REVIEW: SPIDER MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

THE GIST

I expected another MCU Spider-Man movie. Instead, I got something resembling a second origin story — one where Peter doesn’t have to learn how to become Spider-Man, but how to become Peter Parker again.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I am still in disbelief at how good this was. And Destin Daniel Cretton, I owe you an apology. Actually, I take my hat off to the guy. Maybe I should eat it too.

Going in, I genuinely didn’t think he could pull this off. I worried Brand New Day would be another perfectly watchable but ultimately unmemorable MCU instalment. Instead, Cretton has delivered something that feels like a genuine renewal for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. Now I’m hoping he directs the rest of this trilogy. Maybe I should rewatch Shang-Chi while I’m at it.

What surprised me most is how much Brand New Day resembles an origin story, despite obviously being anything but one. Nobody remembers Peter Parker. He lives alone. He has thrown himself completely into being Spider-Man and is back fighting crime on a much smaller, city-level scale. Then, just to make things stranger, his spider abilities begin evolving and mutating. Okay, so it’s a bit of a backwards origin story, but you know what I mean.

Rather than starting with an ordinary Peter and watching Spider-Man emerge, this film begins with Spider-Man almost consuming Peter completely. The real journey is about finding the person underneath the mask again. That is where Tom Holland gives what may be his strongest performance as the character so far. While he was okay in The Odyssey, he really brought his A-game here. He has come a long way since Homecoming, and you can feel both Holland and Peter ageing together.

The film is set four years after No Way Home, and Peter looks like those years have actually happened to him. He appears older, thinner and gaunt in the face. Almost like he has just been on... an Odyssey. Sorry. But seriously, the more mature look really helps sell this version of Peter as someone who has spent years living with grief and loneliness. Holland gets to play a much quieter sadness than we have usually seen from him, and there is a depth to his performance that makes Peter’s isolation feel genuinely painful rather than simply being the setup for another superhero adventure. Because Peter has convinced himself that isolation is the responsible thing to do.

After losing Aunt May, he decides the safest way to protect everyone else is to stop allowing people into his life. He refuses to tell MJ and Ned the truth about their past despite having the opportunity to do so. On paper, that almost sounds heroic. Peter is sacrificing his own happiness to protect the people he loves.

But Brand New Day is smart enough to challenge that idea. When MJ eventually discovers the note Peter had hidden from her for four years, she points out something Peter desperately needed to hear: it wasn't his decision to make for everyone else. That struck me. Peter may have thought he was protecting MJ and Ned, but he also denied them the ability to choose for themselves. And by hiding from the possibility of losing people again, Peter has essentially stopped allowing himself to properly live.

That becomes the heart of the movie. Peter never really needed romance. He needed connection.

Which is why I was so happy with how the film handled MJ. When Jean, while possessing MJ, kisses Peter, I started tearing up at Peter’s reaction. For a moment it looks like we are heading towards the obvious reunion. Peter and MJ are back together. Cue the music. Everyone cries. Job done. Then Jean pulls the rug out from underneath us. The idea that one kiss should magically reunite the star-crossed lovers is, frankly, basic bitch writing, and I loved that the movie knew it. We deserved that fake-out.

I actually hope Peter and MJ don't immediately get back together. Let them rebuild something. Let them become friends again. Maybe Peter finds other relationships along the way. Because romance isn't what Peter is missing most. Ned is. For me, Ned becomes the emotional heart of Brand New Day.

Peter has spent years keeping everyone at a distance, and Jean becomes one of the first people he is forced to genuinely let inside. Through her, Peter begins confronting how much his isolation is hurting him. Then comes that final moment with Ned. The secret handshake. Ned remembering him. That absolutely got me. It isn't some enormous superhero climax. Nobody is saving the universe. There isn't a portal opening in the sky. It is simply one person reconnecting with another. And somehow that carries more emotional weight than most enormous MCU finales manage.

There is something else going on here that I found unexpectedly relatable. As Peter’s abilities begin changing, his enhanced senses start overwhelming him. At one point there is an image on his computer discussing sensory overload and how it can lead to anxiety and overwhelm. From that moment onward, I couldn't stop seeing aspects of the film's treatment of mutant abilities through the lens of neurodiversity. Maybe I am reading too much into it. I don't necessarily think the film is literally saying that being a mutant represents being neurodivergent, but the similarities certainly hit me personally. Whenever characters discussed the advantages and disadvantages of their abilities, or the difficulty of experiencing the world differently from everyone around them, I found myself relating it back to neurodiversity.

That gave Peter's changing powers an emotional dimension I wasn't expecting. His abilities aren't simply becoming stronger. The world itself is becoming harder for him to process. And again the answer isn't shutting everything out. It is finding people who understand. Jean Grey is particularly important in that respect, because allowing her into his life becomes another crack in the wall Peter has spent four years building around himself.

The film also manages something increasingly difficult for large superhero movies: there are a lot of characters here, but it rarely feels bloated. Everyone seems to have a reason for existing beyond setting up another Disney+ series or appearing long enough for audiences to point at the screen.

There is genuine character depth throughout, and the humour helps without destroying the emotional stakes. It is funny and goofy without becoming silly. That distinction matters. There are plenty of jokes, but the film maintains a serious emotional undertone even at its lightest. It understands that Spider-Man should be fun without needing every dramatic moment to be immediately punctured by someone making a quip.

Visually, it is also one of the richer-looking MCU films in some time. The reds and blues really stood out to me, and strangely there were moments where the cinematography reminded me of The Dark Knight Rises. There is a weight and texture to some of the city photography that helps make Spider-Man feel physically embedded in New York again rather than floating around another anonymous CGI environment.

And then there is the web-swinging. I hate heights. Put me on a roof and I freeze. Stand me next to a window high enough above the ground and my legs start turning to jelly. This movie managed to trigger exactly that feeling. There is so much old-school swinging and web-slinging, often presented in a way that genuinely places you alongside Spider-Man, that I had to look away a few times. That is absolutely not a criticism. If a Spider-Man movie can make someone who hates heights physically uncomfortable while watching Spider-Man swing between skyscrapers, then somebody behind the camera has done their job extremely well.

I do have questions about the mutant side of the story. Unless I missed something, I wasn't entirely sure why Peter's spider abilities suddenly began evolving now, or why mutant abilities appear to be emerging more widely across the MCU. Maybe that is deliberately being held back for later. My own probably-wrong theory is that people who were Blipped had their DNA altered somehow and those changes are only now beginning to emerge. Alternatively, maybe the MCU is moving closer towards another universe where mutants already exist. I'm almost certainly overthinking it. But I would have liked slightly more explanation inside this film rather than simply accepting that Peter's biology has suddenly decided to install an upgrade four years later.

Then there is the post-credits scene. There is no mid-credits sequence, but right at the end the Spidey tracker indicates that Spider-Man has been located in space. Doomsday? Secret Wars? Both? Either way, they're clearly not planning on letting poor Peter Parker enjoy his new day for very long.

Speaking of which, I can't help wondering whether Marvel is going to repeat the naming trick from Holland's original trilogy.

That trilogy had:

Homecoming.

Far From Home.

No Way Home.

So surely we're entering the Day Trilogy now?

Allow me to save Marvel some time.

Film two:

Spider-Man: Day of Reckoning.

Film three:

Spider-Man: Forever and a Day.

There you go, Destin Daniel Cretton.

Job done.

Although I am still campaigning for Spider-Man: Leg Day.

Ultimately, though, what stayed with me wasn't the mutants, the villain, the cameos or whatever enormous MCU storyline the post-credits sequence is preparing us for. It was Peter.

No Way Home ended by stripping virtually everything away from him, and Brand New Day understands that the interesting part isn't simply watching Spider-Man rebuild his superhero life. It's watching Peter rebuild a human one.

He thought cutting himself off from everyone was the responsible thing to do because loving someone meant risking losing them. Instead, the film argues that refusing to make those connections comes with its own kind of loss. That is what makes the title Brand New Day feel appropriate. This isn't simply another adventure. It feels like a genuine new beginning for the character.

I went into this doubting Destin Daniel Cretton could pull it off.

I came out hoping he gets the entire trilogy.

Now where did I put that hat?