Let’s get this out of the way immediately: Spider-Man: Brand New Day is not only the best Spider-Man movie ever made – it is one of the best superhero films ever made.
Gauntlet. Thrown. Down.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton has taken a franchise that could easily have begun running on nostalgia fumes and injected it with fresh blood, real emotion and spectacular action. The result is a film that feels both intimately connected to everything audiences have loved about Spider-Man and bold enough to swing confidently in a new direction.
Following the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is living in a world that no longer remembers him. He anonymously protects New York City while remaining separated from MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), the two people who once knew him best.
That setup gives Brand New Day its emotional foundation. This is not merely another story about Spider-Man stopping a powerful threat. It is about Peter Parker attempting to discover who he is when the people he loves no longer know his name.
Tom Holland has never been better.
Over the course of his previous appearances, Holland transformed Peter from an overeager teenager desperate to become an Avenger into a young man who understands the cost of being a hero. Here, he gives his most mature and emotionally exposed performance in the role. Holland carries Peter’s loneliness in his face, his posture and even the moments when he tries to convince everyone—including himself—that he is doing fine.
He isn’t.
But this is still Spider-Man, so Peter keeps swinging.
Zendaya once again proves that MJ is far more than the hero’s obligatory love interest. She brings intelligence, humor and emotional honesty to every scene. Her chemistry with Holland remains effortless, but the circumstances surrounding their characters give their interactions an entirely new tension. The film never takes the audience’s investment in Peter and MJ for granted. It understands that we care about them because Holland and Zendaya have spent years making their relationship feel genuine.
Jacob Batalon is equally effective as Ned. His warmth and natural comic timing remain intact, but he also gets to explore more complicated emotional territory. Together, Holland, Zendaya and Batalon remind us that the greatest strength of this Spider-Man series has never been its connection to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. It has been our connection to these three characters.
And yes, the newcomers deliver.
Sadie Sink is a terrific addition, bringing intensity, vulnerability and an intriguing unpredictability to the story. The less said about her role, the better. Let the movie reveal its secrets in its own time.
Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle is also a welcome presence. Bernthal remains the definitive live-action Punisher: dangerous, damaged and seemingly one inconvenience away from putting someone through a wall.
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More importantly, the film finally allows Frank Castle to truly become the Punisher he was always meant to be – brutal, relentless and uncompromising. His harder worldview provides a fascinating contrast to Peter’s determination to save people rather than punish them.
Mark Ruffalo, meanwhile, appears to be having an absolute blast. After years of Bruce Banner learning to coexist with his enormous green alter ego, it is exhilarating to see Ruffalo tap back into a more volatile and gloriously unhinged Hulk. The character once again feels dangerous – and that danger matters.
Cretton, who previously directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, stages the action with clarity, scale and imagination. Several sequences left my mouth hanging open wide enough for a truck to drive through. Spider-Man moves with a speed, agility and physicality that we have rarely seen depicted this effectively in live action.
More importantly, the action tells us something about Peter. Every punch, fall and desperate rescue is connected to his emotional journey. These are not weightless computer-generated set pieces inserted because the movie is contractually obligated to destroy several city blocks. The danger feels immediate, and the consequences feel personal.
Cretton also pays loving homage to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, as well as the visual inventiveness and emotional fearlessness of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Those influences can be felt throughout the film, but Brand New Day never becomes an imitation. Cretton uses Spider-Man’s cinematic past as a foundation while creating something unmistakably his own.
The screenplay by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers balances an impressive number of characters without losing sight of Peter. Even when familiar MCU faces enter the story, the film remains a Spider-Man movie rather than becoming another overstuffed Marvel team-up.
That distinction is important.
At its heart, Spider-Man has always been a character defined by loss, responsibility and the stubborn belief that helping one person still matters. Brand New Day understands that. Beneath the massive action sequences, evolving powers and larger Marvel mythology is a painfully human story about loneliness and the courage required to reconnect with the world.
The movie is funny without undermining its drama. It is heartbreaking without becoming hopeless. And it is reverential toward Spider-Man’s history without being trapped by it.
This is the way a superhero film should be made.
It should thrill us, certainly. It should make us believe that a young man can swing between skyscrapers, battle impossible enemies and somehow survive another collision with the pavement.
But it should also make us care about the person beneath the mask.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day does all of that – and then some. It is spectacular, surprisingly intimate and emotionally devastating in all the right ways. Cretton has brought a breath of fresh air to the property, while Tom Holland, Zendaya and Batalon reward the emotional investment audiences have placed in these characters for nearly a decade.
The film may be called Brand New Day, but it also feels like the culmination of everything this version of Spider-Man has been building toward.
Heartbreaking. Hopeful. Heroic.
And, in my opinion, the best Spider-Man film ever made.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing exclusively in theaters. The film is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando and Mark Ruffalo.
BOTTOM LINE: Spider-Man: Brand New Day is not only the best Spider-Man movie ever made – it is one of the best superhero films ever made. It’s a REEL SEE.
The Geek is a working screenwriter, director and screenwriting instructor.
