Spider-man: Brand New Article
IMPORTANT NOTE: This review DOES contain spoilers for “Spider-Man Brand New Day.”
[Spider-man fighting the Hand in the opening montage. Image from IMDB]
Marvel and Sony’s fourth Spider-man installment in the MCU release to raving reviews from audiences and critics alike. The movie was a box office success, grossing $360 million its opening weekend.
It’s not unfair to say that Sony has a somewhat mixed track record when it comes to Spider-Man or Spider-Man related movies. For every well received movie like Brand New Day or the Spider-Verse movies, there’s another that struggles both at the box office and in the public eye. Movies like Morbius, Madam web, Kraven The Hunter, and the Venom movies, which are often critiqued for their weaker writing and stories.
Whether or not those movies are good depends on the opinion of the viewer, but the well made movies vastly outshine the more unsatisfactory ones and this shows that Sony knows what they are doing with the character. And it’s also important to note that according to their contract with Marvel, Sony has to keep making movies/ tv shows set in the Spider-Man universe or else they lose the rights to this character, as explained in this Forbes article.
PROS
Overall, I enjoyed Brand New Day. It was the movie that I was most looking forward to from the moment it was announced. A large part of that was because I am a big fan of Jon Bernthal’s Punisher and I was really excited to see him interact with lead actor Tom Holland’s Spider-man, and their dynamic did not disappoint. In my opinion, it was actually one of the best parts of the movie, especially because we haven’t seen the pairing of The Punisher and a comedic character yet in the MCU.
[Spider-man and Punisher during the Hulk fight. Image from Variety]
This allows for us to see a less depressing version of the Punisher, especially since the last time we saw him was in The Punisher: One Last Kill (2026) which was certainly a much sadder and emotionally torn version of the character. My favorite scene between them was when they were going up against the Hulk. The writing and performances made it an incredibly funny and entertaining scene to watch.
“I’d say my favorite part was the hulk scene, with Spider-Man, Frank castle.” Senior Jackson Archibald said.
Speaking of the Hulk, it was so good to see an actual Hulk again instead of Smart Hulk. Yes, technically Smart Hulk was in this movie, but he wasn’t on screen for long before he turned into the actual Hulk. This version of the Hulk is definitely my favorite so far because he feels like an actual monster, which is something we haven’t really seen since at best Age of Ultron. The ending of the fight did feel slightly unexplained.
“I disliked the less emphasis on the hulk.” Senior Noah Rocheford said in reference to the end of the Spider-Man/ hulk fight. “I would love to see where the Hulk’s thought process came from.” He felt that the conclusion of the fight needed a bit more explanation as to why the Hulk stopped fighting.
[Spider-man and the Hulk right after he transforms. Image from IGN]
The mutation storyline was not one that I originally expected, however I thought it was done extremely well. It really ties in well with the overall theme of Spider-man’s loneliness in this movie. Not only has he lost his friends, but the mutation feels like he is losing himself as well. But when he overcomes this in the climax and accepts the mutation, it results in a moment that was very well built up and executed.
“I think my favourite part of the movie, and it reflected some of the cinematography like when he basically became both human and spider. I just thought that whole scene was amazing.” Teacher James Hannon said.
CONS
The only complaint that I have is that the characters Scorpion and Tombstone were both underused, especially with Michael Mando and Krondon as the actors and the incredible costumes for both of them and fantastic make-up/ prosthetics for Tombstone. I was somewhat disappointed about how little they were in the movie. But with that being said, I understand why they weren’t front and center as it would’ve potentially distracted from the main antagonist.
[Michael Mando as Scorpion. Image from Yahoo]
That was actually a main concern of mine going into the movie; that there would be so many antagonists that the movie would’ve felt clogged with villains. Just looking at the villain/antagonist line up you’ve got Scorpion, Tombstone, Tarantula, Boomerang, Ramrod, The hand, and the hulk. That’s not even including the main antagonist because she wasn’t revealed in the trailers.
As for the main antagonist, I thought Sadie Sink did a really good job as Jean Grey. Although I don’t disagree with Hannon that Jean Grey did feel like a strange choice for a main villain in this movie as opposed to a Spider-Man villain.
“Jean Grey as the villain I think was like a little bit of a stretch. For me, her reveal as the antagonist in this film seemed a little out of place. Like they were trying to make it happen for future movies.” Hannon said. “But at the same time, I didn’t mind it. When she froze everybody and it just showed her tremendous power and I loved that they showed that. Like how powerful she can be.”
The V-Max reveal, or rather antireveal was a really good twist and one that I didn’t see coming. I’ve heard people say that the reveal felt like a let down, but that’s kind of the point. It’s set up to be this big thing, all the characters are expecting a big thing, just for the movie to pull the rug out from under you to reveal the brutality of the situation. It’s an intentional choice by the movie. So when Metzger says that he doesn’t know what V-Max is, he’s not lying. He didn’t know what it was.
“My favorite part is the reveal that V-Max was the vent.” Rocheford said. It’s not telegraphed too much so that someone would guess it early on, but it also doesn’t feel out of nowhere.
“I didn’t like how Jean Grey didn’t face any consequences.” Archibald said. This is an opinion that I’ve seen somewhat frequently. I’m not going to say that what Jean Grey did was justified. The scene where she pretends that MJ remembers Peter was just kind of messed up on her part and it didn’t help with her mission. Yes, Jean Grey doesn’t face any consequences that we see, but I’m not surprised by it. Spider-Man wasn’t about to turn her into the authorities after he saw what happened to her (even if he wasn’t shot he still wouldn’t have)
The costumes in this movie were also really well done. I already mentioned scorpion and tombstone but all of the other minor antagonists had really good and comic accurate designs. I mentioned above how the more intimidating Hulk design in this movie is better than the previous hulk versions, but I also like how this hulk is less of a bright green and a little more grey in coloration because intentionally or not it serves as a reference to the hulks original design which was grey instead of green. The best costume in this movie though is Spider-Man himself. I am somewhat in the minority in my love of the Stark suit from Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming, but the suit in this movie is the best live action Spider-Man suit to date. It’s so bright, and colorful and it looks like it was ripped straight out of the comics.
[Spider-man and Punisher’s first interaction in the film. Image from Collider]
What I think makes this movie work so well is the fact that it lets Tom Holland’s Spider-Man actually make jokes. There’s this really great scene from Spider-Man: Far from Home, where when he’s wearing the Iron Spider suit, Spider-Man lets the bad guys shoot him, before falling over and pretending to die. He then hops up and says “Just kidding! It’s bullet proof!” If this scene doesn’t sound familiar, it’s because it was deleted from the final cut. It’s one of the most Spider-Man-esque scenes in live action and it was cut. Now compare that to the scene from Brand New Day, where Spider-Man stretches before fighting the prison guards, or when he’s talking to Yelena in her office, or again, the scene with him and Punisher when fighting the hulk. Letting Spider-Man actually goof around and make jokes, makes this feel like a Spider-Man movie.
But at the same time, it’s also not like they stripped the movie of its seriousness. The content of this movie is actually pretty dark not just Jean Grey’s story but also Spider-Man’s with him losing control and being alone. The movie doesn’t shy away from this though. It embraces both the light and dark and that’s a difficult thing to do. It can be hard to balance both gritty topics and humor, but this movie does it very well.
The combat and webswinging of this movie were really well done and reminded me a lot of the Insomniac Spider-Man games, which is definitely a compliment. The way Spider-Man moves is definitely an improvement on the prior installments, at least in the MCU. This movie was incredibly well made and it’s clear everyone involved cared a lot about it.