It’s been a long time coming. A proper superhero movie, with a mere mortal blessed – or cursed – with extraordinary powers who goes up against fearsome enemies to save the people closest to them, as well as the wider world. But our patience has been rewarded with the arrival of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth outing for Tom Holland’s webslinger and, while it has its weaknesses, it comes with a combination of spectacle and a change of tone that makes you breathe a long, satisfied sigh of relief.
It’s four years since the events of No Way Home and Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Holland) is living with the consequences of agreeing to the spell that erased him from everybody’s memory. No longer the cheeky adolescent we all loved, as an adult he cuts a solitary figure as a full-time crime fighter in a New York that no longer knows his name, but the pressure takes its toll. His body starts to change in ways he can’t understand, and when a spate of strange new crimes hits the city, he seems to be the only person who understands them – and who the real targets are.
In the hands of director Destin Daniel Cretton, who made his name with indies like Short Term 12 and then leapt into the MCU with Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021), our neighbourhood Spider-Man isn’t so friendly any more, but he’s certainly dedicated. Haunted by his past and determined to deal with the fall-out from his decision on his own, there’s a darkness surrounding him that we’ve never seen before. Not that he’s lost his sense of humour. It’s still there, but in a lower key and his inventive use of his web to curtail Frank’s/Punisher’s (Jon Bernthal’s) fruity language is easily the best laugh in the film. But this is all to come. First there’s a blast of an opening sequence, full of pulsating action with Spidey whiplashing around skyscrapers and across the sky itself. It’s at that point you realise that you’re watching a proper superhero movie.
By now, you’ll probably have read the answer to the question everybody’s been asking in the run-up to the film’s release. But if you haven’t and you’d rather not know, we’re not going to reveal Sadie Sink’s role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. What’s important is her contribution to the film and, while there’s no doubt she’s a great choice as the big bad, she’s also very much in tune with the movie’s emotional aspect to the extent that she and Spider-Man discover they have more in common than either could ever have imagined. She’s easily the most successful new arrival and gets a big thumbs up. The same can’t be said for the other newer faces, Punisher included, who seem to be there to push the plot along and little else.
No superhero movie would be complete without a post-credits scene and Spider-Man: Brand New Day sticks to that grand ol’ tradition with something quick, witty and as open-ended as they come. With Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige and producer Amy Pascal saying that talks are already underway for more instalments and Tom Holland reportedly happy to carry on playing the webslinger for as long as Marvel wants him, the guessing game about number five has already kicked off. In the meantime, it’s not just Spider-Man that’s back, but the superhero movie as well. Whether we’ll feel the same way by the time 2026 draws to a close remains to be seen.
In cinemas from July 29th / Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal, Jacob Batalon, Tramell Tillman, Mark Ruffalo / Dir: Destin Daniel Cretton / Sony Pictures / 12A
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