Hiya!

Yes, it’s me! I’m actually the one doing the review for Spider-Man: Brand New Day! That’s mostly because I took the day off from work just so I can watch it in the afternoon. I just knew the theaters will be packed later in the evening so I didn’t want to fight off the crowd. Besides, like I said when I ranked all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man movies yesterday, I was super excited to see this. So, why wouldn’t I use up some of my vacation leave to go see it? I owe it to myself!

So, now that I have did just that, I have to ask myself if it was worth it? Was it worth using up some of my valuable vacation leave credits just to see a movie? Well, I won’t be beating around the bush as I will tell all of you the answer is a big “yes” but not exactly a huge “yes indeed!” If you want to know more about why, you’ll have to read on!

I know Spider-Man: Brand New Day hasn’t been officially released in a lot of territories so I will, of course, be making this a SPOILER FREE review. It would be unfair to talk about some of the stuff in the film when there are going to be some readers who wouldn’t want me revealing specific plot points. So, yes, SPOILER FREE review!

Taking place some time after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spder-Man has become one of New York’s more beloved people despite the fact his alter-ego, Peter Parker, has become a recluse. He still remembers his friends, MJ and Ned Leeds but, because of what happened in Spider-Man: No Way Home, they have forgotten all about him (yes, I’m not even including spoilers for No Way Home). During this time, Peter Parker’s spider DNA starts to evolve and this couldn’t have happened at a worse time as a new and powerful threat emerges from the shadows.

Yeah, that plot summary sucks, doesn’t it? That’s the price I have to pay when making a SPOILER FREE review when there’s so much not revealed in the trailers. This does bring me to one of the issues I have with Brand New Day: there are a lot of moving parts involved. Sure, there is one big gear spinning the other gears around… but even that one big gear has another smaller gear turning that. What I’m trying to say is, while all of the plot elements are linked to each other, it can feel a little too complex for its own good. It doesn’t make the movie difficult to follow but I feel some of them could have been trimmed out to shorten its 145 minute runtime. There were also some plot points which needed some tweaking as they didn’t feel complete at the end. More on the ending later.

What I wouldn’t trim down, though, are the action scenes. They are given time to really flex their stuff to allow for some satisfying fight scenes. I particularly love the fight choreography they did with Spider-Man here as he fights like you would believe he would. He would use a lot of agile flips while also using creative and liberal use of his webbing to incapacitate his opponents. If you’ve played any of the latest Marvel’s Spider-Man games, you’ll get a good idea of what to expect.

The special effects, CGI and sets are also pretty good as well. I can’t specifically mention some of the scenes that used CGI because this is a SPOILER FREE review. Suffice to say, a lot of the CGI did blend really well with the live-action. Also, there was just something about how they depicted the Web-Slinger swinging throughout New York here which really impressed me. There’s a chaotic grace to the proceedings and I felt my butt clench several times when Spider-Man would release from his web to thwip to the next web. Then again, there was something about the webs themselves which did look a little fake to me. There were times when they just didn’t look… sticky. This is a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things, though.

The acting here from all performers is just like Spider-Man; it’s amazing! I was very impressed with Tom Holland‘s performance. Yes, I understand Tom Holland has been playing the character for a decade now (wow, I’m old) but he does have to show some range here more so than in the earlier films. He does a fantastic job of being cheerful while as Spider-Man but depressed while as Peter Parker. It just makes you root for him even more. I also love Tom Holland’s chemistry with Jon Bernthal‘s The Punisher/Frank Castle. This may be the first time we’ve seen the duo on-screen but, thanks to the banter between them, you can really feel they’ve been partnering up on and off for quite a while now. It’s also fun to note how The Punisher is the only one in Brand New Day who swears. It would be weird if he didn’t so I’m glad they allowed him to do so.

Zendaya‘s MJ, Jacob Batalon‘s Ned Leeds and Mark Ruffalo‘s Bruce Banner/The Hulk also do some good acting here. Once again, that shouldn’t be all that surprising as they’ve been playing these characters for ages as well. However, the person who gives the best performance is Sadie Sink as [REDACTED]. As Marvel has been trying their darndest to keep Sadie Sink’s character a secret, I’m honoring that by not mentioning who she’s playing. What I will say is I love her here. To me, that’s saying something because I pretty much stopped watching Stranger Things shortly after she joined the cast. After seeing her play [REDACTED], however, I just might be giving the show a second chance. That’s how much Sadie Sink impressed me here.

I do have to make a comment on the ending of Brand New Day. I just wanted more. It’s hard to explain as this is a SPOILER FREE review. What I can say is it really didn’t feel like the conclusion of an epic 145-minute movie to me. It needed to feel more satisfying after the journey Peter Parker took through all this time. I get this is usually Peter Parker’s burden with the entire “with great power comes great responsibility” thing. I just wish I felt a little happier with the ending he got after all he endured.

Overall, I did like Spider-Man: Brand New Day; I just didn’t super love it. It’s still a very enjoyable film that feels a little too long because of all of the plot threads they tried to stuff into it. The acting, especially from Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal and Sadie Sink are incredible and the action scenes are a joy to watch. If I were to rank think among all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man movies, I would say it’s just shy of beating out No Way Home, which is my 2nd favorite film in the series. While that’s technically makes it 3rd place, considering how generally good all of them are, that’s still high praise.

Byee!

Have you seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day yet? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!