Spider-Man: Brand New Day film review – Crowd-pleasing fun
Tom Holland's fourth Spidey film is an entertaining outing with some great new additions to the formula
After the triumphant and emotional antics of No Way Home, Brand New Day has some sizeable spandex to fill as it finds Peter Parker starting from scratch following that multiverse-correcting memory wipe, with his girlfriend MJ and best mate Ned having no clue who he is. The director of Tom Holland’s three previous Spider-Man movies, Jon Watts, makes way for another Marvel regular, Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, TV’s Wonder Man).
Whilst MJ and Ned (Zendaya and Jacob Batalon) have spent the past four years studying at MIT, we learn that Peter, aka Spider-Man (Holland), has been living a lonely existence anonymously driving down NYC’s crime rate, aided by friendly detective Jean DeWolff (The Bear’s Liza Colón-Zayas). Things get messy following several attacks on the superhero policing unit, the Department Of Damage Control, by an unknown individual with the power to jump from person to person. Severance’s Tramell Tillman plays the boss of that agency, Jon Bernthal pops up as The Punisher to reluctantly assist Spider-Man in his efforts, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk is on hand for some havoc, and there are scene-stealing appearances from a New Avenger.
Given that the previous film thrived on the strength of its ensemble, splitting up the gang is a major bummer. However, Zendaya is as delightfully droll as ever, and Bernthal makes an enjoyably antagonistic ally (his crabby, disreputable nature is a nice contrast to the largely squeaky clean Spider-Man), with Sadie Sink cannily cast in a central and somewhat surprising role.
It’s not quite as charming nor as deftly delivered as No Way Home, but Brand New Day remains a fun, crowd-pleasing and genuinely touching enterprise. Cretton helms some exciting action, there’s a sharp script from returning scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and, whether he’s getting tangled up in webs or tortured by his emotions, Holland has never been better. Superhero movies have been struggling to set cinemas alight of late, but the future for Spidey remains bright.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in cinemas from Wednesday 29 July.