It’s that time again! New Spider-Man movie time! I’ve been reviewing Spider-Man movies on this blog since way back in the Amazing Spider-Man days. And I’ve loved all of them! I don’t know if they’ve ever made a real stinker of a Spider-Man movie. I don’t remember how I felt coming out of Spider-Man 3…Regardless, we’ve got a new director, a new direction maybe and a new Spider-Man movie to talk about!

Movie Rating: 10/10 – Fantastic!

I loved this movie, as I’ve loved all Spider-Man movies. I had a ton of fun. I’m starting to worry that my local theater just can’t play new movies to a quality degree, but that’s a me problem, not a movie problem. I’m still a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I never once doubted this movie. It lived up to all the hype it has been getting and I can’t wait to see how it does at the box office this weekend. The people love Spider-Man. This dude loves Spider-Man. We all love Spider-Man!

Join me after the jump for my full thoughts and review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Expect FULL SPOILERS for the movie, the characters and the surprises. And feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments below.

6. This film had everything

I loved this movie to a pleasant degree and had a grand time — though I think I need to accept that my local theater just isn’t very good anymore. Supergirl was very dark, and this film was annoyingly dark at times. At any rate, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a super fun film that had everything one could want from such a movie. It’s a great superhero tale, with plenty of action, super-powers, cameos, connections and more. It’s a great Spider-Man movie, with a focus on his specific life, powers, fighting-style, web-swinging and more. And then it’s an emotional film. I teared up at one point. I couldn’t tell you the last time that happened in a superhero movie.

If I’m being honest, I perhaps felt it was a bit slow in the beginning, but the movie expertly built steam and kept getting better and better. I didn’t notice the longer-than-average runtime, or I felt the length didn’t detract from the movie. It had a strong second act and then an even stronger third act. All characters were excellent, from the big to the small. The cameos were worked nicely into the actual story and plot and served their purposes well. And Peter’s emotional arc and character arc were great. He grew, he learned from the people and the events around him, and he came to be in a very good place by the end. Who doesn’t love that sort of thing?

Director Destin Daniel Cretton is rightfully Marvel’s new golden boy and I hope he has his hands in a lot of projects going forward. I hope he gets to do a whole new Spider-Man trilogy!

5. Great use of wider MCU characters

I love character cameos as much as the next person, and I’m not someone who worries that there will be too many cameos. Brand New Day handled them perfectly. The new film is one of the most perfect examples of how to make use of the wider universe of characters. Spider-Man has the Punisher as a boots-on-the-ground crime-fighting partner/bicker buddy? Worked flawlessly! Holland and Bernthal clearly have amazing chemistry as pals. And then Spider-Man can just check in with Black Widow and the Incredible Hulk, who exist in the world doing their own thing? Also flawless! I didn’t know Yalena was going to be in the movie — though Florence Pugh appearing on the red carpet premiere sort of gave it away. She worked nicely. And Hulk was great as both Banner discussing the inhibitor stuff and then Hulk as a tool for Jean Grey.

I also enjoyed the villain montage we got. Scorpion is my favorite Spider-Man villain, and I’m so pleased that Michael Mando finally got to suit up and pay off his first appearance back in Homecoming. I think my theater plays movies too dark, so I couldn’t exactly see him in all his glory…but it was still awesome! He worked great as a jobber villain. Likewise, Boomerang, Tarantula and Tombstone all had brief but fun appearances. It’s been discussed for ages that a Spider-Man movie could easily begin with a montage of him beating up his lesser villains, and it’s now happened and it worked excellently. Glad to see them all show up!

4. Perfect amount of MJ and Ned

I’m pretty sure I saw some online discourse about the movie that either Ned and MJ show up too much or too little. I thought it was the perfect amount. We knew or should have known that the franchise wouldn’t abandon them completely after the mind-wipe of No Way Home. I was never their biggest fan for some reason…but I thought both were great in this movie! The mind-wipe is a weird plotline to have to deal with, but Brand New Day handled it perfectly with MJ. It was touching, painful, real and then very, very wholesome once Peter allowed himself to open back up to his friends. And while Ned appeared less than MJ, he didn’t need as much screentime, in my opinion. We got just the perfect amount of both of them.

3. Jean Grey was an insane idea that worked perfectly

Sad to say, the idea that Sadie Sink was playing Jean Grey in Brand New Day was sort of mostly known. I never confirmed any of the leaks for my own benefit, but the internet was definitely talking about it enough that I wasn’t surprised when the reveal happened on screen. But that’s whatever. What really matters is how Sink absolutely destroyed it as Jean Grey! Holy cow, what a performance, what a character introduction!

It’s such a wild swing, as well. Spider-Man has one of the most celebrated rogues galleries in comics, and yet for the fourth film in this series, they go with Jean Grey as the ‘main’ villain?! And then they resist introducing any other X-Men concepts on top of that? Look, I know we’ve got an MCU X-Men reboot coming. And I know this was surely done to introduce Jean into that reboot. But c’mon…that didn’t need to happen here! Spider-Man is Marvel’s biggest movie franchise. He’s arguably the most popular superhero in the world. We’re in the precarious position of kicking off a new trilogy/chapter for him when Marvel and superhero films aren’t exactly the biggest draw anymore. And you decide to make the villain — one of the most important roles in the film — Jean freakin’ Grey?! Insane!

But like I said, Sink was phenomenal in the role and the character worked perfectly for the movie. She was a great foil to Peter’s own growth, while having her own tragic story and journey to maturing. And Sink just killed it. Holy cow. I’ve never been much of a Jean Grey fan, but now I want her to be the star of the upcoming X-Men movie. Let it be this Jean’s story as she finds a home at the Xavier School. We don’t need Wolverine to star. We’ve got the star right here, fully developed.

I legit teared up when I realized Peter was going to let Jean into his mind in order to meet memory Aunt May, and continued getting choked up when that scene played out. Beautiful.

2. I just plain loved the Spider-Man of it all

So I am not in any position to say if this was the most Spider-Man movie of all time. I just don’t know or view or think of Spider-Man like that. I know the tropes, I know what makes the character popular, but I just don’t process stuff like that. But I can definitely say Spider-Man was done very well in this movie. Tom Holland continues to be perfectly cast in the role, and he did a great job balancing the new mutations. I prefer mechanical web-shooters to organic, but I liked the balance this movie brought. I loved seeing Peter down on his luck, but still helping wherever he could. I loved seeing Peter interact with other superheroes. I loved the Peter/MJ stuff. I loved the new cloth-based costume. It looked super neat and worked perfectly on the big screen. No need for fancy, CGI’d suits.

The web-slinging was super fun. I’d read something where the previous three movies avoided swinging through the canyons of New York because that had been done before. Well this movie brought it back with style! Heck, I got a bit of a thrill in a little moment when Spidey jumped up to a ceiling and just crawled across the ceiling/wall, because he’s the wall-crawler! And the fighting was gorgeously choreographed. This movie really nailed everything it needed to nail about being a Spider-Man movie.

1. The sky is the limit

Anything is possible for the MCU at this point. Sure, we’ve got Doomsday coming up, followed by Secret Wars, but if those are anything like the comics, I figure I already know what we’re mostly going to get. So I’m talking about future Spider-Man movies and now future X-Men movies. Where can Spidey go from here? He’s established, he’s good, he’s classic Spider-Man…the sky is the limit. So many villains are still available or can be redone. The post-credits scene, in my opinion, was hinting at Venom and doing so very badly. That was a crappy post-credits scene. But are they willing to do Venom yet again?! They keep talking about Miles Morales, and I’m sure he’d fit in nicely going forward.

And what about the X-Men?! After that Jean Grey introduction, I can’t even imagine what we might get. Can they cast a Cyclops to even hold a candle to Sadie Sink? What about a Wolverine even? Will it be a school? How about introducing Storm in the recently announced Black Panther 3? That would be a perfect time, and then we could follow Jean and Storm into the X-Men movie. That would be neat!

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