ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Ten years ago, the moviegoing public was officially introduced to Tom Holland as the newest iteration of Peter Parker/Spider-Man for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and last weekend, Holland’s most recent outing in the role was released with “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”
The movie follows Peter as he anonymously protects New York City as the hero Spider-Man and investigates a powerful new threat while his powers undergo an unexpected and potentially dangerous evolution. I’ve yet to see a truly bad piece of Spider-Man media, and I ended up being VERY pleased with this latest outing.
Tom Holland turns in another great performance in the lead role, and he really captures the loneliness Peter’s feeling after losing everything at the end of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” as well as the maturity that comes along with the time jump that happens at the beginning of the movie. There are also a couple moments where he’s allowed to get pretty ferocious as his spider powers take over, and he does a great job in those scenes as well. Sadie Sink is also fantastic as Jean Grey, the film’s main antagonist, and she really captures Jean’s loneliness after losing her older sister, and she also does a great job showing she’s not REALLY a villain (at least not in the sense a lot of people would think) but rather a young girl needing help dealing with quite a bit of unresolved trauma that’s happened at the hands of others. She’s also allowed a few scenes to be pretty feral with her powers, and it’s another great performance. The final standout for me was Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher, and he straddles that line between being a big brother/father figure for Peter, and the end result is great because there’s a lot of great chemistry between him and Holland. Overall, the casting is so, so well done for this outing.
In terms of the movie’s story, while I overall enjoyed where it went, I did come away wishing there had been a little more originality because I did notice multiple aspects of the story that were pretty similar to “Spider-Man: Far From Home” in terms of Peter trusting the wrong people and ultimately needing to fix a screw-up. I also admittedly felt like the movie was slightly overstuffed in terms of the number of characters involved – it didn’t feel quite as bad as “Iron Man 2” in that respect (in my opinion), but there were a few moments that definitely felt like that. I also felt the pacing of the movie at certain points could have been tightened up somewhat, which could have shaved off some of the runtime. All of that being said, however, I did really like how things felt a little darker and a little more grounded compared to past outings (which I read in an interview was inspired by Holland’s having recently worked with Christopher Nolan on “The Odyssey,” but there’s a glimmer of hope for our favorite web-slinger. Overall, there was solid work with the story and screenplay.
I also couldn’t help but notice the fight choreography throughout the movie is absolutely STUNNING, especially the climactic fight near the end – each fight scene is pure eye candy and visceral, and it’s all just so wonderful to watch. I’ve read some conflicting stories as to who was in charge of that, but props to whoever was in charge of that for their work.
Overall, I enjoyed “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and would give it a B-plus. The performances from everyone in the cast are fantastic, particularly Tom Holland in the lead role, Sadie Sink as main antagonist Jean Grey, and Jon Bernthal in another outing as Frank Castle/The Punisher. I do wish there could have been a little work on the overall story to help it be a little more original, but it was still solid writing from the team in charge of that. I also enjoyed watching all the fight choreography throughout the movie, which is absolutely stunning, particularly the climactic fight near the end. If you’re a fan of any of the other MCU Spider-Man outings, “Brand New Day” is definitely one you’ll want to cue up.
