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Spider-Man: Brand New Day– Film Review

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Sadie Sink, Tramell Tillman, Mark Ruffalo, Liza Colón-Zayas

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Synopsis: After everyone in his life has forgotten him, an isolated Peter Parker continues to fight crime and protect the people of New York as Spider-Man until a mysterious, powerful new threat emerges…

Review: A superhero’s life can be exciting as they are granted extraordinary superhuman abilities and strength that most of us could only dream of. However, beyond attracting dangerous enemies, it can be an unforgiving existence where the hero must protect their secret identity and sometimes make the hardest choices, even at tremendous personal cost. Never has this been truer for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s iteration of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, who made the ultimate sacrifice to prevent the multiverse from being torn apart at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, where he made Doctor Strange cast a spell to make everyone forget him and erase him from their lives. A decision which saw him lose the love of his life and his best friend, a perfect encapsulation of the words every Spider-Man fan will know off by heart: “With great power, there must come great responsibility”. After bringing his MCU origin story to its conclusion, one might have wondered whether this iteration of everyone’s friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man would hang up the web shooters and make way for a new wallcrawler to enter the MCU, but you can never keep a good spider down.

Set in the years after the events of No Way Home, Peter has devoted himself to being Spider-Man full-time, taking down all manner of villains and keeping the citizens of New York safe, all while living on his own in his Manhattan apartment. Spider-Man is beloved by the city, but even with that adulation, Peter lives a truly lonely existence and has to watch from afar with heartache and sorrow as his former lover MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Batalon) go off to MIT. He is desperate to try and somehow restore their memories of him, but remains wary that doing so could put them in harm’s way. As if that wasn’t bleak enough, Peter begins to experience strange changes in his body and powers, all while a terrifying new threat emerges, threatening to undo all of Peter’s good work and unleash absolute chaos on New York’s streets once again.

True to its title, after having a trilogy of films in which Peter was under Tony Stark’s tutelage, dealing with inherited vendettas of villains who felt they had been wronged by the late billionaire philanthropist, or encountering crazy multiverse shenanigans and teaming up with variants of himself, the slate has been totally wiped clean. It is a new dawn, and a new day for Peter, but he isn’t feeling so good. Erik Sommers’ and Chris McKenna’s script returns the character very much to his comic book roots as an unquestionably bright working-class young man who fights crime all by himself, without the vast resources of a wealthy benefactor behind him, or a single soul he can confide in. This becomes particularly problematic when his body begins to change in the worst ways, leading Peter to consult a certain scientist struggling to prevent his green alter ego from reappearing. It certainly treads familiar narrative beats to (arguably the best Spidey film to date) Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, but rest assured, this is not a retread. Even with the obligatory references and appearances of certain characters to tie it into the wider MCU, McKenna and Sommers’ script keeps the stakes deeply grounded and personal, veering into almost horror territory when Peter’s powers begin to mutate.

With this marking the seventh time he has donned Spider-Man’s mask across solo adventures and wider MCU team-ups, Holland once again excels, slipping back into the suit with effortless ease. Ever since his memorable introduction in Captain America: Civil War, Holland has grown and matured in the role before our very eyes. From a wide-eyed teenager in awe while fighting Captain America and his associates, to a battle for the fate of the universe itself, to multiversal shenanigans, and the death of his beloved aunt. It would be an understatement to say he’s been through a lot over the years, leaving a heavy emotional toll that comes through in Holland’s performance, especially when compounded by the physical upheaval he goes through. Despite his loneliness, he finds an unlikely kindred spirit in Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle/The Punisher, who also lives cut adrift from everyone else. It’s a relationship that isn’t exactly plain sailing, given Castle’s modus operandi is far more direct and brutal, but the film leans into this dynamic and makes it extremely entertaining as these polar-opposite philosophies and combat styles are left with little option but to join forces, particularly when MJ’s life is threatened.

In taking over from the Home trilogy’s director Jon Watts, Destin Daniel Cretton reinvigorates the franchise in a thoroughly refreshing and exciting manner. It’s easy to see why he was recruited to direct an Avengers film, as there’s vibrancy not only in the scenes where Spider-Man swings and thwips his way through the city, but also in the action scenes. One would strongly suspect that Cretton played the Insomniac games beforehand, as there are clear visual nods to them, along with the impressive flair he so masterfully demonstrated with Shang-Chi especially with the scenes involving The Hand and the film’s main antagonist. The identity of said antagonist shall not be divulged here, given the deliberate manner in which the film’s marketing shrouded it in secrecy. Needless to say, Marvel would do well to keep Cretton in mind should an opportunity to direct an MCU ensemble film come up in the future.

Those wider references to other MCU characters, while necessary, sometimes bog the story down and keep the audience from focusing on Peter’s internal struggles to balance his superhero duties, being Peter Parker, and trying to reestablish some human connection in his life. It shows that growing up is hard, even with superhuman (or spider) DNA, especially when the comforts you have relied on to get through this complicated journey we call life are taken away. You get knocked down, but you get back up, put your best webs forward and come back swinging, because a spider’s work is never done.

Building on the foundations laid by the Home trilogy, Brand New Day raises the stakes with a more mature, grounded story that delves into complex themes of isolation and growing up, with Holland never better as the titular hero.

Spider-Man: Homecoming – Film Review

Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Zendaya

Director: Jon Watts

Synopsis: Having played his part during the Avengers’ Civil War, Peter Parker balances school with his superhero duties. When a new threat emerges in the shape of the villainous Vulture, Peter seeks to use this as a chance to prove himself…

Review: As a character and a superhero, Spider-Man has unquestionably enjoyed a lot of popularity ever since his first comic book came out. Indeed, it’s highly likely that many see him as one of their favourite superheros. Therefore it would surely seem to be an easy task to translate the friendly neighbourhood web crawler to the big screen to make a film that Spidey fans across the world can enjoy, but that is a task that has posed its challenges for Hollywood. One trilogy of his big screen adventures had two gems but then squandered it all with a messy third chapter. A reboot then followed, which produced two more pretty lacklustre outings, and consequently poor Spidey got a third reboot, which this time has thankfully got the character back on course.

Of course, this third reboot only came about after Sony and Marvel struck a deal which enabled Spidey to crop up in the MCU. His MCU foray began with a tremendous turn in last year’s Civil War, and now with both Sony and Marvel’s input, the webhead has a new adventure. As Peter battles with the mundane school life, he yearns for something more and despite his tutelage from Tony Stark, Stark does not believe Peter to be ready. All the while, a new threat is emerging in the shape of the Vulture, a man whose plans turn nasty after seeing something slip out of his hands, and of course he clashes with Peter.

Tom Holland remains excellent as both Peter and Spider-Man, carrying on from his sublime turn in Civil War. The previous films really didn’t for the most part capture Peter as a high school kid, and all of the problems that high school kids go through. Though it is kind of ironic for Keaton starring as a bird-esque villain given his Oscar nominated performance a few years ago in Birdman, he is by far one of the most refreshing villains the MCU has seen, given that the MCU has had some well documented problems in terms of nailing down a villain to match the calibre of say Loki. His character is fleshed out and though he’s not taking the title of the best MCU villain, he’s not the sort of disposable bad-guy that past MCU flicks have given us.

After directing 2015’s Cop Car, Jon Watts calls the shots here, and while some of the action scenes that he helms here are certainly very enjoyable to watch at times, there are moments where it does falter a little bit. It’s not exactly weaving any new webs but it does manage to be for the most part a lot of fun to watch. However, you never come close to feeling the anxiety or the tension of the situation in the ways that Raimi’s first two films in particular pulled off so spectacularly. The rest of the cast do a fine job and as you might expect RDJ is there to provide a considerable proportion of the laughs, a role he shares with Peter’s best mate in high school Ned (Jacob Batalon). Concerns that Iron Man’s appearance would be overbearing are thankfully wide of the mark, as he is used sparingly, but when he has screen time, it’s used to great effect.

After the lull that was the Amazing Spider-Man films, to see Spidey back on track will undoubtedly be pleasing to long time fans of the character be back in a really entertaining film that really explores his high school years in ways that perhaps hasn’t been seen before. Yet at the same time, offering nothing really new and or innovative in terms of what has come before it, both in terms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and indeed, previous Spider-Man movies.

A familiar premise and characters, but with a refreshingly interesting villain and some well filmed action scenes, but at the same time, not breaking any new ground.