Spider-Man is arguably my favourite character in any media. As a 30 year-old, I still have a canvas of Spider-Man on my walls, and changed my game console allegiance basically just to play the Insomniac games. I remember clearly The Amazing Spider-Man being the first film I spoke about in my media studies, and then the first teaser for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 being something I rushed home to watch. In the time since then, we’ve moved on to Tom Holland as Peter Parker, had 6 appearances in his own solo films, and had roles in others. I’ve enjoyed all his solo films on the whole, but certainly felt like it could do more, but left him in such an interesting place where that would be possible. Like everyone, I was hyped from the moment the first trailer dropped online, something I watched many times, and had a whole host of theories going into Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

This fourth solo film takes place several years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter isn’t doing much with his life apart from fighting crime like Spider-Man. The stress of not having a break, and focusing on that part of his life is getting to him, as his body starts to react and his powers start to adapt. The situation is more complicated when he comes across a threat, a telepath on a mission to get something from inside Damage Control facilities.

Jon Watts delivered great box office success with the solo films so far, but No Way Home very much felt like an end to his trilogy, giving a chance to refresh the character and hand the keys onto the next director. Sony opted to go with someone who had already had success with Marvel, in Destin Daniel Cretton, who was director of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and was initially tapped to direct Avengers 4 before it shifted to Doomsday and The Russo brothers returned. An exciting choice given the fantastic action in Shang-Chi. And there are some good set pieces in this film. I particularly enjoyed the opening action scene with the tank, which feels like a true highlight of the film. What is a shame is that a lot of the other action set pieces only have moments, and often feel way shorter than you want. Even when it comes to the typically grand scale of a final action set piece, it’s there but ultimately feels like the weakest in the film.

Tom Holland has openly spoken about how he paused production on this film after working on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Having the film almost go back to the storyboard to focus on the story over scale, and feeling slightly more grounded. I think as part of this process, there were a lot of people already cast in the film and they worked around that. I think this was never truer than the appearance of Tombstone. Marvin Jones III did voice the character in Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, but actually only makes an appearance in this film for a few seconds, which feels like a huge waste on a talented actor and a character we’ve not seen in live action before. Tom Holland’s input does make me question what could’ve been if it had been retooled from the beginning, and always been a part of the plan. There’s a clear focus on Peter Parker as a person and how he’s dealing with everything is the main focus of the film. I don’t have a problem with that as an idea, but the execution doesn’t fully work. It almost feels too safe, there’s a weird world around Spider-Man in the comics, whether you delve into the mutation that has happened or wherever you delve into the weird spider totem side. It feels like it does the safest option possible, and ends up leaving the character feeling like he hasn’t progressed that much from the beginning of the film to the end.

I will give credit to Tom Holland, who does continue to get better as an actor. I think this film especially gives him the most opportunity to flex his acting ability. He’s going through the most emotions we’ve ever seen from a Peter Parker in a film, and is helped by having great chemistry with any of his scene partners whether he has a mask on or not.What I do think is a worry is a natural aspect of this character. Now that this character isn’t going around telling everyone who he is, does mean he will have to keep his mask on as often as possible if we are to see him again in an Avengers film, so it’s a hard sell to the actor. I am glad for Tom Holland as an actor, but for this character I worry about the influence he has on this franchise, and hope it can stay true to the character.

Zendaya started these films as a fairly known actress to younger people only thanks to her Disney days. Since the start of this franchise, she has gone on to become one of the most consistent actresses in the industry. Winning awards and critical acclaim across films and TV, and working with some of the best directors working, and alongside the industry’s best actors. Every time she’s onscreen, you can feel her presence and she owns the screen. I might not agree with what they’re doing with her character and her story, but Zendaya always delivers.

There’s been a lot of mystery around Sadie Sink and her character, something which has been played into with the marketing of the film, and also happens in the film itself. I won’t reveal who she is playing, but I had narrowed it down to a couple of beforehand. Sadie is mostly known for her role as Max in Stranger Things, a role that has defined her young career so far, but did appear opposite Brendan Fraser in his Oscar winning role in The Whale, where Sink was also praised for her performance. She’s also gone on to refine her craft by appearing on stage within the last year. It’s clear she wants to learn and get better when she was already one of the standouts in Stranger Things. She delivers a good performance in this film, in a challenging role. It will be really intriguing to see when we see this character next, which is rumoured to be in Avengers: Secret Wars but very well could be longer than that.

The rest of the cast do a good job. The particular standout is Jon Bernthal as The Punisher, a character who has appeared multiple times in the Marvel Netflix series’ before Disney picked up the baton and continued the story on Disney+. He has fantastic chemistry with Tom Holland and is so much fun when he turns up on screen, and somehow manages to go through the very gritty Daredevil to the slightly brighter and family friendly Spider-Man.

Overall, Spider-Man: Brand New Day didn’t fully live up to the full expectations I had going in. Some of the strongest performances I’ve seen in this film, isn’t enough to save it from feeling pretty meh at times and predictable. I seem to be in a minority with a lot of people raving about the film and giving it extremely positive reviews, and it’s tracking to be one of the highest-grossing films of all time, so I’m sure no lessons will be learned here and the next solo film will be more of the same of this.

What did you think of Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

Let me know in the comments below or on social media @floodersfilms.