Within the wider banner of ‘superhero movie’, there are, of course, a lot of little subgenres, mostly defined by setting – some might be more ‘street-level’, some more fantasy, some doing outer space sci-fi stuff. The most important two subgenres, though, belong to specific heroes: Batman and Spider-Man. Brands unto themselves, a film with Bruce Wayne or Peter Parker in the title role generally transcends whatever fatiguing shared universe they’re a part of. It’s a natural advantage that MCU Spider-Man hasn’t really taken advantage of, the Jon Watts trilogy still all feeling very ‘Marvel house style’. With new director Destin Daniel Cretton at the helm, the fourth Tom Holland Spidey, Brand New Day, finally fixes that. It’s the most Spider-Man-y Spider-Man since 2004.
Shrinking down from the multiversal stakes and shenanigans of No Way Home, Brand New Day finds Peter Parker (Holland) still reeling from his decision at the end of that film. He’s forgotten by his friends and living the ‘Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man’ lifestyle alone with no backup aside from the occasional imperfect help of Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal, a lot more fun in the role than he has been on the Marvel TV shows in recent years). It’s in this opening segment, which covers a good few years in Peter’s life in a matter of about 30 minutes, that Brand New Day is at its strongest, zippy and fun and deliberately aiming at the ‘Spider-Man as the patron saint of New York City’ idea that made Sam Raimi’s take on the character so enduring.
Holland is doing his best work yet in this role, especially when the mask is on; he really sells the growing confidence *and* exhaustion of a frontline hero who is widely beloved but still has to work very hard (though, sadly, the class-conscious stuff of the Raimi films fails to return here, even with Peter living in a sad and grubby apartment). Of course, a bigger plot has to eventually intrude on Spider-Man just swinging around and catching villains while also trying to subtly reconnect with MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) at the end of their college days.
Coinciding with Peter’s own powers going haywire, forcing him further and further into the ‘Spider’ side of the Spider/Man equation, a strange psychic menace starts wreaking havoc in New York, linked to the entirely unmysterious ‘mystery’ identity of Sadie Sink’s new character, which would count as a spoiler, but barely. These sequences are far more ‘generic Marvel’, overly reminiscent of the recent Thunderbolts and making limited use of Cretton’s Shang Chi-honed martial arts chops – the much-trailed fight between Spidey and the ninja clan The Hand is very nicely done and I’d have liked to see more of this sort of action.
It means Brand New Day does mostly just get weaker as it goes – the intrusion of Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk feels mostly unnecessary – but the Holland/Bernthal double act is very entertaining throughout. The Punisher is the first time in the series that the older mentor figure (a la Iron Man in Homecoming, Nick Fury in Far From Home, and Doctor Strange in No Way Home) feels like a completely natural fit into Peter Parker’s New York rather than obligatory franchise worldbuilding. That ends up as a really refreshing improvement, and all the best stuff in Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers’s script comes through the Peter-Frank banter.
Unlike James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, the Ryan Coogler Black Panther films, or last year’s Fantastic Four reboot, Brand New Day can’t quite maintain its own entirely distinct identity from start to finish. Whenever it nails that aspect down, though, whether that’s in Spidey bantering with onlookers after webbing up a bad guy or Peter Parker feeling lonely at a house party, the film really sings. Even with the less exciting plot moves and set-pieces of the back half, Brand New Day is a highly entertaining reminder of just why Spider-Man sits so far above any other superhero; he might crawl on walls, but he’s really just like us.
Jack Blackwell – Film Reviews 