Spiderman Brand New Day has finally come out five years after the last solo Spiderman movie, No Way Home! This review will contain spoilers so if you haven’t seen the movie yet you should exit this review and come back later once you’ve seen the movie.
This review will be broken up into sections about the storyline, future MCU elements and the performance of the cast members.
Storyline
So the movie first starts off with a montage that spans four years which is the length of time that MJ and Ned are in college. All the while Peter is navigating his life alone since everyone forgot who he was at the end of No Way Home thanks to Doctor Strange’s spell. Peter is helping out the NYPD quite a bit with various crimes across the city in the meantime and has built himself quite the tech setup in his apartment. His apartment is very similar to Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man’s apartment in his trilogy. There are even some Easter eggs and callbacks to Tobey’s trilogy such as the blonde girl who is Peter’s neighbor who flirts with him in the hallway.
Then a big tank is cruising through the streets of New York. Spiderman goes on the case as well as The Punisher (Frank Castle). Turns out this tank is heading to The Department Of Damage Control (DODC) and is being driven by a woman who’s mind is being controlled.
The big reveal here is that the mind controller or possessor is Jean Grey who is a mutant and part of the X Men. This is the part of the movie where it kind of turns from a Spiderman move into an MCU movie. It turns out Jean is looking for her sister who the DODC took when they were younger to do experiments on her to gain some of her abilities.
MCU VS Spiderman
As previously mentioned, half of this movie feels like a true Spiderman movie and the other half has a ton of MCU elements and what it could mean for the future. For the first half of the movie we see Spiderman villains such as Scorpion returning from Homecoming and Tombstone in his MCU debut and he looked very comics accurate even though he was in the film for all of two seconds in that beginning montage.
The first half of the movie also really focuses on how Peter is alone and has lost nearly everyone and how those emotions are causing a literal physical transformation of his body and increasing his arachnid sensitivities. It really felt the most like Spiderman that an MCU Spiderman movie ever has felt. A big problem I had with the previous trilogy is that Spiderman would always be working with an MCU character whether it was Tony Stark or Doctor Strange and this time finally he was working alone like we have seen in the last five Spiderman movies with Tobey and Andrew.
Spiderman i feel is the most relatable superhero of them all since he’s just a regular ole guy who goes to school and is nerdy and has a couple of best friends and that is why so many people resonate with him. I really liked when he was going through his transformation and how trauma was the cause of it. I love the transition to organic web shooters because I always had a bit of an issue of spiderman being too techy in the MCU due to the Tony Stark influence.
MJ may have forgotten who Spiderman was but you can instantly feel the chemistry between MJ and Peter throughout the film as if deep down she knows they have at least met before.
The second half of the movie really leans into the MCU elements and really has some key scenes that could shape the next saga of the MCU.
In the second half of the movie Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) is officially revealed and her intentions for doing what she is doing are revealed as well. It turns out the DODC took Jean’s sister for experiments and eventually she died. Spiderman and the Punisher team up to take down Jean before Peter finds out the truth of what’s going on in reality.
Jean uses mind control on Hulk to take off his inhibitor and distract Peter and then mind controls Punisher to get to Trammell Tillman’s character. Hulk falls out of a building and transforms back into Bruce Banner while Jean is eventually captured.
A couple things in this sequence are very important to the MCU. Hulk and Peter wear inhibitors and Peter invents a universal inhibitor which could play a key role in the future of the MCU as we get into Secret Wars. Also this movie introduces the first character in the MCU X men in Jean Grey. The X men movie is coming out in 2028 and rumors are heating up for the rest of the cast which should be revealed at D23 later next week. It also seems like the DODC will be a major factor going forward in MCU films as they try to protect the human race against superpowered beings.
Performances
This was by far the best performance that Tom Holland has given as Spider-Man. Now that Peter is finally able to be an adult, Tom was able to act like one and it was fantastic.
Sadie Sink gave a wonderful performance as Jean and I am excited to see her return in Secret Wars and X-men.
I am a massive fan of Trammell Tillman from Severance and he did such a wonderful job here. I hope he returns in future movies with the DODC.
Jon Bernthal was hilarious as Punisher and him being in a PG-13 movie allowed him to be a little more lighthearted which allowed Jon to show off his acting ability.
The rest of the cast did a great job as well and Florence Pugh as Yelena was a very nice and welcome surprise as she really commands the room every scene she shows up.
I have to quips with the movie. The first one is that while this is by far the most Spidermany an MCU Spiderman movie has been to date, I do wish we can get an entire movie focused solely on Spiderman with a Spiderman villain in the mix as a main villain. The second quip is the post credit scene is not really a satisfying scene and can be very confusing for casuals.
I have a strong nostalgia for the early Spiderman movies and I really loved all five of them so it’s hard for me to say this is the best Spiderman movie since Spiderman 2 but I will say it is certainly the best MCU Spider-Man movie, I am excluding No Way Home again because of the nostalgia elements.
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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