Spider-Man: Brand New Day
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, but Peter Parker isn’t feeling all that good, the knowledge that the decision he made was the right one offering little comfort, a man who has always existed in a web of friendship and support, his Aunt May, Tony Stark, MJ and Ned, two dead and two out of reach, safe in their new lives sharing an apartment and studying at MIT but with all memory of their shared past wiped, Peter alone knowing the truth.
A necessary compromise to keep the world safe after his plea to Doctor Strange for anonymity destabilised the multiverse, his only associates are surly loner Frank Castle, hardly the type for hanging out with videogames and snacks, and NYPD detective Jean DeWolff with whom he coordinates to fight crime on the streets of the city, she concerned about Spider-Man’s wellbeing but he remaining distant.
Heroes accustomed to making sacrifices, beyond the bruises and scrapes there are persistent headaches and a strange focus on the downtown Department of Damage Control, Spider-Man managing to thwart an attempt to penetrate its perimeter but realising it is not a random incident, the perpetrator an inhabiting entity which leaps from body to body and his bathhouse contacts telling him this is not the first incident, DODC director Metzger blithely evasive when asked if he can think of any reason they might be targeted.
The costume now his for a decade, his seventh appearance excluding end credit cameos and his fourth time as a lead rather than an ensemble player, such is Tom Holland’s continuing youthful exuberance that it remains difficult to think of him as other than “the new guy” in the dual roles of Peter Parker and Spider-Man, Brand New Day offering new toys and old ploys as he faces up to an uncomfortable evolution.
His powers mutating and unpredictable, seemingly fighting against him, Holland is reunited with Jon Bernthal, his friend and co-star of Pilgrimage and The Odyssey as “Punisher” Frank Castle, his rough demeanour somewhat toned down for Marvel’s thirty-eighth family friendly epic, the format familiar and on the whole unchallenged by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton or writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, better than the First Steps which launched the current sixth phase but not shaping it in any important way.
Making no attempt to pretend other than the anonymous “big bad” (Sadie Sink’s cloaked figure) is actually misunderstood and justified in her actions while the vault hides secrets shifty Metzger (Tramell Tillman) would prefer to keep a lid on, Brand New Day is less than the sum of its parts, the premise of Spider-Man operating without the safety net of his powers sidelined by a gene silencing device which bears too much of a resemblance to the vulnerable inhibitor Doctor Octopus put on his mechanical prostheses.
A few camera spins aside, Brand New Day has little of the panache or joy of previous Spider- Man films, some of the effects noticeably sub-par in integration of characters and backgrounds but where it suffers most is the bland inconsequential administrator that is Metzger, never given complexity or justification, however valiantly misguided, for his actions, his masked men who seize the innocent carrying obvious parallels but their actions never explicitly condemned, the once colourful showcase for right and wrong turning a blind eye to the grey, as frustrating in its careful tiptoeing as Brave New World.
Looping back to “business as usual” rather than taking a bold step into the promised Brand New Day, the film principally functions as a reintroduction to a powerful new character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe rather than playing to the strengths of the announced cast, MJ, Ned and Bruce Banner (Zendaya, Jacob Batalon and Mark Ruffalo) joined by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova but in service of plot mechanics which are never more than adequate, the huge drop in the frequency of Marvel releases not corresponding with an increase in quality so much as a sense that the hungry fans should be grateful for anything.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is on general release now
