Spider-Man: Brand New Day

DB

5 minutes ago

3 min read

The Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps up its recent hot streak.

MOVIES

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Movie summary: A forgotten Peter Parker lives alone as a full-time Spider-Man until mounting pressure triggers a dangerous change and a powerful new enemy emerges. (IMDb)

Ooh boy, did I really enjoy Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

I think the main reason I liked it so much is because it felt like a 4-5 issue arc from the comics brought to life exactly, with the extended Marvel Universe featuring solely as needed to tell the story, not just because extra characters could be thrown in there.

The Punisher, the Hulk, Damage Control, the Hand, a smattering of minor villains from Spidey's rogues' gallery and even... Sadie Sink's character all at least felt like the belonged to the story and vibe the movie had to offer.

I'll admit to not being too enthused with Spider-Man in the MCU so far, feeling that he works better as part of an ensemble rather than on his own, but Brand New Day absolutely changed my mind and I hope the series continues to feel like that.

The movie looks great - even if it does make New York look like the 'golden hour' lasts half a day - and special praise has to go to just how colourful this movie is, especially Spidey's costume (easily the best version put on-screen so far).

Pretty much all the cast are great too - I especially love Spider-Man and Punisher's relationship (helped no doubt by Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal being friends in real life), but my highest praise has to go to Zendaya.

Her MJ is still unquestioningly the same character, but Zendaya absolutely nails the feeling that she has changed over the years since No Way Home, going from teenage high school student to young woman, and I'm especially impressed with how much control she has over her voice and changing it from earlier appearances - really impressive stuff.

We also get the return of the savage, scary version of the Hulk for the first time since his rampage in Avengers: Age of Ultron and how easily he overpowers the title character without making Spidey look weak is a high-wire act of skill the director, Destin Daniel Cretton, pulls off to perfection.

I could go on and on praising Brand New Day (it even plants seeds for Spidey to eventually fall out with the X-Men at some point down the line!), but I think you get the idea: this is a pretty damned good movie.

In fact, the least good part of the film ('worst' sounds too harsh) is the score - the 'Home' Spider-Man trilogy felt like it had a distinct musical identity, which this movie lacks to a certain degree.

To be honest, the fact that is the single biggest 'issue' I have with Brand New Day should be enough to tell how highly I rate this film and definitely recommend seeing it.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day isn't just my favourite MCU Spider-Man film, but my favourite live-action Spider-Man movie full-stop, feeling like a comicbook arc perfectly brought to life. [9/10]