*This is a SPOILER-FREE REVIEW, as best as I can.*
I came into the Philippine premiere of Spider-Man: Brand New Day already convinced that I have had enough of superhero films. There’s just way too many of them. It gets tiring not for the act of just watching one film, but to keep track of every related title to get the broad perspective of their cinematic universes.
In the case of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, my shivers were timbered. I came out of the screening retconned that superhero movie from this universe can still be awesome. All it needed to do was give a fresh perspective, a couple of great character journeys, and really, really talented actors.
Collective gasps and shouts of Oh My Gawd not once but several times is what I mean when I say flabbers will be gasted, rollers will be coasted. Spider-Man enters his healing era on his way to his phoenix era, and the result is an exhilarating journey from pain towards rebirth.
Oh Peter, Where Art Thou?
It’s been four years since Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) cast a spell to erase Peter Parker (Tom Holland) from everyone’s memory, including MJ’s (Zendaya) and Ned’s (Jacob Batalon) to prevent the multiverse from collapsing. That was how Spider-Man: No Way Home ended in 2021.
Peter has now gone full-time New York neighborhood superhero Spider-Man, acknowledged by the city’s Police department and the Department of Damage Control. His retreat is a tiny, obscure apartment where he operates his surveillance of crime with the help of E.V. (voiced by Naomi Watts) – the AI he developed on his own after the events of No Way Home. At night after his crimefighting rounds, Peter keeps track of MJ and Ned on their social media. He has done so from the moment they started college in MIT until their graduation., without any knowledge of Peter. Obviously this breaks Peter’s heart. But as soon as he receives a crime alert, Peter pulls his mask over and swings out the window right away.
A Punishing Loneliness
Peter would even crash MJ’s and Ned’s housewarming party in their MIT campus, casually meeting the roommates and introducing himself as a random “Maynerd.” Peter can only take longing looks at MJ from afar. I can’t help but imagine how the three might have been as college roommates if the spell wasn;t cast. Instead, the closest persons in Peter’s life will remain at arm’s length, with no idea of who he is.
Perhaps a physical reaction to this emotional turmoil, perhaps a simple function of age, Peter’s arachnid levels rise dangerously, resulting in headaches and more aggression in battle. His arms would reject his mech web spinners and instead, webs would come out from his wrists (reminiscent of the Tobey Maguire Peter Parker version).
Peter crosses paths with Frank Castle aka the vigilante The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) while in pursuit of an armed, armored van speeding towards the Damage Control headquarters. Peter prevents Frank from further pursuit, however, the van manages to crash into the DDC lobby. There, Peter encounters a mysterious force that takes command of a person’s mind, but is unsuccessful when it attempts to enter Peter’s.
Meanwhile, Peter tracks down Bruce Banner aka The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to seek advice on how to control physical changes at the DNA level, pretending that it is for a thesis.
Familiarity Breeds Contempt
Spider-Man and The Punisher seem to be already familiar to each other during the armored van chase, as their banter give off older versus younger sibling energy. It’s a funny dynamic that Holland and Bernthal pull off quite well most of the time as they agree.disagree to work together in dealing with the new menace, except a few moments at the end when the dynamic felt overdone so they can share more screen time together.
This dynamic helps Peter deal with the increasing menace of the Mysterious Force, who seems to be bent on infiltrating the DDC. DDC chief Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) gives Spider-Man a tour of the HQ to ensure their team-up would stop the mysterious force from whatever it seeks within the DDC.
However, the force is much too powerful for all of them, even putting MJ and Ned in danger, when it learns the way to get to Peter is through his loved ones. This becomes too much for Peter to handle, complicated by the changes his body is undergoing.
Tom Holland
Director Destin Daniel Cretton emphasized from the behind-the-scenes that this take on Spider-Man will be grounded in reality. This makes sense to make Peter’s journey to adulthood not just believable but heartfelt. It’s not about showing realistic scenes in New York (but the gorgeous, documentary type end credits only add to this appeal). I’m talking moments. It’s about letting Peter’s loneliness and heartache grab the viewer by their heartstrings. It’s in non-emotional things too, like seeing and hearing pop-culture references that are outside the Disney-MCU-Sony IPs. Like yes nerd, we watch the same movies. Thus, Cretton’s and the writers’ approach is successful.
Holland is front and center of this surprisingly emotional film. We can feel his longing each time he looks at MJ. We feel his vulnerability every visit he makes at May’s (Marissa Tomei) grave. His loneliness whenever he watches Ned’s social media. His tiredness from almost non-stop crime fighting. We see this in his eyes each closeup, we feel it when New Yorkers shout Spider-Man in the streets. It’s the same way we reacted when Peter stopped that train in Spider-Man 2 (2004). Give him a break, he’s just a boy. Except that now, those things that hurt him are turning him into a man.
Zendaya and Batalon also receive lines and momens that make their characters even rounder than they have been in the past films. Lines that are believable that they deliver well. Imagine Ned as a real person and not just a punchline-throwing sidekick. Ruffalo makes one Hulk transformation hurtful to watch. Again, Bernthal with comedic timing.
Props too to the music, cinematography, editing and costume people. Fantastic work, everyone. This movie is a gem.
Sadie Sink
Now to talk about the elephant in the room. Sadie Sink pulls a rug from under the audience to deliver the other emotional wallop in the movie from the moment she steps in at the second half of the film.
I am one of those who believes that Sink was deprived of an Emmy nomination for her perfomance as Max in the fourth season of Stranger Things. I also believe that she has the strongest star power as an actor among the show’s young casst (sorry Millie!).
Sink proves that she is dramatic actress that should be noted from here onwards. Can’t say more.
Screen X -perience
I saw the movie at the country’s lone ScreenX theater at the Mall of Asia. The seats were nice, the projection was crisp, and the Dolby sound awesome. However, the format was a little hit or miss for me. It’s a new experience, so there’s some novelty to it. But about 25% of scenes weren’t extended on the sides, so one ony needed to watch the center screen. Maybe the format has yet to find the proper material for it.
Spider-Man’s fight with the ninja group The Hand most definitely deserved the Screen X treatment. Awesome, awesome fight choreography. Spidey’s killer move in the end that deserved the audible, “Whoa!” from the audience.
Not to sound like a tool, but I am only comparing this experience with another wraparound audio-visual exhibition which also gives an immersive experience to the audience (for free most of the time.) It’s called The Outernet in London (just beside the Tottenham Court Road exit). Depending on the schedule, one can watch a digital exhibition or short animated films formatted to be shown in multiple screens including overhead. Showing below a short video of Outernet that I took when I was there in 2024.
Rebirth
Overall, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a journey to claim good karma. Faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges and opponents, Peter takes strength from core memories of the people who care about him the most to exorcise pain (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual) so he can come out healed, whole and reborn. It’s almost like a reboot but eveything else is still canon.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in Philippine cinemas this Wednesday July 29 from Columbia Pictures. Special mention to SM Cinemas for hosting the ScreenX screening at Mall of Asia.
(Images and trailer link from Columbia Pictures.)
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