My Review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) - SPOILERS INCLUDED

 

Written by Chris McKenna And Erik Sommers

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton 

Peter: "Hi. My name is Peter Parker. You don't remember me, but we used to know each other. Something bad was gonna happen, and the only way to stop it was to make everyone forget about me. Because I'm not just Peter Parker. I'm Spider-Man. And sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing, even if it breaks Peter Parker's heart."

Has it really been nearly five years since Spider-Man: No Way Home? It was the perfect end to Tom Holland's first Spidey trilogy. Now it's time for the beginning of what I'm assuming would be a new trilogy for this particular iteration of the infamous web slinger.

For those hoping for a more grounded film after the Multiverse heavy previous one will be happy with this one. It's as grounded as you can get but there's still some big potatoes as Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) would like. Yup, she's in two scenes and her banter with Peter and later MJ Watson (Zendaya) and Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) was rather delightful to watch.

Peter's got a lot on his plate. He started the film by stopping a few of his own rogue gallery members like Scorpion (Michael Mando) and Tombstone (Marvin Jones III) while also forming a rather snarky rapport with Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal). Honestly their dynamic might be the best thing about the whole film in itself.

Of course the other highlight would be Sadie Sink herself. Yes, she's Jean Grey and the film didn't waste too much time in revealing both that and the extent of her powers. However for a large chunk of the film, she's more of an antagonist who had no problem trying to get into Peter's head and everyone else around him.

Jean's actions saw both Frank and even Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) being under her control. It's particularly for the latter who ended up losing himself to the Incredible Hulk yet again. Although I do generally like the character in the MCU, I don't think this was the best use of the character for this film.

While Jean definitely caused a lot of chaos in the film, I don't really think she was the baddie here. It's clearly meant to be Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman). As the head of the Department of Damage Control, he appeared as a neutral party until what transpired with Jean's sister, Sara (Olivia Booth-Ford) revealed him to be the absolute worst. No wonder Jean was the way she was here.

As an introduction to a side of the MCU that's on the way, I do think the film handled Jean Grey interestingly enough. She's volatile but sympathetic and of course, it would be a shared loss between her and Peter to be the thing to get her come around. I also think that Peter saving her from a bullet might have factored into things as well.

Going beyond the big threats (which also included The Hand but they were underused), I liked the way in which both MJ and Ned ended up remembering who Peter was to them. Both done in separate moments and both effectively handled. In particular, Zendaya got some of the best material she's had in this franchise. I hope that bodes well for further appearances.

- Peter's friendship with Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) was rather sweet. He even knew her kids names.

- I loved the use of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) in this film. I still miss her. 

- MJ's boyfriend is called Harry (Eman Esfandi) while characters such as Cindy Moon, Ramrod, Boomerang and Tarantula also popped up briefly.

- Yelena's office was a bathhouse while Frank had a boat as his base of operations. Bruce was sent to a mental health facility.

- The credit scene teased about Spider-Man returning. A fifth solo movie will definitely happen but I'm betting he's in the upcoming Avengers movies as well.

- Chronology: It's been four years since the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day turned out to be the second best movie from this iteration. There's strong performances from Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink and Jon Bernthal and an obscene amount of man flesh on display. Not everything worked (Hulk, The Hand) but they're minor quibbles. As a later summer blockbuster, there's a lot of fun to be had here.

Rating: 8 out of 10