Drew’s Review: Exploring the plot twists of ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’
To date, the "Spider-Man" movie franchise has earned over $11 billion worldwide.
It all began back in 2002 with director Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man,” co-starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. They collaborated in two sequels, “Spider-Man 2” (2004) and “Spider-Man 3” (2007).
The series continued in 2012 with “The Amazing Spider-Man,” co-starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. They returned two years later in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (2014).
In 2017 Tom Holland took over the lead role in “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” He reprised the role in 2019’s “Spider-Man: Far from Home’” and 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” co-starring Zendaya as Spider-Man’s girlfriend MJ.
Holland and Zendaya are back in the highly anticipated, mega-successful follow-up, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”(2026).
Fans of the series were left in limbo following the ending of “Spider-Man: Far from Home,” which concluded with Peter Parker/Spider-Man making a monumental decision: to save mankind, he had to allow his memory to be erased from everyone’s minds forever.
It was a heart-wrenching decision leaving him in a world in which neither his best buddy or soulmate girlfriend would ever recognize him or know who he was. Cliffhanger endings are rarely as big as that.
Loyal fans anxiously awaited.
In “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the story finds Spider-Man in New York City, still fighting crime. He’s a hero to the public, but still a complete stranger to those who were formerly closest to him. Sadly, he can only agonizingly observe them from a distance and dream of a day when they might somehow be reunited.
Before the story sinks deeper into a state of depression, Spider-Man is called into action to apprehend a supervillain, smashing through the streets of New York in a military tank. The action stretches the limits of his superhuman abilities as well as the strength of the Spider-Man web material shooting from his wrists. It’s a great opening action sequence.
Once the tank is stopped and the door is ripped off, everyone present is shocked to find the driver is a harmless looking old woman, but before anyone can make sense of what is happening, the story takes a radical turn when the evil entity occupying the woman’s body suddenly makes a telepathic jump into one of the bystanders and then continues to race through the bodies of a dozen other people. It’s a fresh, head-spinning plot twist that sets the stage for a Spider-Man story unlike anything we’ve seen before.
When Spider-Man finally catches a fleeting glimpse of his newest foe (played by Sadie Sink) she appears to be an innocent-looking young woman, seemingly incapable of evil -- despite her destructive power and determination to break into a security stronghold known as Damage Control.
As expected, the story offers endless twists and turns. Good guys turn out to be bad. Bad characters turn out to be sympathetic and good. The world of superhuman characters is always chock-full of surprises.
The big idea in the previous film was the notion of a multiverse and the possibility of multiple Spider-Men joining together to fight evil. It was a brilliant plot device that allowed all the actors who played Spider-Man in the past to unite and appear together in the same film. It was a crowd-pleasing moment, and as they say in show business, it was also going to be a hard act to follow.
“Brand New Day” goes in a different direction, borrowing characters from other sources, most notably The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Black Widow (here played by Florence Pugh instead of Scarlett Johansson), both from the Marvel “Avengers” franchise. There is also an “X-Men” story undercurrent with musings about the sad plight of mutants and their shared fate to forever be misfits and outcasts in a world they have vowed to save.
One of Spidey’s other dilemmas is his fear that there is a growing, uncontrollable monster within him that will eventually turn him into something akin to The Hulk.
Watch: SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY – Official Trailer
“Brand New Day” does its best to entertain with high-energy action sequences. The biggest criticism is its 2-hour, 25-minute run time, which is easily 30 minutes too long. Rumors suggested negative feedback from early test audiences sent the production back to the edit room for changes and revisions. That seems evident.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” enjoyed a spectacular, record-breaking opening at the box office. While fans may argue whether it’s the best installment in the series, no one can argue with its financial success.
Spider-Man is a superhero who clearly, pardon the pun, sticks in a sometimes-slippery world of comic book movie heroes. Borrowing an old term from Variety over the years, the Spider-Man movies have repeatedly proven they have “legs” (referring to longevity at local theaters). This one seems to be no exception, making Spider-Man, his radioactive laboratory spider and his wildly popular franchise nothing short of amazing.
DREW’S TAKE:
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is a super-successful, superhero summer movie with some surprise cameos and a 2-hour, 25-minute run time.
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