[SPOILER ALERT], as this Spider-Man film has a LOT going on.
Since Avengers: Endgame, it’s been mostly a nosedive for Marvel Studios. Some of it is not their fault, but most of it is, sacrificing creativity and character building for cheap CGI and lazy “fan service.” Their saving grace is more likely thanks to production partnership with Sony, who has made sure their Spider-Man movies have been bangers, leaving the weblslinger on No Way Home and Across the SpiderVerse highs. Brand New Day was definitely a risk for both studios, seeing if their beloved superhero still has the good will of the people. Even if a new day for the MCU is something to be scared of, Spidey’s new dawn, new day, new life, will have us all feeling good. Thanks Nina Simone.
Destin Daniel Cretton replaces Jon Watts to help usher Peter Parker (Tom Holland) into his adult years. A montage catches us up; while MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) are making those college memories, poor Peter buries his head into his on the ground NYC superhero work, with only a phone conversation with detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colon-Zayas) as any relationship of anykind. Ok, there’s some love hate in there with Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) too. But as Ned/MJ return to New York, Spider-Man finds himself in the middle of a weird case, where an unknown entity is inhabiting random people in an attempt to break into the Department of Damage Control run by Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman).
Cretton has done MCU work before: Shang Chi wasn’t a full win, but it’s a solid Marvel movie. He takes what he learned from that one and his beautiful indie breakout Short Term 12, and infuses it into Brand New Day, guided by the steady hands of Spider-Man writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. Cretton can pull the heart strings: he excelled at making insular people’s inner lives cinematic. That skill is the backbone of this film. The big moments of this Spider-Man are more intimate in nature, using the natural charisma of the lead trio and the new supporting players. At the beginning, we really feel something’s missing from our leads: Ned’s trying too hard to make friends, MJ is withholding, her words, and Peter follows their lives devastated he can’t be with them. Cretton makes you feel that emptiness, as New York City’s size threatens to swallow them inside of it. That feeling is untenable, obviously, we all know their paths will converge eventually. Zendaya and Tom Holland aren’t onscreen a lot in this film, but the big scene where they reconnect is as riveting as any battle. They both intimately understand MJ and Peter, and have matured to be able to carry these movies without MCU razzle dazzle. But there’s progress too: like great movie star leads they’ve grown into, Holland and Zendaya take what they’ve learned and give it to the newcomers. Yes there’s some third act CGI shenanigans, but unlike Shang Chi, director Cretton uses that audience expectation and turns it to get to the real meat of what’s going on in his tale through the heart, where a great insular Sadie Sink performance proves she’s probably the best actor out of Stranger Things, leading to many tears in my theater. That growth from Cretton, Holland, and Zendaya makes Brand New Day’s collaboration earn the substance it is going for.
But this isn’t just some indie dramedy. There’s hella fun action to be had too. Not since Civil War has such excellent real fan service been so well integrated into a story to maximize everyone’s entertainment. Most of the time, Brand New Day feels less like a comic book movie and more like Marvel’s Spider Man 2 video game. Cretton opens the movie as Spider-Man, flying across the screen in the air, feeling the wind, dodging birds, getting disoriented as we spin and twist through the air. New York City is as much a character in this movie as it is in the game, making us feel like this Spider-Man really is in his version of a coming of age tale across this gigantic city. The movie’s screenplay resembles a video game design, with a main story and random side plots to test Spidey’s skills, and see some cool new villain we’ve never seen before or some new maneuver our 6 year old selves dreamed of. Some of those subplots are MCU world building exercises, that threaten to but never overtake Peter’s emotional arc, win win. For the comic fans, the joy of these movies is wish fulfillment, seeing these amazing super powered people clash in real life, leaping off the page. Cretton unleashes incredible versions of that premise all over this movie every half hour or so. No fight is the same: there’s always a new player throwing a new wrinkle into the proceedings to keep things interesting. There’s two in particular that wow’ed me: basically the final two fights, showing the incredible malleability of Spider-Man’s fighting, and the variability in the villains, one of which makes the battle like a dance I’d never seen outside of a certain genre of filmmaking I won’t reveal for spoiler reasons.
When Spider-Man: Brand New Day ended (there is a stinger, but it’s kinda lame, FYI), I felt reenergized. No matter what happens with The Avengers, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon have laid a stellar foundation for something real special. I’ve now got something weird to root for: the Boyhood version of our friendly neighborhood superhero, growing up in real time with him, learning and living along the way. Until we get to the Venom phase, where Zendaya will just remake The Drama with Tom Holland. Better mentally prepare myself for that one.