Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Tom Holland is back as Peter Parker, confronting an enemy who can hijack anybody’s mind at will.
Web campaigner: Tom Holland
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
The future of mankind has faced innumerable existential threats in the movies, from nuclear Armageddon to viral obliteration. In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth chapter in the MCU Spider-Man reboot starring Tom Holland, Spidey faces a terrible villain with the face of an angel. Actually, Jean Elaine Grey (Sadie Sink) is in possession of a million faces as she can hop through a multitude of other people’s minds in a matter of seconds, giving the art of shape-shifting a whole new facet. Spidey’s problem is that he’s never entirely sure who his nemesis is meant to be at any given moment. There are other things going on, such as his diminishing superpowers and his longing for MJ’s love as he was forced to wipe out her memories of their affair in order to save them both. So MJ (Zendaya) doesn’t know Peter Parker from a hole in a cobweb, anymore than does Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), Peter’s best friend. It’s a lonely world out there, with only NYPD detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) for company, at the end of a cell phone. Still, as Spidey tells her, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Thanks to Spider-Man, the crime rate in New York has dropped to an all-time low and, in gratitude, the mayor gives him the keys to the city. Then a new menace faces the metropolis, a danger of unimaginable consequences… As Jean Grey hops between the minds of cops and security guards, Spidey is forced to brush up on his knowledge of genome mutation. But his web-shooters are no longer shooting like they should, so it’s a visit to an old friend, physics teacher Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who is also unable to recognise his former crime-fighting colleague. Meanwhile, as the Department of Damage Control has been targeted by this mysterious new threat, it transpires that a biochemical element in Spider-Man’s brain makes him immune to the intruder’s cerebral manipulation. It also makes the unknowing MJ vulnerable, as Jean knows just what she means to Spider-Man…
Above and beyond the vertiginous aerobatics conducted above the rooftops of Brooklyn, Brand New Day is an ambitious, emotional romantic-tragedy with a number of irons stacked in its firepower. A sizzling cocktail of humour and visual aplomb, the sequel is also extremely violent and dark, far more so than the last film in which both Tom Holland and Zendaya appeared. However, Brand New Day gets away with a 12A, while The Odyssey is branded with a 15 certificate in the UK – not that it’s hampered the latter’s box-office performance. The new film taps into a whole mythology of its own, complete with monsters and magic, while the delightfully pixyish Florence Pugh co-stars as Black Widow in an all-nude cameo (her modesty carefully preserved by the oddly teal-coloured water of a Russian steam bath, which she has adopted as her office).
As just another episode in a time-honoured franchise, Brand New Day is a surprisingly rich and confident head-trip – in every sense of the word.
Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Florence Pugh, Tramell Tillman, Marisa Tomei, Mark Ruffalo, Liza Colón-Zayas, Michael Mando, Olivia Booth-Ford, Eman Esfandi, Marvin Jones III, Zabryna Guevara, and the voices of Naomi Watts and Keith David.
Dir Destin Daniel Cretton, Pro Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal, Avi Arad and Rachel O'Connor, Screenplay Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, Ph Brett Pawlak, Pro Des Charles Wood, Ed Nat Sanders, Gina Sansom and Harry Yoon, Music Michael Giacchino, Costumes Sanja Milković Hays, Sound Jack Whittaker, Chuck Michael and Luke Gibleon, Dialect coach Rick Lipton.
Columbia Pictures/Marvel Studios/Pascal Pictures-Sony Pictures.
144 mins. USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 31 July 2026. Cert. 12A.
