(M) ★★★★
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton.
Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Florence Pugh, Tramell Tillman, Mark Ruffalo, Marisa Tomei, Liza Colón-Zayas, Michael Mando.
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| "Can those who want to stab Spider-Man please form an orderly queue?" |
There must be written on a wall at Sony somewhere the maxim "When in doubt, make a Spider-Man movie". It's more than likely that same maxim is now pinned to the walls of Marvel Cinematic Universe HQ.
For Sony, Spider-Man has been its golden goose. Not even its rotten-egg Spidey spin-offs (Kraven, Morbius, Madame Web) have been able to taint the webspinner's appeal, and the studio has continually been able to wallcrawl its way back to Queens, make another Spidey movie, make a shit-ton of money, and feel good about its lone Marvel property all over again.
But over at the MCU, an unexpected malaise has set in. Despite great reviews for Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts*, the only film out of the last five MCU outings to make mega-bucks (or break-even) was Deadpool & Wolverine. And so, when in doubt....
Thus we have the fourth stand-alone Sony/MCU Spider-Man outing. Given how good of a send-off No Way Home was, one could cynically presume Brand New Day has been driven more by Sony and the MCU's desire to make serious bank than scratching a creative itch.
But that's too cynical, even for me. Because, wouldn't you know it, Brand New Day is actually really, really good. Some fans and critics are calling it the best Spidey film to date, and while it doesn't top No Way Home for me, it's another great example of a movie that understands its hero and its audience, and delivers in spades.
Picking up some years after a spell wipes Spider-man's true identity from the collective consciousness, Peter Parker (Holland) finds himself alone, and throwing himself into being Spidey more than as being himself. But when his own powers start to evolve, he begins to question who he even is anymore, and whether he really can do everything all by himself.
The first solo Spidey outing in five years features a more adult Peter Parker than we've seen before, and that plays into the movie's themes of evolution and growth. There are some other spoilerific ideas that this feeds into as well, but the main aim of the film seems to be "what does Spidey do when he was no one around him?".
The answer is a fascinating snapshot of the very problem facing a lot of lonely young men - they get angry, frustrated, and violent, and lash out at the world. While for Spidey, much of this is a manifestation of his powers mutating, it's hard to ignore the underlying "angry young man" subtext permeating the film. Throw in that Punisher is the ghost of Spidey Yet To Come, and that the villain is on a similar course of lashing out, and you get yet another Spidey sequel with good thematic depth to it.
Another new aspect to Spidey is that he's far more "street-level" in Brand New Day than he's been for a while. No more multiverse shenanigans or SHIELD missions - he gets around in his home-made (though admittedly hi-tech) suit, works with cops, and swings around the streets of New York. It's a satisfying throwback to the characters origins, as are the cameos of Punisher, Hulk, and Black Widow, which help to make the film feel part of the MCU, without labouring the point.
Holland is an exceptional actor and we've seen that in and out of the MCU. Brand New Day is no exception. With minimal Aunt May, MJ or Ned to bounce off, Spidey is on his own a lot, or flitting from one encounter to the next, meaning that Holland has to do more heavy lifting here than in any previous Spidey-film. And he's great, carrying the film with ease, as the cameos wander in and out of the movie.
There's a more down-to-Earth approach in Brand New Day than we've seen in a Spidey-film for a while, even compared to Homecoming. And it's great. It really feels like the Spider-Man comics of old, where he would swing through the skyscraper canyons of New York, catch a villain, chat with a cop, bump into the Punisher or Black Widow and swing off on his merry way to his next adventure. There are even plenty of Easter eggs to old-school comic book covers to really drive that point home.
Even with this street-level approach, there are some killer action sequences. A battle with Hulk, another with the Hand, and street-chase involving a tank and the Punisher are among the highlights. It's fun, it's action-packed, and it rarely feels long despite its two-and-a-half-hour run time.
Tom Holland can't be Spider-Man forever, but so long as he keeps starring in films this good, I hope he is.
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