Movie review: ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ falls short of poignancy

LOS ANGELES, July 28 (UPI) — Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in theaters Friday, is consistent with the previous Tom Holland iterations. The fan service will please some but gets in the way of telling a meaningful Spider-Man story.

Script pages during the Marvel logo remind viewers that at the end of No Way Home, Peter Parker (Holland) asked Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, who does not appear in Brand New Day), to cast a spell to make the world forget him. It worked.

Now, NYPD Detective DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) works cooperatively with Spider-Man and the city adores him, but no one knows his secret identity. Spider-Man foils a series of comic book villains in a fun montage.

When he encounters a villain who can possess innocent bystanders, anyone can become a threat. At the same time, Spider-Man doesn’t want to hurt innocent victims being controlled by the villain.

This is the same power demonstrated by the villains in horror movies Shocker and Fallen. Most Spider-Man fans probably didn’t see those (although comic books overlap with horror), and neither of those films had set pieces like Brand New Day.

Investigating this villain, Spider-Man interacts with characters from other Marvel properties who serve no more purpose than the GIF of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) are in the trailer.

Yes, comic books have cameos, but 38 movies and however many streaming series in, they’re just Easter eggs for the sake of Easter eggs. Brand New Day even vocalizes questions fans have had, but still doesn’t answer them.

This hinders what could be a meaningful Peter Parker story. The spell made his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) forget Peter, so he is now solitary in his crime-fighting with no social life.

This isolation has the added bonus of eliminating all the bad improv that passed for comedy between the trio in previous movies. It also speaks to Spider-Man‘s ultimate message: with great power comes great responsibility.

Every Spider-Man has grappled with how to save others, protect his loved ones and attend to his own needs.

Brand New Day dabbles with Peter’s spider powers evolving too. This forces him to rediscover his powers, but that too is interrupted by all the connections to other movies and setups for future ones.

By the way, the maligned Spider-Man 3 also dealt with Tobey Maguire’s Peter acclimating to new powers. So Brand New Day is recycling ideas from previous versions, but it has been 19 years since the emo dance.

The film wants to ask big questions about whether to suppress one’s nature, but does not devote significant time to it or other interesting ideas. DeWolff disappears from the film once Peter identifies the villain and pursues them in focus and it takes Peter way too long to figure out a nefarious character has been lying to him.

Several early situations threaten to unmask Spider-Man, but plot contrivances bail him out. It becomes a blatant metaphor when he keeps his mask on talking to MJ, because you see, he’s actually masking his true feelings.

Also, as much as Peter insists on keeping his mask on, he talks to DeWolff on a cell phone in public. Anyone could hear Peter talking about Spider-Man business.

Peter and MJ have emotional conversations, but they’re talking about a magic spell. That’s not really the same as Peter dealing with real adult issues while he has superpowers.

The Sam Raimi trilogy really pared Spider-Man down to his essence. Even as convoluted as 3 got, it still revolved around Peter’s responsibility, not setting up the next movie.

Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton stages a few fun Spider-Man action scenes on the street level. Other web-slinging scenes over the city lose the dynamic when it looks like Holland in front of another screen.

Some complained that the 2002 Spider-Man looked too animated, but at least that early digital effect was interacting with actual scenes. Now Spider-Man slinging looks the same as Superman flying, Moana sailing or The Mandalorian exploring a planet because they’re all created the same way with actors in front of screens.

Having Holland’s Spider-Man cross over with the Marvel Cinematic Universe is fun, but it is a shame he never really got his own adventure. His first film, Homecoming, was overshadowed by Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), who lingered in Far From Home after the character’s death.

No Way Home was constructed to unite him with Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spideys, which was a bigger spoiler than the ones being guarded here.

Sadie Sink is in the movie playing a role the studio has gone to great lengths to keep secret. It is no spoiler to say that no drama would have been ruined by saying “Sadie Sink is playing this character.” When a role depends on secrecy, that is not drama.

The Holland Spider-Mans have made billions, not to mention the value he adds to Avengers team ups. They’re not going to change the formula, even if maintaining it sacrifices a more compelling story that could be told with more focus.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.

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