I’m pleased to say that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a genuinely strong Spider-Man film that’s comfortably on par with the rest of the franchise, even if it’s far from flawless. Tom Holland is fully Spider-Man at this point, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon get real screen time despite concerns otherwise, and it hits every beat you actually want from a superhero movie, generic cute child interaction included.
If anything, where it stumbles is the marketing, not the film itself. Keeping the plot and several character identities vague throughout the press tour made it harder to sell than it needed to be, and word of mouth looks set to do more work than any of the trailers did. Other MCU characters show up, some far more recognisable to casual audiences than others, which really helps to ground the movie in the wider universe. Although there was a moment in the final third that left me second-guessing whether I was meant to know who someone was.
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Reports that the film was heavily recut before release, including Holland himself saying he’d seen a version that didn’t work, track with how it plays. There’s a strong Spider-Man film in here, just one weighed down early by its own insistence on secrecy. It also leans on fewer standout set pieces than its predecessors, and its near-total disconnection from the rest of the MCU continues to raise consistency questions that Marvel doesn’t seem interested in answering. This film credits Spider-Man with making New York feel safe, yet we’ve already seen Daredevil’s problems with Fisk play out in the same city. How does that not get even acknowledged?
Either way, none of that stopped it from being a genuinely fun watch, and audiences clearly agree. It’s currently tracking as the third-highest post-COVID opening ever, behind only No Way Home and Zootopia 2, with a standout $37.4 million opening day in China, the biggest superhero number there since Far From Home in 2019. After years of missteps, and with Avengers: Doomsday looming, there was real pressure on this one to land and lucky for Marvel, it does. It’s a franchise that’s struggling to justify itself lately, but this film, helped enormously by how likeable Holland’s Spider-Man remains, could be setting it on track to rectify that amongst fans.
There’s no doubt that Holland’s continues to carry this franchise and the real question isn’t whether Spider-Man: Brand New Day works. It’s whether Marvel can build on it before the goodwill runs out again.