Spider-Man: Brand New Day has opened as the test of whether Marvel can end a run of underperforming films. Sony is hoping it matches the scale of Spider-Man: No Way Home after three recent Marvel films disappointed.
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The film picks up after the spell that closed No Way Home, in which Peter Parker erased himself from the memory of everyone who loved him, including his best friend Ned Leeds and MJ. Tom Holland, now 30, plays a lonelier and more introspective Peter than in his first three outings, still fighting crime as Spider-Man while nobody in New York knows his name.
Is it any good?
The reception splits. The Guardian credits Zendaya with rescuing the film from over-familiar plotting. Her civilian, non-superhero role lets her grown-up screen presence surface in a way denied to everyone else on screen, including Holland. The review also singles out one scene with him for its unexpected sexual charge. The Hollywood Reporter calls Holland a never-better lead, playing a hero whose arachnid and human sides are pulling apart, both physically and emotionally, after his aunt’s death and his separation from MJ and Ned.
BFI’s Sight and Sound took the harder line. It says the plot amounts to little more than “soggy connective tissue” and argues that director Destin Daniel Cretton never pulls it taut. Screen’s review is the warmest of the four, praising screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers for treating Peter’s isolation as the point of the film rather than a device to clear out of the way.
Why Marvel needs this one to land
The film carries weight beyond its own reviews. Screen reports that Sony is hoping to match the $1.9bn worldwide gross of No Way Home. Three recent Marvel releases fell short: The Fantastic Four: First Steps took $522m, Thunderbolts* took $382m, and Captain America: Brave New World took $415m. At CinemaCon, Sony chairman Tom Rothman told the audience the film is “as big as anything we’ve ever made”, and that Holland delivers “his finest performance”. A strong run is also meant to build excitement for December’s Avengers: Doomsday.
Why nobody will say who plays the villain
Sadie Sink plays the film’s telepathic antagonist, who can jump from body to body, and Sight and Sound treats her character’s real name as a spoiler. The Hollywood Reporter says spoiler etiquette stops it confirming who she plays, adding only that the character was once “described by Professor Xavier as his most talented student.” The Guardian names an early target instead: the villain first takes hold of Michael Mando’s Scorpion, on a path toward the government’s Damage Control unit.
The film runs 145 minutes, Screen’s review notes. It is Holland’s fourth solo turn as Spider-Man, and reunites him with Zendaya and Jacob Batalon as MJ and Ned, alongside Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher from earlier corners of the Marvel universe.
Whether the reviews turn into the box office Sony needs is the question its next few weeks will answer, not this one.
