A few weeks ago, I had no reason to think about Spider-Man. The priority was a trip with my beloved family to Central Europe. Time was well spent experiencing the faded glory of Vienna, discovering all that Munich had to offer, exploring the cobblestoned streets of Prague, and seeing what kind of trouble we could get into in Krakow, Poland’s intellectual and artistic capital. 

But before all that was the Spider-Man of it all. That’s because I discovered that the day before our flight left, the critic’s screening of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was scheduled. I scoffed at that. You would have to be a dingus, a maroon, an ignoramus extinctus to go to a critic’s screening in Denver the night before fourteen hours of air travel.

I jokingly informed my son Liam about that. “We’re going, right,” he asked brightly. I chuckled, indulging the lad’s flight of fancy. “We’re going, right,” he asked again, the smile gone from his face. “Son, my priorities right now are piroshkis and beer,” I replied. At that, the light went out of his eyes, and it was replaced by a thousand-yard stare, a hollow gaze shared by the mad and the damned. He leaned in, and rasped, “No Spider-Man, no piroshkis. No beer.” He held the look a long moment and continued, “We’re going…right?”

So a deal was struck, a devil’s bargain. I agreed I’d write these opening paragraphs, plus a closing paragraph most likely agreeing with Liam’s conclusion. Otherwise, he’d write the bulk of the review. If doing all that cleared a path to me enjoying piroshkis and beer, cool! That brings us to the topic at hand; Liam’s thoughts on Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

I love Spider-Man. He is one of the most important fictional characters ever made. Because he’s awesome. But adaptations of Spider-Man have always had at least something I don’t like, at least in live action. I love the Tobey Maguire films, they’re spectacular, but I wanted some different characterization. The Andrew Garfield films have great characterization, but the plots are convoluted. The previous Tom Holland films have a juvenile depiction of him, which is sometimes great and sometimes stagnates the character. However, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a cut above.

The film follows Peter Parker (Tom Holland) four years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter Parker has been erased from the memories of his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), and has devoted his entire life to being Spider-Man. He can’t keep burning the candle at both ends, and his body starts feeling the effects, recoiling and changing in ways that frighten Peter.

Simultaneously, Spider-Man is dealing with a lot of new threats. His rogues gallery is starting to appear out of the woodwork. He’s battling villains like Scorpion (Michael Mando), feuding with his fellow vigilante Frank Castle AKA The Punisher (Jon Berenthal), and assisting kindly detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) and the super intense Damage Control helmed by William Metzger (Tramell Tillman), all while contending with a mysterious girl* (Sadie Sink) with some miraculous abilities. Can Peter handle all of this stress on top of his falling apart life? Or will he be swallowed up by the world he tries to protect?

With this cascade of events happening, you might be worried that it’ll be overstuffed. I didn’t even name all the players yet, but all these characters were chosen and deployed precisely to illuminate the theme of repression. This Peter specifically is plagued with secrecy. It’s a return to identity drama that the MCU kinda abandoned for most of its characters, and that soap opera drama is integral to these characters. This is the first MCU film since Homecoming to play with this! Add that in with an actual fear of the powers, and you get something really interesting.

This is also the first Spidey film in the MCU to use the larger MCU well. Part of what I wanted from the other Holland films and what especially disappointed me in No Way Home is that we don’t get to see how the broader universe reacted to Spidey allegedly killing Mysterio, instead relying on previous films. Here, we get to see multiple characters from other Marvel films that serve the plot and themes along with expanding the world. Specifically, it uses the instability of Bruce Banner and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to parallel Peter’s own struggles. It’s natural in its inclusion of the bigger world, with which most MCU films struggle.

I also must stress that this is a proper film. Many of the recent outputs by Marvel Studios and even Disney as a whole have looked weird. The shots don’t look right, they use mostly green screen and CGI costumes and the fights feel stiff. Brand New Day doesn’t have these issues! It looks good! It has proper fight choreography, well framed scenes, natural color, and lived-in sets, even giving day player actors moments to shine. They even have in-camera tricks, great focus pulls and proper depth of field! It looks cinematic in a way most comic book films fail to.

The performances are also top notch, maybe the best overall throughout the whole MCU. Every actor is shooting three pointers. This may be Tom Holland’s best work ever; he sells the weight that is bearing down on him perfectly and even plays with a slight accent that I really liked. Zendaya is also incredible in this, heartbreaking in parts. It’s the first time that these films utilized her properly and gave her something to chew into. Berenthal is incredibly charming, Ruffalo gives his best Hulk work since Avengers, and Jacob Batalon plays Ned better than ever, where I truly believed he and Peter were best friends, and how he has this part of him that he feels he’s missing. Sadie Sink is spectacular, with her performance being the grounding force for the strongest emotional beats. 

I really can’t state enough how strong this film is. I keep finding myself thinking that it’s the MCU’s best outing in a long time, and potentially again the best live action Spider-Man, if not then at least one that’s in the same weight class as Raimi’s films. Yes, it does steal a few beats from Spider-Man 2, but if that’s the biggest issue this film has, that’s barely anything. An effective and meditative superhero film, a beautiful relic of a bygone era. This movie is going to make so much money.**

Agree with all that. It was a bold choice for Marvel Studios to make a movie with a presumably completed script, thoughtful characterization, bold colors, strong shot compositions, and solid performances. At nearly two-and-a-half hours, the film runs a touch longer than necessary, and there were a few times I felt a little restless. Still, it works a hell of a lot more often than it doesn’t. Does this film get the MCU back on track? I hope so, but if not, we’ll always have the best live action Spider-Man movie since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2.

*Sadie Sink’s character not being revealed in marketing is killing me, man. It’s so difficult to talk about what she did without being able to SAY HER NAME OR WHAT HER ROLE IN THE FILM IS!!! I’m going crazy. She’s great, though.

**The film has made over $2 billion, so, yes, it has made so much money.

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.