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Warning! The following review contains spoilers in order to properly review the film.

By now almost everyone knows being Spider-Man isn’t as fun as it may seem to appear. Whether you’ve seen one of the many live action or animated films, read a comic or are just aware of the pop culture zeitgeist of the webslinger, one thing is certain: Spider-Man has got it rough. But no matter how hard Spider-Man has it someone has it much worse, and that is Peter Parker. As the young man behind the mask, Peter Parker carries the weight of everyone he must save and more so everyone he loses. Far from the first superhero to deal with these issues as the theme is explored ad nauseam, but still most modern audiences feel such a kinship towards Parker or the everyday superhero. But no matter how exciting the adventure gets for Spider-Man the best stories are the ones focused on the human pain of Peter Parker. BRAND NEW DAY the fifth solo Spider-Man film for the Marvel cinematic universe and the 9^th live action film since 2002 is far from the “best” of the Spider-Man films but that doesn’t hold it back from being the MCU’s most emotionally tolling as well as a much needed rebrand for Spidey himself. A film that after three mega successful films starring Tom Holland as Parker/Spider-Man could have easily just coasted by, and to some degree it does but with a new director at the helm it feels like something that was greatly needed; it feels new. Director Destin Daniel Cretton taking the helm from previous franchise director Jon Watts, is given the better (if not harder) task at delivering a mature Peter far away from the reckless antics of high school and thrust into the horrors of being in your twenties, surrounded by the world and feeling more alone than ever before. BRAND NEW DAY doesn’t show that there is still life in the MCU because frankly at this point the ultra-series is just a machine but what it does show is that no matter how big of a Hulk you want to insert nothing is more heroic than healing from inner pain. A film that knows its biggest weapon is not guns, monsters or multiverses but just the toll isolation takes on the heart. To keep yourself alone believing it will save others when in fact all it ever does is put yourself in harms way with no spider-sense to detect the pain.

Nobody remembers Peter Parker. Hell nobody even knows who Peter Parker is or what he has done for the world. Quickly catching the audience up, Peter parker (with the help of Doctor Strange and the multiverse nonsense) had the world forget that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are one in the same. In doing so Peter has spent the last few years fighting as Spider-Man saving the streets of New York while remaining anonymous the world all the better for it he believes. Learning from his other multiverse spider-men, the job comes with great loss and after losing his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) Peter decides the best way to move forward is to lose his best friend Ned (Jacob Balton) and his one love MJ (Zendaya). He still watches them from afar via social media as Ned and MJ go to college at MIT all while isolating himself to a New York apartment full tech in gear to aid the police, the people of NYC but never himself. While Cretton kicks off his film with a delightful and comic heavy series of bad guys getting their ass kicked by Spider-Man, there is still a sense of sadness that holds over every frame. It is more than exciting to see Spider-Man take on Scorpion (Michael Mando) or Tombstone (an all too quick Marvin Jones III) but it is more than clear that Peter is in pain. This is thanks to an outstanding Tom Holland who after ten years has mastered this character into his own sense of growth as a performer. Holland ditches the pubescent voice of the previous trilogy (after all it has been over 5 years since “No Way Home”) and instead boasts a humorous accent that feels a little too Brooklyn for someone raised in Queens. Nonetheless Holland fully understands his own Peter Parker carrying enough wit as Spider-Man while homing in on that pain that has shaped Peter this last decade. If Holland can ever match Maguire or Garfield’s energy is no longer the question because it is clear that his own path has been carved while understanding he is in a line of Spider-Man actors and will be followed by many more. Not since “Homecoming” has Holland felt so honored to have the role but thankfully feels confident enough in himself to strip away the insecurities as a performer.

But even as your friendly and very helpful neighborhood Spider-Man, there will always be things bigger than the spider. Aiding Detective DeWolff (Liza Colon-Zayas), Spider-Man finds himself up against a mysterious young woman (Sadie Sink) who for some reason really hates the Department of Damage Control run by the mellow William Metzger (Tramell Tillman). Parker in trying to track down this person he comes across a possible adversary who seems to have the ability to hop into people’s minds and control them. Much has not* been said about Sink’s character and in doing so it becomes an injustice to not just the character but the actress stunted with dull marketing techniques. For the sake of an honest review lets just get it out of the way (major spoiler warning if you will) but Sink as Jean grey should never have been treated as a surprise as thankfully the film never does so. Instead the script (written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers) allows this not so secret reveal to come out naturally and allows the film never to rest or stop on the fact that the MCU has introduced a game changing mutant in its universe. What it does center on is that like Peter, Jean is all alone. This loneliness carries much of BRAND NEW DAY and especially Jean but more on that in a moment. Right now Peter has bigger problems than a mutant, he himself seems to be mutating. Peter’s powers seem to be going through a development where his organic spider powers and mechanical ones are at odds with one another. To assist Peter seeks out the help of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) who has created his own device to contain his rage of the Hulk and more so his powers. It is here with this critic will drop the exposition as BRAND NEW DAY has plenty and the adventure stuff while exciting is all the more savory on screen.

What should be given attention is not only the action of Peter’s world (one that includes a buddy cop film with Jon Bernthal’s Punisher character) but more so Peter’s pain of the heart. Thankfully the film knows that watching your ex from a far eventually gets creepy and finds a charming way to get Peter back into Ned and MJ’s life. It is here where the film allows the three performers to play out a friendship that has clearly evolved past the screen. Zendaya and Holland’s chemistry is unmatched and the film is already showing you over and over again that isolation never works. The sequences of Peter reconnecting (or connecting for the first time in MJ’s eyes) is such an endearing focus on how so many people in their twenties need community. To remind everyone (and especially its viewers who grew up with these films) that feeling alone right after college is the most normal thing one can feel but there is a sense of great security in finding other loners and creating a pact. Gone is the notion that high school will define you and instead BRAND NEW DAY allows its audience to live in that time where the world expect so much from you and yet everyone is just as lost as the next person.

This is the real battle Peter is fighting and even as the film uses Jean to build a bigger obstacle it thankfully finds ways to bring itself back to these themes. Sink shedding off her “Stranger Things” youthfulness instead finds herself a broken young woman forced to mature far beyond her years. But while Jean may be fighting a solo battle the film knows once again that keeping its actors close together elevates the film. Sink alongside Holland deliver some of the film’s most emotionally devasting moments that feel less like two comic characters on a Saturday morning cartoon and more so a series of issues dedicated to two heroes forced together before understanding just how deep both their pain goes. It is exciting work not just for the now veteran Holland but even more the newcomer Sink who while cast in a world building role is perfect for the job.

There is a sense throughout BRAND NEW DAY that it wants to be a sort of new origin film. Less to explain how Peter becomes Spider-Man and more so how Spider-Man rediscovers how to be Peter. In doing so the film overpacks itself and its runtime feels less heavy and more so at odds with itself. But it also feels like the kind of film where the director is given one shot to throw it all out there. Cretton who helmed Marvel’s “Shang-Chi” and lost “The Kang Dynasty” after major studio readjustments, is the perfect fit here. A director who has given his own chance at rebirth not by choice but has chosen to take the opportunity and not look back. It is more than obvious that Spider-Man and crew will be back and with a soon to be billion dollar film, Cretton will most likely return as well, but regardless of that BRAND NEW DAY has allowed everyone including its audience to be given a fresh start. What you can do with that new start and who you choose to do it with will be up to you. But a new great power has been bestowed on you and we all know what happens with great power. So put the phone down, find a friend and go get em’ tiger. 

A-

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY IS IN THEATERS