I’ve had a not-too-out-there working theory about Spider-Man directors, that they bring to screen their vision of Peter Parker from when they were prime comic book reading age, aka teens, early twenties. For Sam Raimi, that was the original Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko comics. Marc Webb channeled ‘90s crossovers, with their multiple villains and complicated storylines. Jon Watts looked to Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley’s fresher, younger Ultimate Spider-Man from the 2000s. And for Destin Daniel Cretton’s first at-bat with Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Well, that theory goes out the window as the movie is a heady mix of influences, from the aforementioned directing trio, to Insomniac’s lauded Spider-Man video games, to the director’s own penchant for deep character dynamics and briskly paced action scenes. In short, Spider-Man: Brand New Day feels like a brand new day for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man franchise, one that’s full of heart and action; a deftly constructed juggling act that includes multiple seemingly incongruous elements, but never loses sight on the Spider-Man in the middle.
In that, it’s very similar to Spider-Man: No Way Home, a movie that included multiversal stakes and supervillains from throughout multiple franchises – and three Spider-Men. That movie often felt like watching a magic trick: how are they going to pull this all off? Like with No Way Home, while this is Cretton’s take and presents a more mature, and often more morose Spider-Man, Brand New Day also succeeds on the strength of keeping Holland in the middle of these multiple elements, and letting the characters in his orbit feed his own emotional journey.
The movie also functions as a direct sequel to No Way Home, and while Brand New Day does remind you of the plot of the previous movie through early-on narration and multiple flashback scenes, even with a four-year time gap between the two movies it does feel like they need to be watched in tandem. This is not a standalone film you can just jump in and enjoy, despite Sony and Marvel’s insistence that this is, per the title, a brand new day for Spider-Man. It’s very much for the fans – which number millions, so not too big of a bet – and might seem obtuse for those who haven’t spent every waking hour since 2021 wondering whether Peter will reunite with MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon).
To try not to be obtuse all on my own, here’s the gist of the plot. Last time around, Spider-Man worked with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell to make the world forget Peter Parker in order to stave off a multiversal apocalypse. In the process, Peter’s Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) died, gifting him the “with great power there must also come great responsibility” speech usually reserved for Uncle Ben. And Peter had to say goodbye to his girlfriend MJ, and best friend Ned. Things pick up pretty much right from there in the new movie, with Peter renting an attic apartment to amp up his Spider-Man costume all on his own and become the web-slinger full time, while angstily watching MJ and Ned go through four years of MIT on Ned’s TikTok account.
Thankfully, the movie doesn’t spend a lot of time on the logistics of how all this works, and only deploys the magical amnesia plot when necessary. While some aspects might have been a little helpful to do a little less hand-waving about – for example, how is Peter paying for his full-time Spider-Man gig/apartment if nobody remembers him and he therefore can’t get a job? – Cretton, with writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, keeps razor focused on what this does to Peter emotionally instead of getting lost in the sauce.
And that sauce is good, deep and rich, finding Spider-Man working with police detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas, doing her best with an exposition heavy role mostly done over the phone) and sometimes teaming up with, sometimes fighting Frank Castle, aka The Punisher (Jon Bernthal). All this is neatly set up during that opening montage, which also includes a stand-out sequence showing Spider-Man clearing the deck of multiple villains, complete with gorgeous “splash page” style shots.
Things get more complicated once the main plot kicks off, which finds someone – or something – attacking Damage Control, an organization led by William Metzger (Tramell Tillman) that has changed its purview from repairing wrecked buildings to proactively preventing superhero damage before it happens. That something is, as Spider-Man quickly discovers, a seemingly untethered mind that can jump from one person to another, controlling them for a brief period of time for unknown ends.
In a movie full of big action scenes ranging from a fight between Spider-Man, Punisher and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to a group of red-clad ninjas known as The Hand, easily the best effect in the movie is how that mind works as it jumps from New Yorker to New Yorker, turning the whole city against Spider-Man. Credited as “The Inhabited,” it’s as simple as someone looking like they’ve been hit with a lead pipe and getting knocked back, before getting taken over, but Cretton makes the bold choice to follow this movement from person to person, in camera. It’s eerie and unnerving, and plays like an airborne riff on a zombie apocalypse, without the bites or increasing number of victims. It’s the sort of distinct visual that you expect more in an indie horror film than a blockbuster Spider-Man movie, and more than anything else in the film it’ll stick with you long after the credits roll.
And Brand New Day might have done a little better if it stuck just with this. Instead, as Spider-Man tracks this mysterious new threat – he’s told he’s the only one that can sense it – he’s also low-key stalking Ned and MJ, interacting with surprise guests from the greater MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), and finding that his Spider-Man powers are evolving in horrifying ways. It’s a lot to juggle throughout the movie, and Cretton does a laudable job of keeping all these balls in the air. But there are times when the movie can feel lop-sided, spending a little too much time with some characters and situations while others don’t so much as simmer in the background as disappear entirely.
What works is that everyone is giving it their all in this movie, and Holland has been very open about learning a ton about acting under the tutelage of the extensive cast of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (which also included Bernthal and Zendaya). So when, for example, the movie takes an extended break to have Peter follow Ned home and spend time at a party with MJ, there’s an emotional weight there which tugs at the heartstrings. In fact, whenever the movie settles down a bit to get away from the requisite, every 20 minutes action scene, the dialogue scenes fly. Not that Sony would ever release a Spider-Man movie that involves zero action, but the dramatic scenes that feature two people having a conversation are dramatically satisfying and emotionally fulfilling; much more so than Spider-Man punching bad guys for the umpteenth time.
…And that brings us around to Sadie Sink’s mystery character, the ostensible villain of the movie. Marvel and Sony have gone to great lengths to hide who she’s playing, which frankly, does a bit of a disservice to Sink’s performance. It’s deeply felt, emotionally rendered, and a big jump from even her lauded turn in Stranger Things as Max Mayfield. Her scenes with Holland, in particular, are simple and earnest, and just let the actors act – the sort of things superhero epics never really take the time to do because it’s on to the next supervillain battle. Sink is a true standout here, and her performance is so strong you can feel the movie tipping in her direction over the course of the running time, to the point that the omnipresent Peter Parker disappears for huge chunks in the second half of the movie. That’s not a knock on Sink, by the way, who owns these scenes. It’s just another example of the balls Cretton keeps in the air; some of those balls held aloft far longer, and others never really landing entirely.
Bernthal is also excellent in the movie, finally getting to play more modes than the gruff screaming he’s gotten to do in the TV version of The Punisher (to the point that his screaming also becomes a running joke). And any concerns that they’d amp down who Frank Castle is to make him work in a family friendly blockbuster can be put aside. He and long-time friend Holland have a great big brother/little brother rapport that is a delight to watch, and surprisingly Bernthal gets some of the biggest laughs in the movie. Mark Ruffalo only briefly appears, first as an Empire State University professor offering Peter some advice (a role usually held in the comics by Dr. Curt Connors, aka The Lizard), and then later as an out-of-control Hulk, and this is easily the most relaxed and engaged Ruffalo has been in MCU work since, well, ever.
And without delving too far into spoilers, Zendaya also gives the most mature work of her MCU career. Not too much of a shocker for an actress who has gotten a lot more to do elsewhere on TV and in movies, but like with Holland’s aged-up Peter, a four-years-older MJ seems as lost without Peter as Peter is without her – even if she doesn’t remember him. Ned, meanwhile, is just Ned; which is sort of the point, though it gives Batalon less dramatic work to dig into.
Tillman makes a nice addition to the universe, even if he isn’t stretching too far from his role as mysterious boss on Severance to mysterious boss in the MCU. Michael Mando gets more to do as villain The Scorpion than he did in his brief end-credits scene appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming, though not that much more. And two extended cameos I’m sure Marvel would like to keep secret are tonal opposites: one extremely odd and forced in the way of the worst MCU cameos; the other providing a nice emotional texture to some of the closing scenes, their to support instead of keeping the machine running.
What doesn’t work for most of the running time are the jokes, which mostly fall flat. The previous three Holland movies all included surprising pops of humor, which plays to Watts’s comedic strength while Cretton seems more interested in capital “a” Acting (see Wonder Man) and choreography of scenes (see Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). And on that note, while I’ve seen a lot of lauding of the cinematography, most of the movie doesn’t feel at all like New York – it was shot in Glasgow, but looks like a studio backlot, and the scenes of Spider-Man swinging look like they’re taken directly from an Insomniac video game. They’re fun, but often jarringly transition from pure CGI into real, probably Getty shots of New York City.
Those gripes aside, what Cretton has done is create the most purely Spider-Man movie since, perhaps, Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, a movie that mixes the comics, games, and previous movies in a blender and comes out with something that often feels more mature, more exciting, and less concerned with setting up the next movie that presenting the next stage in Peter Parker’s journey. To get back to my original theory, what Cretton and company are doing is not looking at what thrilled them as kids, but what interested them in their twenties. High school is done, college is over… What now? That’s what Spider-Man is presented with in the movie: what kind of man does he want to become? And Brand New Day seems more than capable of providing that answer.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.
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