Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review
Spider-Man: Homecoming had Spidey under the tutelage of Iron Man; Spider-Man: Far From Home had Spidey mourning Iron Man, and Spider-Man: No Way Home had Spider-Man with other Spider-Men, but Spider-Man: Brand New Day finds our titular hero alone. The focus is turned away from the external factors that influence Spider-Man to realign on who he is and who he is becoming. It’s the crux of the entire film, with a lot going on around the main character.
Before, we had Peter stumbling into what it means to be Spider-Man, but now we find him relearning what it means to be Peter Parker. Finally getting to see Tom Holland’s Spider-Man swing through New York City brought back so much of what has been missing in the other films, ushering him into a whole new chapter of the character.
The film transitions into the four years after No Way Home, and an isolated Peter Parker works full-time as Spider-Man in a world that has forgotten him. Mounting pressure triggers an uncontrollable physical change in Peter that threatens his survival. All while he struggles with his own physical and metaphorical transformations, Spider-Man must face a powerful, invisible new threat and confront his past.
A physical change is ravaging Peter’s body and mind as his spider DNA evolves into something entirely different. Going into the film, it was the element I was most worried would be played as a joke, as many things are in the MCU. But it’s treated with great care, especially in conversation with Bruce Banner, AKA The Incredible Hulk, (Mark Ruffalo). Peter and he discuss the changes, but more so what it means to be human and to be ourselves. The element of change between Peter Parker and Spider-Man is one of the core elements of the film that makes it stand above the previous trilogy.
When someone is transforming into a bug, your mind can go a few ways with the allusions. My personal touchstone is Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, which feels apt to discuss in conversation with Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Metamorphosis is an exploration of isolation through the character Gregor Samsa and his belief in what makes him useful to the world. In that way, Peter’s journey mirrors a lot of the ideas found in the text. Peter has become isolated from an entire life he once lived, the people he loved, and what made him Peter Parker. But what he has left is his other self, Spider-Man. Where Gregor turns into a beetle, Peter is physically and metaphorically becoming more Spiderman than Spider-Man.
With each obstacle in the film, we see this internal battle over who he is becoming and which side will win out in the end. It’s an exploration of the character who has lost everything at this point and of the elements that make us human. Placing him as a juxtaposition with someone like The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), who has fully let himself be sentenced by his guilt into becoming the Punisher, only makes Peter’s story stronger. With each obstacle he faces, we see people who have gone too far in one direction without finding any semblance of balance in their ideals, lives, and identities.
While there are so many things pushing Peter toward losing his humanity in this rebirth, we also see so many positives in who he has become. New York itself becomes a character again, a major theme the previous films lacked. New York is shown to love a hero. In the words of Aunt May in Spider-Man 2, “Everybody loves a hero. People line up for them. Cheer them. Scream their names.” Spider-Man is as much of a part of New York as it is a part of him. It plays a major role in the film, roaring as Spider-Man swings through its streets, struggling with the storm inside his own body.
Every piece of what makes Spider-Man one of the greatest characters in fiction is on display in the film. Their handling of the dozen villains in the film is handled with incredible tact by the director Destin Daniel Cretton, who doesn’t let the huge amount of beats in the film bury the major themes. After 3 films, Holland gets a chance to show how the character has matured and how he is dealing with the changes swirling around him. All of this web-slinging action makes for one of the best Spider-Man films to date, celebrating Spider-Man in every way.
