Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Four years after Peter Parker (Tom Holland, "The Odyssey") asked Dr. Strange to cast a spell to make everyone forget about him in order to keep them safe after his beloved Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) was killed by the Green Goblin, he's cleared the city of criminals like Scorpion (Mac Gargan, TV's 'Better Call Saul'), Tombstone (Marvin Jones III) and The Hand while keeping fresh flowers on his aunt's grave. He's kept tabs on his old friends via Ned's (Jacob Batalon) social media, but now both Ned and MJ (Zendaya, "The Odyssey") are returning from M.I.T. just as he's fighting a powerful telepath determined to break into the Department of Damage Control while he's experiencing a spike in his arachnid DNA, increasing but also destabilizing his powers in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day."
Laura's Review: B+
Working with a script from the last installments' Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers, director Destin Daniel Cretton ("Short Term 12," "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings") and his charming, maturing star banish fatigue from the flagging super hero genre by combining real emotion with breath-taking action sequences while introducing a humorous new odd buddy pairing. The film and its effects are so eye popping that it's a shame newlyweds Holland and Zendaya won't be getting more IMAX screens along with their other blockbuster "The Odyssey."
After establishing Peter's aching, post MJ life as one concentrated on cleaning up crime in partnership with Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas, TV's 'The Bear'), he's challenged when an enormous, heavily armed tank batters the streets of New York City heading towards the Damage Control Center, his style compromised by his aggressively militaristic new friend Frank Castle aka The Punisher (Jon Bernthal, "The Odyssey") who joins in the pursuit. But after Spidey succeeds in stopping the vehicular battering ram, its driver is revealed to be an older woman, a janitor who has no recollection of how she got there, along with several officers who appeared to have been assisting her. After an amusing meeting with Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) in her 'office' in a New York bathhouse, Spidey meets with Damage Control's Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman, TV's 'Severance'), surprised to find his old nemeses The Hand ensconced there now. Bill tells him they just needed a little guidance and Spidey agrees to do all he can to help.
After spotting Ned in his local bodega, Peter follows him into what appears to be a homecoming party, Ned and MJ new roommates. Neither recognizes him, thinking his flowers, intended for May's grave, a housewarming gift. Peter soaks up the atmosphere, thrilled to be in the presence of the woman he loves and his best friend, but when he spots another man kissing MJ, he leaves and, back in his aerie of an apartment, feels something trying to get into his head, specifically a memory involving May. He awakens to find himself caught up in his own webbing on the outside of his building, crashing to the ground and making his way back upstairs in clothes pilfered from the laundry room. He'll begin working with his A.I. Karen (voice of Naomi Watts) on an inhibitor, a device to control the changes occurring to him, crashing Dr. Banner's (Mark Ruffalo) physics class for a little advice. Banner, who also doesn't recognize Parker, cautions him as well. After battling Scorpion again, the villain's escape engineered during that attack on Damage Control, Spider-man will be warned by DeWolff that she won't be able to protect him if he doesn't get himself under control, Spidey having overturned a police vehicle during the rampage, injuring a cop. Soon after, Peter will figure out that the telepath he's up against has a 'hop' limit and when he witnesses his foe jump into the back seat of a vehicle, he's surprised to see he's been up against a young woman (Sadie Sink, "The Whale").
If previous Marvel films got bogged down in one too many multiverses and murky CGI, this one begins to pull various characters together in interesting ways with visual flair. Spider-Man will be called upon to do battle with a weaponized Hulk and find himself up against The Hand again, the scene featuring such impressive group wire work as the ninjas form a fighting pyramid, even Spidey remarks on how cool it is. Cretton's refreshed the web slinging with Spider-Man's own battle for control, his mechanical web shooters at odds with new organic ones, and when MJ requests a 'ride' home, the dynamics are now entirely different, she having just told him that she doesn't know or love him.
Those reaches into Spidey's mind continue, Aunt May offering compassionate advice, but eventually he'll be joined by the one who's been intruding for therapeutical shared grief. Tom Holland, no longer quite so boyish in looks if not in voice, his body bearing battle scars, completely owns this character, his maturity still undermined every so slightly by his do-gooder naivete. He and Bernthal are surprisingly great together, their conflicting worldviews spiking their banter. When Spidey brings MJ to the shipyard Castle calls home for safekeeping, Frank, sensing something more, asks his masked friend 'are you blushing daffodil?'
I didn't quite believe Zendaya's speech about not loving Peter, perhaps because we aren't supposed to when the connection is still so clearly there. The film does run a little long, as all of these do, but you can save yourself some time by not waiting through the credits for a stinger that really doesn't deliver much, the film's pre-credit closing scene much more satisfying. Featuring a well curated soundtrack among its other pleasures, "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" feels fresh again.
Sony Pictures releases "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" in theaters on 7/31/26.
