Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Image credit: IMDb

It’s a shame when work, geography, social commitments, and life in general works to dampen your love of something and thus diminish the amount of time you spend doing/enjoying said passion. It’s also a funny and ironic quirk of life that if you have a job tied to a passion of yours, you inevitably end up not putting in any recreational time to enjoy it. Case in point, I love movies: talking about them, watching them, and going to the cinema. I have worked in a segment of the film industry for the last 3 years and the amount of new movies that I have watched has decreased DRAMATICALLY. I was consuming more movies when I worked at a Blockbuster! A sad, sad truth.

Having said that, my lack of interest in going to the cinema at the moment (aside from geography) could really stem from my current opinion that mainstream cinema, which is mostly what I have access to, just isn’t putting forward any tempting fruit. I can’t remember the last time I got excited about a new release.

Regardless, as Marvel-goers, Partner and I did make our way into the cinema on opening weekend to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Forgotten but not gone, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) lives life alone as a full-time Spider-Man. Putting all his energy into fighting crime and being the friendly, neighbourhood superhero, his devotion to the job starts to take an unexpected turn when alarming changes to his senses and powers start to occur. And since drama loves company, a new and incredibly dangerous mind-hopping threat has emerged with plans to teach humanity some hard truths about what (or who) makes monsters.

Considering that the Spider-Man story arc is all about growing up, changing, evolving, and whatnot, Spider-Man: BND is a film that leaves behind that teen-spirited, coming-of-age, fun atmosphere of its predecessors and opts for a more dramatic and self-reflective dive into Peter’s identity as an adult. We all go through that stage in our twenties where we really start to think about, and take note of, our identities and how we’re going to function as an adult. BND is a superhero exploration of that: exploring new freedoms, new barriers, new coping mechanisms, and identifying the things in our lives that are the biggest identity shapers.

Image credit: IMDb

While growing from adolescence into adulthood is a prevalent and very meaningful theme in the film, like with any story where the hero decides to ‘go it alone’, it does feel like some of the filling has been taken away. I think of BND as a jam doughnut that’s only been filled halfway: while the fluffy, airy, sugary pastry is still perfectly lovely to eat, I was hoping for more jam. While Tom Holland delivers another great performance and does efficiently carry the film, still injecting little pops of humour for flavour and texture, at the end of it BND is the angsty filler movie in a coming-of-age series. There’s always one and it’s not particularly bad, but it’s a phase that we won’t mind seeing the end of.

Filled with action, self-reflection, drama, and comedy, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is another perfectly entertaining movie in the MCU.

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton, 2026

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Jacob Batalon, Sadie Sink, Florence Pugh, Liza Colon-Zayas, & Mark Ruffalo