Home.  That said, Holland never lets us forget how much Peter aches to belong and be loved.  Canonically speaking, Peter’s life has always had plenty of melodrama, but Holland’s performance is so touching that it forced me to reassess his acting abilities.  His charm and youthful exuberance carried him before, but Holland shows so much range in Brand New Day that he could have a successful post-Marvel career.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton is new to the Spider-Verse, but not to Marvel.  I enjoyed his initial MCU offering Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), which was a solid origin story.  Brand New Day, however, is a better movie in nearly every aspect.  While Cretton does have the advantage of jumping aboard an existing franchise with an established cast and writers (Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers), the differences between this movie and the three previous Holland entries is noticeable.

The marketing for Brand New Day described it as a street-level movie, and that comes through from the opening scenes.  This is the first film since the Raimi films that looks like it takes place in an actual city, with impressive skylines and forbidding shadows.  The movie’s artistic sensibilities are reminiscent of Daredevil: Born Again and to a lesser extent Thunderbolts, in how they appreciate urban grittiness.  I’m sure plenty of VFX and CGI were used to bring the superhero action to life, but the movie always feels like it takes place in a city instead of a soundstage.

The other impact Cretton has on the movie is in its many dramatic scenes.  He gives the actors the time and space necessary to get comfortable in their characters’ skin.  If you took out the Spider-action, there would still be an interesting movie about a workaholic guy trying to get over the life he used to have and the girl that used to be his, and failing miserably.  The Spider-Man movies have always had emotional scenes, but this one has some of the best dramatic moments of any in the franchise, right up there with Spider-Man 2.  Like that movie, this one cares equally about Peter and the big set pieces, and it makes all the difference.

Cretton’s emphasis on character also works wonders for Zendaya’s and Jacob Batalon’s performances as MJ and Ned, respectively.  This is the first time the two feel like three-dimensional characters, and not Peter’s quippy sidekicks.  To be fair, they’re twenty-somethings now, so some growth was to be expected.  The difference here is that Cretton takes the time to show how they relate to each other as friends outside of the plot, which pay big dividends over the course of the movie.

As is the case with every Marvel movie these days, Brand New Day has plenty of Marvel heroes making an appearance.  Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner and Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle are added value elements and in top form.  Bernthal’s Castle shows emotions besides anger and actually has a tear-jerker moment.  Florence Pugh’s Yelena has so much fun making Holland’s Parker uncomfortable that I waited for “Maneater” to start playing on the soundtrack.  I like that Liza Colón-Zayas’s Detective DeWolff is a surrogate mom to Peter, which is necessary now that Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May is gone (but not forgotten).  Finally, Sadie Sink gives her best performance outside of Stranger Things.

Similar to Spider-Man: No Way Home, Brand New Day confidently tells a story loaded with superheroes, villains and the everyday worries of Peter Parker.  For fans of Spider-Man, the movie has everything you could ask for, and then some.  One of the best Spider-Man movies ever made.  Highly recommended.

Analysis

Thoughts on Peter Parker, the superhero who just can’t catch a break.

Indie director growing pains

The most bizarre event in Sony’s Spider-Man franchise is not seeing Topher Grace covered in black goo, but when they ditched Sam Raimi in favor of Marc Webb.  The justification for this was Spider-Man 3, which wasn’t good but didn’t merit Raimi’s firing.  While that move was questionable, the choice of who replaced him was even more of a head-scratcher, Marc Webb.

Unlike Raimi, Webb had only one feature film under his belt, 500 Days of Summer.  Raimi was a veteran director before making Spider-Man.  In addition to the Evil Dead films, he had Darkman, The Quick and the Dead, A Simple Plan and The Gift on his resume.  While I liked Webb’s 500, it wasn’t enough to prepare him for taking the reins for a big-budget, VFX-driven superhero franchise, where every movie was expected to have an opening weekend of $100m domestic.

I could see the push-pull of Webb’s directorial tendencies and the franchise’s demands painfully play out during The Amazing Spider-Man.  It’s full of what Webb was brought in to do, which is light rom-com stuff between Andrew Garfield’s Peter and Emma Stone’s Gwen. But the action sequences don’t work.  The movie looks like it was directed by two people.  When Sony killed off this franchise reboot after Webb’s sequel, they effectively put him out of his misery.  (Until he did the live-action remake of Disney’s Snow White, at least.)

While there’s nothing in Destin Daniel Cretton’s filmography that suggested he was a good fit for a Marvel movie, he had made five films before Shang Chi.  That movie, which had lower expectations than Marvel’s marquee superheroes, gave him the experience necessary to tackle Spider-Man.

Shang Chi was very good, but Cretton outdid himself with Brand New Day.  Cretton’s ability to craft intimate, dramatic moments is one of the reasons why Brand New Day is such an emotionally rewarding experience.  Peter’s scenes with MJ and Peter feel authentic, because they’re interactions that aren’t concerned with advancing the plot or providing backstory.  They’re little relationship moments.  Peter’s interactions with Frank and Bruce are fun because they are an extension of the relationship Peter had with Tony Stark, guys talking shop and bonding.

Even better are the climactic scenes involving Peter and Jean Gray.  The two interact not like a hero and a villain, but like one adult helping another adult work through a personal issue.  Their dialog is mature and honest.  In successfully translating his indie sensibilities to Spider-Man, Cretton succeeded where Webb did not.

How we solve problems now

I first noticed a shift in how Marvel superheroes resolved conflicts in Captain America: Brave New World.  While that movie has plenty of fisticuffs, the final battle between Sam and President Ross concludes without him knocking the Red Hulk unconscious.  Instead, he gets Ross to simmer down and surrender without causing any more damage or killing someone.

Thunderbolts had Yelena and the rest of the team pulling Bob out of his doom spiral not by beating him senseless, but by giving him a group hug.  Bob’s evil alter-ego Sentry is peacefully defeated with talk therapy.

The second season of D+ show Daredevil: Born Again ends with Matt Murdoch and the Kingpin agreeing to mutual disarmament for the sake of the city they both claim to love.  Murdoch is arrested for crimes he committed as Daredevil, while Wilson Fisk stares at the sea from the beach of an island not associated with New York.

Brand New Day follows this trend by having Peter and Jean talk through her feelings surrounding the capture and death of her sister.  Peter lets Jean into his mind so that she’ll get the same advice she once gave him about being a person with super powers.  The words Peter uses to show his support for her could have come straight from Yelena.  You’re not alone.  I’m here to listen and talk.  I’ll help you get through the darkness.

While I like this recent turn of events for Marvel, I wonder if it will hold true for the upcoming Avengers movies.

The practicality of it all

When you’re the fourth entry in a franchise and the tenth overall cinematic outing of a character, marketing the latest entry as “different” is challenging.  Undaunted, Sony told us that this Spider-Man movie would be different from the rest in several ways.  Spider-Man’s CGI suit was replaced with one made of fabric.  And, some of his web-slinging would be done practically.  Sony told us that Brand New Day would look and feel different, and they were right.

The practical aesthetics of the movie are always at the forefront.  Scenes look like they were filmed on city streets.  They may not have been in New York, but the locations looked distinctly urban compared to the previous entries.  The rooms that Peter, MJ and Ned and even Frank live in looked lived-in.  The eerie feeling that everything was shot in front of a green screen and assembled in post production was gone.

Brand New Day also makes a point of showing the characters behaving like real people.  One example of this is showing the characters eating and drinking.  Remember Tony Stark scarfing down a cheeseburger before his press conference in the first Iron Man?  Or the credit cookie for The Avengers, where everyone eats shawarma?  Or Yelena marveling over stovetop mac & cheese in the Hawkeye D+ series.  Each of those moments went a long way towards reminding us that these superheroes are real people.

Note that I’m excluding scenes where food is shown but nobody partakes.  The scene in Endgame where we see Professor Hulk in a diner with a mountain of food is funny, but I don’t recall him taking a bite.  It would have been much better to watch him polish it off during the conversation, right?

In this movie, Peter takes a swig of a drink during MJ and Ned’s party.  Frank eats his gut-blaster chilli.  This movie even gets a good laugh over Peter not taking off his mask to drink coffee.  Showing the characters eating and drinking is such a simple way of connecting the audience to a superhero’s underlying humanity.  Here’s to more noshing in future Marvel films.