Film Reviews

July 31, 2026

"Are you Peter Parker or are you Spider-Man?"

This question is posed directly to Peter Parker/Spider-Man in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," but it's been at the heart of nearly every Spider-Man movie—in the vast and ever-growing canon of Spider-Man movies (live action and animated). It has long been the source of the superhero's inner turmoil and obviously makes for a thought-provoking and relatable conflict, although the question reached its apex several movies ago. By now, we wish that Peter/Spidey would get it together already and wrestle with something else for a change.

Nevertheless, "Brand New Day" is a good movie, and on some levels, it's very good—crafty, fun, exciting, poignant—but it's also an amalgamation of so many superhero movies that came before it, Spider-Man or otherwise, and it has us smiling more than cheering, which is still an admirable quality, but if this 11th (!) and counting modern-day Spider-Man movie has a flaw, it's that it spins up the same Spidey formula and plays things too safely to really hit us hard. It relies on and presses emotional buttons that have already been pressed.

Of course, we can understand why the filmmakers continue to stay the course of their trusted Spider-Man movie blueprint. After all, Spider-Man is the most popular of mainstream superheroes, and attempting anything too risky might cause disappointment, or even worse, fan backlash. So, for now, the filmmakers keep things relatively close to home.

Indeed, when this latest adventure opens, Spider-Man (Tom Holland, convincing and sympathetic as ever) is up to his usual antics of thwarting both petty criminals and supervillains in New York City, leaving behind webs of captured bad guys and notes reading, "Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." You know the drill.

However, the world these days only knows Spider-Man, and not Peter Parker, who's as lonely as ever. You'll recall that at the end of "No Way Home," in an effort to prevent the multiverse from collapsing in on itself, among other disasters, Peter had his pal Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) cast a spell that made everyone on planet Earth forget the name Peter Parker, including his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and true love MJ (Zendaya). Poor Peter now lives alone, eats takeout food, and spends most of his time monitoring and responding to his homegrown crime alert app and running highly complex experiments. Rinse. Repeat. His only companionship comes from Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas), who's a mother of two and senses a hurt soul when she hears one.

But Peter isn't just fending off chronic isolation. He's also in physical pain, particularly his wrists, which is something he and his trusted AI assistant, E.V. (voice of Naomi Watts), try to troubleshoot. What's more is that Peter may be losing control of his mental and physical faculties. One night, he wakes up dangling in a mishmash of his own webs outside his crummy apartment, practically naked, and he has no idea how he got there. What the heck is going on?

Longtime fans of the Spider-Man movies will no doubt draw parallels between "Brand New Day" and "Spider-Man 2" (2004), during which Peter also lost control of his powers, although in that film his superhuman abilities were fading, whereas here they're getting more intense and unmanageable. Nevertheless, it illustrates how the series is circling back on itself. It's still engaging, but I can see this blending becoming more problematic and tiresome. Another recycled trope: Peter coming to grips with the death of his surrogate parents, in this case his beloved Aunt May (Marissa Tomei), and the guilt he feels for indirectly leading to her demise. May's appearance in "Brand New Day " is heartfelt, and of course we understand his grief, but hasn't the franchise covered this already, in one way or another?

And it just wouldn't be a Marvel superhero movie without some other Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) cameos and crossovers. In this case, there are at least four. Yelena Belova/Black Widow (Florence Pugh) of "Thunderbolts"/New Avengers fame shows up as a sort of consultant to Spider-Man when he needs information about the latest villain wreaking havoc on New York. Said baddie is a mysterious telepath who has the ability to jump into unsuspecting human vessels and force them to do his or her evil bidding, although Peter is somehow immune to their powers. It wouldn't be right to expose this mind controller's identity but I can tell you his or her personal story isn't a far cry from that of Bob's from the aforementioned "Thunderbolts," which is another way all the Marvel superhero movies are melding together and becoming less distinct.

In a fairly substantial role is the anti-hero Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal, whose stereotypical New York accent and rugged demeanor don't always work), who has a love-hate relationship with Spidey despite both being do-gooders (they have a complicated history that is spoken about but has not [yet] been filmed). And rounding out the supporting players is Dr. Bruce Banner, a.k.a. Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), who's concocted his own electronic device to help him regulate his emotions, a device that may be the key to Peter's bodily dilemma.

What's curious is that with so much going on in the film, Peter and MJ's romance, which always seems to be front and center and so heavily marketed, feels secondary. Screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers and director Destin Daniel Cretton give it space during the film’s two-and-a-half-hour runtime, but it's not given as much weight or screentime as we might expect. This isn't a bad thing, just surprising, and perhaps it’s a sign the series is willing to move on to newer, fresher themes.

So, with "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," what have we got? A troubled Peter Parker/Spider-Man facing internal and external struggles; a complicated, sympathetic villain who isn't depicted in simple terms of black and white; a slew of traditional yet nonetheless impressive fights, chases, and swinging-through-the-air sequences; and, my personal favorite, a down-to-earth, casual Spider-Man doing mundane things such as sitting in a hot tub, playing LEGOS, and drinking coffee. "Brand New Day" may feel like territory previously treaded, but there's still a lot in this movie that inherently connects us to the webslinger and his journey, and we continue to be invested in and charmed by the characters and slick presentation.

Another nice touch: Spider-Man's animated eyes, which are a combination of practical and digital effects and serve as a bridge into Spidey's soul and are another reason he remains the most accessible of superheroes. On top it all, the special effects are exquisite, especially the use of Spider-Man's new, organic web-shooters that extend directly from his body a al "Peter 2" (Tobey Maguire), which Spidey uses in a stupendous scene to stymie the red-uniformed members of The Hand, a band of ninja assassins.

Ultimately, with "Brand New Day," you know what you're going to get, but you're still glad you got it. It's easy on the mind and gentle on the heart, and even though the Spider-Man movie franchise has become such a well-oiled machine at this point, with little in the way of surprises, the filmmakers still go to great lengths to ensure all viewers feel like they have a seat at the table, which is no easy task. "Brand New Day" isn't inspired or groundbreaking, but it's undeniably well-made. We've grown accustomed to expecting a lot of the same qualities from this series over the years, and entertaining is one of them. Fortunately, "Brand New Day" delivers on that front, and hopefully upending our expectations and modifying the standard Spidey movie template will come next.