Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

Check out my full review @ movieswetextedabout.com/spider-man-brand-new-day-movie-review-destin-daniel-cretton-delivers-peter-parkers-most-personal-story-yet

Rating: A

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY had every excuse to become a bloated victory lap for the MCU’s biggest names, and instead it turns out to be the most emotionally mature, personal Peter Parker story we’ve gotten yet — one that treats its sprawling cast as tools in service of a single, aching question about isolation, identity, and what it costs to keep pretending you don’t need anyone. Tom Holland has never been better, Sadie Sink announces herself as a genuine star, and Destin Daniel Cretton proves that even inside Marvel’s most crowded corner, a story can still belong entirely to one person. With some of the best Spidey action I’ve ever witnessed, a standout Michael Giacchino score, and terrific performances across the board, this is definitely top-tier MCU.

The name "Brand New Day" is very much a misnomer, there is nothing new in this film, you've seen it all before.

The film REALLY drags, is boring and I zoned out multiple times, the film didn't hold my attention at all. It feels like its twice the length of its runtime it goes on, and on, and on, and on.

I think that Spiderman worked better when it was separate from the MCU shared universe goofiness, there is some really cringy MCU stuff shoehorned in.

Not a bad film, its a perfectly competent routine superhero film, the heroes are introduced, the villain is introduced, then the superhero wins, same plot as every superhero film. I was hoping for something Brand New - it did not deliver.

I enjoyed this, but I have a few glaring issues.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

1. How many times are we gonna do this !@#$ where folks don't say what the !@#$ their problem is? We spent half of the movie with Jean terrorizing Peter simply because he got in her way. At no point does she think to reason with him and say, "DEM MOFOS HAVE MY MOFO-ING SISTER, YOU MOFO-ING ARSEHOLE!" Really? Really? We "SSAAVVVEEE MMAAAAAARRRRRRTTTTHHHHAAAAA"-ing this up again?
2. Damage Control has been out of control since WandaVision and Ms. Marvel. How the flying !@#$ are they still operating without oversight? Furthermore, how the !@#$ is Metzger still on the loose? It's like Kingpin at the end of Daredevil Season 2: a whole bunch of philosophical bull!@#$, and no justice. No justice for Sara, no justice for Jean, no justice for Metzger's crimes.
3. I don't accept "small potatoes" excuses. Were the events of Daredevil Season 2 too small potatoes for Yelena to cameo? Also, where is Xavier? Is it too "small potatoes" for him too?

I might drop my rating from an 8 to a 7, because these "glaring issues" irritate me a whole lot.

When I watch a movie, I expect to be entertained, enlightened and/or informed (not necessarily in that order or all at once). But what I *don’t* want is to be treated like a marketing prospect. And that, unfortunately, is one of the problems with many of the releases in the Marvel Universe, including this latest installment in the Spider-Man franchise. Given the studio’s intricate web of properties (no pun intended) in this overlapping assortment of superhero franchises, there are considerable character and storyline cross-overs in virtually all of its film projects. Now, because of that, some cross-pollination of the narratives is bound to occur. But, when this practice becomes a key element in developing the plots of these offerings, it begins to feel more like marketing manipulation than bona fide storytelling, as is the case here. I don’t particularly appreciate using existing efforts to purposely promote upcoming productions. It tends to make these movies somewhat formulaic and cookie-cutter in nature. And, even though that’s not carried to an extreme in this release, it’s present nevertheless, no matter how much director Destin Daniel Cretton may try to enliven whatever other distinguishing characteristics might have been incorporated into the script. In essence, the film continues the current Spider-Man mythology with protagonist Peter Parker (Tom Holland) working largely as a solo undercover crimefighter in New York going after bad guys in a world where he and his past accomplishments have been intentionally forgotten as part of a selfless protective initiative. Only he retains recollection of what came before, leaving him alone where this knowledge is concerned, since old colleagues, including his onetime love interest, M.J. (Zendaya), retain no personal memory of him. It causes him a certain sense of emotional weariness, but it’s also something that he doesn’t have the luxury of time to focus on, given his workload and the fact that he’s going through transformations of his own while battling a menacing new nemesis (Sadie Sink). True, he secures some assistance from past superhero kindreds (Mark Ruffalo, Florence Pugh), but they don’t remember him either, compromising their effectiveness. Can he overcome all of these challenges? That’s a question as much for viewers as it is for Spidey himself, given that, in telling this story, multiple narrative threads are introduced (and not especially clearly), a problem that plagues the flow of the material in the opening half. This could potentially hamper viewer understanding until the picture’s back end, when it finally finds a firmer footing to tell its tale (even if some of it isn’t always adequately explained). Judicious editing may have helped here, but then that may have meant trimming some of the marketing material for future releases (and we can’t have that now, can we?). In short, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is probably best seen as a mediocre Marvel offering that features some modestly entertaining enhanced character development but that nevertheless covers a lot of action-adventure ground we’ve already seen before in countless other studio releases and that could certainly use some shrewd pruning of its overlong 2:24:00 runtime, too. Diehard fans of the franchise will no doubt love this (or virtually anything else that Marvel chooses to put up on the screen) no matter what, but I can’t help but take issue with that assessment. After all, there’s quite an undeniable irony here in the bold wording of the film’s title, which would seem to promise something new but doesn’t follow through on that pledge as well as it might have.

Haven't seen a Marvel Movie in a long time, haven't really wanted to either. Last one I saw was Spider-Man... which I think is the case with a lot of people. Tom Holland is carrying what is left of a once great franchise now in it's death throws, lost in an attempt to court the nonexistent "modern audience." But that's what happens when you sacrifice your fanbase on the altar of the woke gods, you end up making movies no one wants to see by trashing the franchises everyone loved.

And now Tom Holland is left carrying the weight of it.

So, what was the movie like? Well, it was badly in need of an editor. This is one of those movies where the directors cut should make it shorter not longer. The pacing sort of sucked, there were cameos in it that didn't need to be in it. The side story of Spidey leveling up didn't need to be in it. The police captain didn't need to be in it. If they cut some of the fat, the movie would have been a lot better. It would have flowed a lot better, you wouldn't have had to wait so long for the plot to get moving, and the entire thing would have been far better.

Instead it was bloated. They tried to put too much into it, and people are giving it a solid "meh."

But, at the end of the day it's a heck of a lot better than the MCU we have gotten post End Game. But then it's Spider-Man, and Sony has a say in it, and I suspect they had a lot of say in not putting a chick in it, making it lame and Gay and undermining the only Hero the MCU has left.

Well made and all around fun and entertaining entry in the Spider-Man franchise features fine performances all around and nice twist (thankfully I avoided spoilers). It's not amongst the best in the comic book genre or anything (though still ranks in my top 15 in that category), but I had a good time. Tom Holland is still perfect in the role and I liked his scenes with Zendaya. **4.25/5**

SPOILERS AHEAD: I loved the movie, I’m not going to lie. It feels different, daring, and genuinely confident in its own identity. Jon Watts should be taking notes.

That said, I do feel that Hulk/Banner deserved a much larger role. The character had the potential to contribute a great deal to the story, but they never fully took advantage of him.

The Bad Bunny reference made me laugh, and honestly, it also made me happy. Whether you like him or not, he is a Latino artist and represents us. It even reminded me somewhat of the cultural energy and pride embodied by Miles Morales.

What didn’t I like? For starters: where the hell is J. Jonah Jameson?

The movie is packed with news broadcasts discussing Spider-Man and everything happening across New York. We saw Jameson at the end of *Spider-Man: No Way Home*, and here he simply vanished. Nothing. Not even a mention. Completely erased from the map.

The same applies to the references involving the inhibitor chip and Doctor Octopus. A single comment or joke delivered by the suit’s own artificial intelligence would have been enough to acknowledge that connection without interrupting the story.

And what about Daredevil? Exactly the same problem. I would have been satisfied with just a few frames of Matt Murdock sitting behind the bars of his cell, sensing that Spider-Man was nearby. It did not require a full scene or a gratuitous cameo. One carefully constructed image would have been enough to excite the audience and connect both worlds.

There is also a major problem during the final act.

Our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man risks his life to save Jean Grey from a shot fired by the Punisher, and Frank ultimately takes him to the hospital. Sometime later, we see Peter lying in a hospital bed while Frank explains that the doctors had to completely destroy the suit in order to save his life.

That means they necessarily saw his face and discovered his identity.

And that is where the plot hole appears: once they learned who he was, they should have discovered that Peter Parker practically does not exist in any recognizable public record as a consequence of what happened at the end of *No Way Home*. So what was the point of that entire storyline and everything Peter sacrificed?

The problem becomes even more obvious in the final scene, when Peter casually walks out through the hospital’s main entrance dressed as Peter Parker. If the doctors had to remove his suit and saw that he was Spider-Man, how is it possible that nobody recognizes him, questions him, detains him, or at the very least reacts to such an enormous revelation?

Anyway…

I did think that Ned unconsciously remembering Peter through their handshake at the end was a beautiful and emotionally intelligent detail. It subtly suggests that, even though his memory was altered, certain emotional connections remain buried somewhere inside him.

But it is time to move forward.

I want to see Harry Osborn. I want to see Gwen Stacy. I want to see Peter finally become a photographer and build a life of his own, rather than constantly depending on the legacy of the Avengers.

I hope *Spider-Man 5* has the courage to explore that stage of the character’s life with the maturity, drama, and cinematic ambition it deserves.

Peter Parker has already lost far too much. Now it is time to watch him grow, rebuild his life, and finally become the definitive version of Spider-Man.

Even with its minor flaws, *Spider-Man: Brand New Day* is the best Tom Holland Spider-Man film to date and easily the most exciting the MCU has been in years. Spectacular performances, sensational action choreography, an amazingly mesmerizing story, and some of the most astonishing web-slinging sequences of any Spider-Man film to date help solidify *Brand New Day* as one of the best Spider-Man films ever.

https://bit.ly/SpiderCant

"Peter Parker" (Tom Holland) is pining. After having to sacrifice everyone's memory of him to save the world in the last film, he now has to swing from building to building in his red and blue kevlar stopping crimes whilst the biggest of all - his loss of "MJ" (Zendaya) remains unsolvable. The poor fella is lonely and so is putting all his efforts into his work to the extent that his police pal "DeWolff" (Liza Colón-Zayes) is starting to worry about his wellbeing. Well it isn't long before he is too - his spidey-senses are all over the shop. What's occurring? Well a chat with the sauna-dwelling "Black Widow" (Florence Pugh) following an Azazel-like experience with an ostensibly malevolent creature that can jump from person to person to person - but that can't use him as a conduit - starts to really get him confused. On the personal level, he has learned that spiders have three stages to their lives, so perhaps this is just a natural readjustment? He reckons a chat with "Banner" (Mark Ruffalo) might help - incognito, of course, but that only seems to make matters even worse. Might he, too, need an inhibitor to stop himself turning into something altogether more dangerous as his internal symbiosis between human and arachnid looks compromised? Meantime, he does make progress in identifying his ruthless and powerful new nemesis, but that doesn't help him explain why she is so bent on destroying the city's enforcement bureau and exacting her vengeance on it's boss "Metzger" (Tramell Tillman). Can he sort this out before he is subsumed by his new-found nature and, of course, what can he do about "MJ"? It's ten years since Holland first donned the red mask and as much as with watching the actor, we can also watch how his characterisation of "Spider-Man" has evolved. There are certainly plenty of set-piece action scenes - usually in tandem with Jon Bernthal's entertaining "Punisher", but there is also a little more soul to this film. It's much more of a characterful look at the man behind the eyes, of a troubled soul - but not in any sort of melodramatic fashion; more a study of just how loneliness can effect a person, any person, and of how difficult it can be for them to admit the problem let alone reach out to anyone. Zendaya is anything but the damsel in distress here too. There's no high-pitched squealing or "save-me, save-me" tied to a scaffold by the baddie sort of stuff. Indeed there's actually a distinct lack of the traditional baddie here and as the story unfolds the messy carnage starts to look like someone else's manifestation of solitude, too. This is certainly a piece in the puzzle of the MCU - with "Avengers" and "X-Men" related threads, but it doesn't mess about with it's timelines and so we are presented with something enjoyable and quickly paced, but just a little more substantial too - quite an achievement for a man who can't get his sponsors to make him red and blue spidey-pants too!

Not an absolute disaster, but 6.5/10 at best. It falls well short of the previous trilogy, and it baffles me how it’s breaking records and pulling top reviews. It felt like a tired, bloated movie riding purely on hype and pent-up demand for a Tom Holland outing.

My biggest issue was the core supporting cast. The emotional weight of No Way Home relied on Peter's sacrifice so they could live safe lives. Bringing them back when they don't even remember him felt like a total cop-out. They served zero narrative purpose and were clearly included out of obligation. Reverting on that sacrifice undercuts the last film, and the story would've been far tighter without them taking up screen time.

The pacing and stakes were just as frustrating. A weak central conflict left a 2.5-hour movie dragging with shockingly little happening. To mask the lack of momentum, shoehorned hero cameos were jammed in for fan service rather than Peter's arc, weighing the story down with broader MCU maintenance.

The action and visuals were equally lacklustre. Instead of grounded, street-level acrobatics, set pieces felt generic and CGI-heavy, with a rushed third act trading emotional payoff for a noisy climax.

Overall, a mediocre effort. It's fine for a casual evening out, but as a flagship release, it’s underwhelming. Fans expecting a sharp follow-up will feel the franchise is running on fumes. It should have cut ties with the past to stand alone or start a fresh trilogy. Admittedly a tough task, but it would’ve made a far better fourth film.

Easily the worst Tom Holland Spiderman movie. The plot is unambitious and leaves so many plot points hanging it feels like barely anything was resolved, and they were scrambling to create a third act where Spiderman has to fight anything.

Why would they introduce Jean and then not resolve her plot line… At all? She starts the movie on the run, looks for her sister, realizes she’s dead, then goes back to being on the run. It didn’t really feel like we accomplished anything. It didn't feel like she had any character arc because we still don't know anything about her, other than she's mad at the people who kidnapped her sister.

Also, the twist of her not being the villain is CRAZY to me because she was insanely evil and spent most of the movie messing with Spiderman, threatening to kill his girlfriend, possessing multiple people and making them attempt suicide, and causing untold damage… only for the movie to end with “actually she’s a really nice person deep down inside?” What??? She was blatantly evil and sadistic, and now she’s just cool and misunderstood?

So much of Jean becoming a villain was out of convenience so there could be something for Spiderman to fight. Why would Jean run a tank through the city and plant a bomb if she wants to keep a low profile? Why did she free Scorpion? You also can't just make EVERY action scene about fighting mind-controlled villains. Oh my god, it's Scorpion... But he's mind controlled! It's Hulk but he's mind controlled! It's The Hand but they're mind controlled!!! It's a bunch of security guards but they're...! Oh nevermind, they just wanted to fight Spiderman for fun.

Half of the plot is just Spiderman getting the confidence to re-introduce himself to his friends. I totally get *why* they’re doing it and it’s nice that they reconnect in a believable way… But it’s just such a boring plot idea. The whole emotional core of the movie is just “guy connects with characters he used to be friends with last movie”. It takes an entire movie to reset the status quo back to the previous movie. Imagine if they spent this time introducing any new fun characters instead of re-introducing ones we already know.

The Hand is also just hanging out in New York and it’s never explained or resolved. Spiderman’s powers freaking out is never resolved but I guess it’s just implied he gets over it now that he has friends again. Jean Gray baits you into thinking they’re introducing mutants to the MCU but they never do. The director guy was supposedly left alive but we never see if anything happened to him…? Did they just let him go with zero consequences?

So much wasted potential and wasted time. Everything was kinda half assed. The only thing I can really say I liked was the direction, it felt a lot more dynamic and less flat than the other Tom Holland spiderman movies. I loved the swinging scenes. Everything else? Bleh.

#filmreviewhaiku

Manhattan rising / Genius inherited / Villains come in waves

#filmreviewhaiku