Review: ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ grows up, and that’s exactly what this series needed
Published at | Updated at
One of the hardest things for a long-running franchise to do is grow up without losing what made people fall in love with it in the first place.
That’s exactly the challenge “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” faces.
A hero who’s finally grown up
For three movies, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker has been the most youthful Spider-Man we’ve seen on screen. He was awkward, energetic, funny and constantly in over his head. Much of the charm came from watching Peter, MJ and Ned stumble through high school while trying to save the world.
That Spider-Man is gone. Not because Marvel changed him. Because life did.
Following the heartbreaking events of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Peter enters this latest adventure carrying far more emotional weight than we’ve ever seen before. The jokes are still there. The action is still exciting. But the movie has a noticeably different tone.
It’s more serious and more reflective, but surprisingly… it works.
One of the reasons Tom Holland remains such a great Spider-Man is that he allows Peter to mature naturally. This doesn’t feel like the studio suddenly decided to make Spider-Man darker. It feels like a young man who’s experienced enough loss that he can’t simply go back to being the carefree teenager he once was.
Holland sells every bit of it.
His Peter is still optimistic, but there’s a quiet confidence underneath him now. He’s less impulsive, more thoughtful, and carries himself like someone who’s finally accepted what it means to be Spider-Man.
That evolution reminded me of another Spider-Man movie.
“Spider-Man 3.”
Where ‘Spider-Man 3’ stumbled
Sam Raimi’s trilogy reached this same point almost 20 years ago. Peter had graduated from being the lovable kid next door and was trying to figure out adulthood. The filmmakers wanted to tell a more mature story.
The idea wasn’t the problem. The execution was.
Too many villains. Too many storylines. Too many tonal shifts. The movie never quite figured out how to let Peter grow while still feeling like the Spider-Man audiences loved.
“Brand New Day” quietly succeeds where “Spider-Man 3” struggled.
Instead of forcing Peter to change overnight, this movie lets his experiences shape him. The lighter moments are still there, but they grow organically out of who these characters have become rather than trying to recreate the high school energy of earlier films.
Different isn’t worse
That’s not to say I didn’t miss some of that magic.
The chemistry between Peter, MJ and Ned was the beating heart of the first trilogy. Their friendship gave those movies an infectious optimism that set them apart from nearly every other Marvel film.
Because of where the previous movie ended, much of that dynamic is absent here.
I definitely felt it.
The movie is still entertaining, but it’s not quite as much fun.
That’s less of a criticism than an observation. The series has simply reached a different chapter.
Jon Bernthal is another welcome addition. His version of Frank Castle creates a fun contrast with Holland’s more hopeful Spider-Man, and the movie also introduces several new characters and surprises that are best experienced without knowing much going in.
Final thoughts
By the time the credits rolled, I realized something.
This isn’t trying to be “Homecoming.” It isn’t trying to recreate “Far From Home.” And that’s probably for the best.
Growing up always comes with tradeoffs. You lose a little innocence, a little simplicity, and sometimes even a little fun.
But if you’re lucky, you gain something richer in return.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” doesn’t recapture the carefree spirit of the earlier films, but it earns its more mature tone and proves there’s still plenty of life left in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
Sometimes growing up is exactly what a franchise needs.