Spider-Man: Brand New Day
When push comes to shove, I don’t think I love a superhero more than Spider-Man. Going back to the Tobey Maguire films in the 2000s, and even including the Andrew Garfield films (which I enjoy for his work as Peter Parker more than the films themselves), Peter Parker is a superhero I very much identify with. Whether it’s anxieties about friendship, love, and personal responsibilities, Peter’s journey with his identity is one I always find myself returning to. (The same can be said with Miles Morales in the animated “Spider-Verse” films.) I’ve spoken before about how the much-maligned “Spider-Man 3” is my favorite one of the bunch, even with its issues, because it really tapped into a time where I struggled with my own sense of identity. One of the things I really like about “Brand New Day” is that it taps into that in a way we haven’t seen out of a Peter Parker since the Sam Raimi-Maguire films. For that reason, I think “Brand New Day” is my favorite of the Tom Holland films.
Last we saw Holland’s Peter Parker, he had just stopped some multiverse bad guys with Maguire and Garfield’s Peter Parkers, and had to have Doctor Strange cast a spell so that everyone forget who he was, including Ned (Jacob Batalon) and MJ (Zendaya). In the years since, he has helped the NYPD fight crime big and small, often communicating with Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) and Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman), the head of Damage Control, an organization that helps fend off the bigger threats Peter has to face. Still, he wants to be back with his friends. When a new force tries to break into Damage Control, however, having friends seems like a risky proposition.
This will be a spoiler-filled review, because- in a lot of cases- there is little way to talk about the film without spoilers. In “No Way Home,” one of the key moments was the death of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), which is the “Uncle Ben” moment for Holland’s Spider-Man. He still grieves her, and replaces the flowers at her grave regularly. We also see flashbacks with her as Peter’s story progresses, egged on in part by how the main villain hops minds to try and get where they are going. It is our first time seeing this particular character when it is revealed, and admittedly, it’s an unexpected MCU debut for the character, given what past iterations have been like.
“Brand New Day” almost feels like a lead-up to December’s “Avengers: Doomsday,” in how it gives us guidance on what certain characters are up to. (Not just the one above, played by Sadie Sink from “Stranger Things.”) We see Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) as a professor, who is using an inhibitor chip to keep the Green guy at bay, and gives Peter an idea that he also tries on himself. We get the big-screen debut of Jon Berthnal’s Frank Castle, and seeing the dynamic between he and Holland’s Peter is really fascinating given their scenes together in “The Odyssey.” And Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova shows up for an unexpected cameo, but an important one where she tells Peter the importance of having connections in his world. Do we need any of these cameos for the larger narrative; not really, although screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers make them work.
What resonated most with “Brand New Day”- under the direction of “Shang Chi’s” Destin Daniel Cretton- is how the film shows Peter really struggling with himself. There’s a little bit of “Spider-Man 2’s” self-doubt and “Spider-Man 3’s” dealing with the potential darkness of who he is mixed in there that Cretton and Holland make really resonate, as we haven’t seen that side of this Peter Parker before. That alone made it worthwhile for me.
