Rating: 4/5
Get your ass to the cinemas, Spider-man: Brand New Day is officially out. It’s a strange film to review because it assumes a history that feels just out of reach. Everyone in New York reacts to Spider-Man like he’s always been there, yet the man beneath the mask is treated as if he’s a complete nobody. The film leans into the uneasy feeling that something – or someone – important has been erased from everyone’s lives. It creates an oddly compelling mystery: who is this young man, and why does it seem like the world has forgotten him?
Tom Holland delivers one of his strangest performances in the role. Without relying on familiar supporting characters or established relationships, he carries the emotional weight almost entirely through body language and quite moments beneath the mast. There’s a loneliness to this version of Spider-Man that gives every victory a bittersweet edge. You don’t need to know who he is to understand that he’s carrying something impossibly heavy.
The action is spectacular. The web-swinging feels tactile again, favouring long takes through crowded city streets over constant CGI spectacle. “Web, Stop” has become a new go-to quote for me. The fight choreography is inventive, and every encounter reinforces that Spider-Man succeeds because he’s resourceful rather than unstoppable.
Where Brand New Day excels most is in its restraint. Instead of chasing bigger multiversal stakes, it tells a smaller story about identity, sacrifice, and what it means to keep doing the right thing when nobody knows your name. There are hints of a life that existed before the events of this film, but they’re presented like faded photographs – recognisable to only the man behind the mask.
By the time the credits roll, the biggest question is who is this Peter Parker guy? The film never gives a satisfying answer, the mask comes off and Spider-Man speaks of this “peter” character as if we’re meant to know who that is.
