“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” Is a Surprisingly Personal Superhero Story

Peter Parker reads a letter that he has written to someone special, telling them they no longer remember him, but to save the world, he had to make a sacrifice to wipe the world's memory of him. This means that while he swings in New York City, fights crime, and embraces the moniker of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, he has no friends or family to speak of, and becomes a recluse that might make Bruce Wayne pause and express concern for the kid's well-being. Spider-Man: Brand New Day takes place directly after the events in Spider-Man: No Way Home, a movie that I quite enjoyed but (like Deadpool & Wolverine) I had issues with because of its overreliance on fan service. This time around, I sense the filmmakers wanted to signal that this was going to be more than a cameo feast for fans: it was going to be the new beginning of an older, more mature Peter Parker.

Yes, there are cameos, as Peter Parker still exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet the cold, somber opening lets us know right off the bat that we'll be getting a more character-driven Spider-Man movie than we got the previous few times (ignoring the animated movies, of course). While the marketing is wise to highlight the film's many great action sequences, I found myself more interested in Peter Parker and his life that involves daily crime-fighting, experimenting on new webbing, and no social life. Sure, I suppose he does communicate with the Chief of Police on the phone, but she doesn't know what he looks like and he doesn't know her kid's name, so that relationship has a limit.

Since his friends don't remember who he is, they go to college, get jobs, and move in together. He follows them from a distance on social media, but there is no relationship there. This is especially heartbreaking where MJ (Zendaya) is concerned, who you may remember was the girl Peter loved. Yet this is a sacrifice Peter seems willing to embrace for the "greater good." Years ago, Sam Raimi tackled similar material with Spider-Man 2, in which Peter was no longer interested in his commitments to saving the city and hoped to hang up his costume for a normal life. In Spider-Man: Brand New Day we have almost the opposite: Peter is so dedicated to keeping the city safe that he forgoes any hope of happiness so that he can focus on his life as Spider-Man.

So much so that even his own mutated body seems to be evolving to push out his humanity so that he can fully embrace being a crime-fighting mutant. Oh, there's also the fact that the antagonist—who can jump from body to body—gets a glimpse of who he cares for and doesn't hesitate to use that information (reminding kids everywhere that there is a reason you don't reveal your secret identity to just anybody). And yes, these scenes result in some truly spectacular action sequences that rank among the best in the franchise's history. And while I know much of the audience will happily gobble such sequences up, they are going to come face-to-face with a surprisingly personal story of a young man who is so committed to "the cause," "his duty," or however you want to frame it, that happiness is little more than a pipe dream.

These are the moments I found the film to be the strongest, as the sense of loneliness and sadness are so overwhelming that they leap off the screen, as Holland's subdued performance makes us want to reach into the movie and give the poor kid a sympathetic hug. It's not just that he's lonely: it's that he's a genuinely great guy, and he shouldn't have to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders at the cost of his own humanity. It's almost heartbreaking to remember him as this idealistic kid who began his journey happily doing the right thing for the joy of doing so only to now be doing it out of a sense of obligation. While Marvel has produced movies that are more character-focused, most of them involve Spider-Man.

This is likely because Sony has final say with these movies, so when they hire a director like Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy, Short Term 12), they let him excel in the strengths that inspired them to hire him in the first place. Yes, he brings the action, but what audiences will likely be discussing are the choices Peter makes, whether he is right in walking the lonely life, and whether or not the ending is happy, sad, or bittersweet (I'm in the third camp personally, but I'll let you make up your own mind there). Ironically, Spider-Man: Brand New Day borrows its title from a controversial comic book story in which Marvel decided to do a soft reboot of the character and angered a lot of fans.

It was brilliant to use the name here because not only is this a soft reboot of the franchise, but unlike the comic book, it leaves viewers feeling excited about the possibilities of where things can go from this point on. What's more, they're likely going to be asking what's going to happen to Peter. Will Peter find love again? Will Peter make new friends? Whatever is happening in Spider-Man's world will be second nature, and as long as the franchise continues down that path, people will continue to swing into theaters to keep seeing these movies.

P.S. I'm going to take a moment to highlight the unusually good use of 3D in this movie. While it likely is a post-conversion job, the scenes of swinging through the city, highlighting isolation in the mask, and distant shots were so stunning I saw the movie a second time to see how important it was to the experience. While there is nothing wrong with the 2D version, 3D is unquestionably the way to watch this, to the point where I need to stress that if you see it in 2D, you will like it... but subtract half a star from the grade below, because the 3D makes that much of a difference in both the action and dramatic sequences.