Peter Parker struggles to come to terms with a world that has forgotten him while grappling with unsettling new changes to his own body in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, opening in Prague and worldwide this weekend. More interested in the personal journey of its title character than colorful villains or Marvel mythology, this fourth Tom Holland outing may be his best Spider-Man film yet (though they’ve all been largely first-rate), and easily ranks as the MCU’s strongest entry since Avengers: Endgame. The box office floodgates were opened by The Odyssey earlier this summer, but Spidey is about to lay siege to the multiplex.
Picking up directly after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Brand New Day finds Peter Parker (Holland) living an isolated existence after Doctor Strange’s spell erased him from everyone’s memory. While MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) have become college flatmates with no recollection of the young man who once meant everything to them, Peter has devoted himself almost entirely to being Spider-Man, working alongside NYPD detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) in a relationship that affectionately recalls Batman and Commissioner Gordon.
An entertaining early montage sees Spidey cleaning up New York by taking on Scorpion (Michael Mando), Tombstone (Marvin Jones III), members of The Hand, and even briefly Tarantula, Ramrod, and Boomerang before a mysterious force capable of possessing anyone in the city emerges as his greatest threat. But unlike No Way Home, which reveled in Spider-Man’s expansive rogues’ gallery and multiversal spectacle, Brand New Day keeps its focus firmly on Peter Parker.
The central villain, whose consciousness seems to jump from body to body a la the Denzel Washington thriller Fallen, creates several of the film’s standout action sequences as Spider-Man chases an invisible enemy through crowded New York streets and ordinary pedestrians become fleeting extensions of a single sinister intelligence; the choreography of these scenes resembles an elaborate dance routine as hundreds of performers move together in perfect synchronization. The eventual reveal of the villain’s identity will be familiar to longtime Marvel fans, while also laying some groundwork for future MCU installments including this winter’s Avengers: Doomsday.
One of the film’s greatest pleasures is Spider-Man’s unlikely friendship with Frank Castle, aka the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), an inspired addition to the franchise after two seasons on Netflix, with the two crimefighters developing an uneasy camaraderie that feels lifted directly from the pages of the Marvel comics. Spider-Man’s optimism continually clashes with Castle’s brutal methods, yet genuine respect gradually develops between them, creating both some of the film’s funniest and most heartfelt moments.
Mark Ruffalo also returns in a fun supporting role as Bruce Banner, helping Peter understand his increasingly unstable new powers, while Florence Pugh brings welcome charisma to a brief but entertaining appearance as Black Widow/Yelena Belova, who provides Spider-Man with key information during his investigation while shirking his efforts to save New York City as “small potatoes.”
The real strength of Spider-Man: Brand New Day lies in its emotional core: arriving just weeks after The Odyssey, which also stars Holland, Zendaya, and Bernthal, the film explores surprisingly similar themes. Like Odysseus, Peter longs to return to the people he loves while believing that doing so is impossible. At the same time, Peter struggles with internal changes as he begin to experience unsettling mutations in his arachnid DNA, including organic webbing and an increasingly overwhelming Spider-Sense, recalling the body-horror aspects of Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man that the MCU version never had the opportunity to explore.
That internal struggle becomes the film’s defining journey. Haunted by the death of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), whose presence looms over the story and culminates in one of its most affecting sequences, Peter must learn to stop defining himself through guilt before he can reconnect with the people he has lost. Rather than treating superheroics as an escape from personal trauma, Brand New Day understands that Peter’s greatest battle is accepting both who he is and who he is capable of becoming.
Previous MCU installments have largely framed Spider-Man as a reactionary character, but here’s one that really digs under his skin, and Holland delivers his strongest performance yet. Warmer, more vulnerable, and yet still emotionally restrained, the star finds genuine pathos in Peter’s loneliness without ever losing the humor and playfulness that has always defined the character. The chemistry with Zendaya and Batalon remains believable despite the unusual premise separating them, and kudos to the screenplay for investing as much in Peter’s friendship with Ned as his romance with MJ.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) brings a noticeably darker visual style than Jon Watts‘ previous trilogy, trading bright colors for higher-contrast photography and moodier cityscapes that better reflect Peter’s emotional isolation. The action feels more precise and coherent than in previous installments, with several chase sequences and hand-to-hand fights standing among the series’ finest.
Although primarily shot in the United Kingdom, cinematographer Brett Pawlak creates a vibrant, lived-in version of New York that feels more convincing than many recent superhero productions. Michael Giacchino’s score here is exceptional, favoring melancholy, introspective themes over the bombastic orchestral style typical of the genre; it may be the composer’s finest work within the MCU.
If Spider-Man: Brand New Day has a weakness, it’s that its climactic confrontation (with shades of Thunderbolts*) proves less compelling than the deeply personal journey leading up to it, and some of the MCU connective tissue feels more obligatory than essential. But those are minor complaints in a film that so confidently remembers what has always made Spider-Man unique among superheroes. Beneath the mask is simply a young man trying to find his place in the world, and by placing that humanity above spectacle, Brand New Day delivers a welcome reminder of how emotionally satisfying these movies can be when character comes first.
