The reason why Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies are so good is because they have balance. We spend as much time with Peter Parker as we do Spider-Man. The Tom Holland spidey flicks have always been too oversaturated. Either it’s littered with cameos (Far From Home) or the villain is more interesting than Spider-Man himself (Homecoming). To reference Goldilocks, the balance in Brand New Day is just right.
It’s been 4 years since the events of Far From Home. Peter’s (Holland) life is pretty much just his work as Spider-Man. He hasn’t sought out any new connections nor tried to rebuild old ones. This self-imposed isolation starts to impact him, as he finds his arachnid hormones surging and threatening to drown out his humanity. Unlike the other movies, we spend so much time with Peter in this. We get a sense of routine, and we feel his loneliness through Holland’s stellar performance. He has great physicality but also does remarkable voice work as Spider-Man. Spider-Man’s known for his little quips and jokes, and Holland absolutely nails every single aspect of the performance. I have always enjoyed him in the role, but this is the first time I feel he’s truly embodied the character. Also, we get to see more of Holland’s face beneath the mask now when he’s in full battle mode, which allows us to feel closer to Peter.
Peter finds himself up against a mind controlling entity, able to leap into minds at will, though each psychic leap is limited to a certain distance. This entity is determined to break into the Damage Control facility at all costs, even going as far as to mentally possess civilians into driving a truck right into the building. The more Spider-Man involves himself in this entity’s business, the more his own personal life gets dragged into things, bringing MJ (Zendaya) back into his life once more.
My favourite scenes in the movie are those between Holland and Zendaya. They’ve always had a natural chemistry – obviously due to their real life feelings for each other – but watching Peter finally connect with someone after all that isolation is just beautiful and heartbreaking. Peter’s little laughs as he jokes around with her feel so real and utterly painful – to yearn so deeply for someone all while knowing that being together with them again might be close to impossible. Peter’s pain and trauma is something he is determined to lock away, but the movie highlights the folly of this through characters like Bruce Banner. Bruce doesn’t want to deal with his darkness and prefers to lock up the hulk, so when released the damage is extensive and heavy. Maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. Our trauma can change us but instead of fighting it, we instead accept that this darkness is now a part of us.
My only gripe with the film is with Sadie Sink’s character. While her character is a great darker parallel to Peter, the resolution for the character didn’t sit too well with me. There’s just too much carelessness and collateral damage for me to truly empathize with the character and accept the ending. This is really more of a writing issue; Sink does an incredible job with what’s written for the character.
The way the movie utilises space is incredible. The shots of New York as Spider-Man webslings himself across the city, Peter’s frequent trips to a nearby bodega, Peter and Detective DeWolff’s (Liza Colón-Zayas) phone conversations while crossing the street or on the subway – New York is just as much a character in this as Spider-Man is. This helps the world feel more lived-in and less like MCU green screen territory. The shots of various places in New York in the end credits is a testament to how important the space is in the film. All this love for New York – Carrie Bradshaw would be proud.
I’m ready for Tom Holland to play this character as long as he can.
REVIEW SCORE: 4.5/5
