Spider-Man – Brand New Day (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

Spider-Man - Brand New Day

SPIDER-MAN – BRAND NEW DAY (2026)

Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, Mark Ruffalo, Marvin Jones III, Billy Clements, Eman Esfandi, Liza Colón-Zayas, Zabryna Guevara, Florence Pugh, Keith David, Fan Xiaoshuang, Zarra Kaahn, Jamaal Burcher, Ian Chance, Vivien Keene, Kurtis Lowe, Leah Phillips, Tony Revolori and Martin Starr.

Screenplay by Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton.

Distributed by Columbia Pictures. 145 minutes. Rated PG-13.

It’s kind of amazing that even in the ninth Spider-Man movie in just under a quarter century, this series (or series of series) can still find ways to reinvent itself. Brand New Day takes a walk on the darker side of the Spider-Man mythos – and I’ll admit, I’m a bit conflicted about that. Peter Parker has always been the lighter superhero in the Marvel pantheon. He’s an everyman, a well‑intentioned guy who may wrestle with teen angst but rarely plunges into existential despair. Even at his bleakest, he’s never been Bruce Wayne.

This film pushes him further into the shadows than we’re used to. And yet, I have to admit: it does so with style. Brand New Day feels markedly different from the other Spider-Man movies – even the previous three Tom Holland entries – in tone, pacing, and emotional weight.

Marvel is being extremely vigilant about spoilers, so you won’t find many specifics here. The studio has kept plot details, character arcs, and even the identity of the villain under wraps, and that secrecy is justified. This is a film best experienced fresh. Even small surprises – like Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink’s role or a brief cameo from a familiar face – are meant to land unspoiled. (The cameo actor’s name isn’t in the preview cast list, though it appears in the closing credits. I may add it to the cast list in a week or two once audiences have had time to digest the film.)

So other than the fact that Spider-Man is having a dark night of the soul, what can we say about Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Well, for one thing, it is perhaps the most introspective and character-driven of the films. Sometimes, even in superhero movies, it’s okay to slow things down and let the characters relate. The fights and stunts are spectacular, but the conversations and conflicts are what really bring the film its power.

It’s also one of the most beautifully shot films in the series. New York looks spectacular, vibrant and yet threatening. Director Destin Daniel Cretton and his cinematographer Brett Pawlak frame the city as both playground and pressure cooker – wide, airy daytime shots giving way to tighter, shadow‑soaked nighttime sequences that mirror Peter’s emotional descent.

Holland, who is having a big summer with this film following The Odyssey into multiplexes by two weeks, has grown completely into the role of Peter (and Spider-Man as well). The youthful goofiness of the original film has been tempered by experience, and yet you never forget that Peter is just a kid trying to figure out how to be his best self. Holland’s performance carries a quiet tension that embodies his doubt, confusion, and regrets. He seems to have finally totally internalized his late Uncle Ben’s advice, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Due to complications set up in the last film of the series, 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, the roles of Peter’s besties MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) take on new textures and nuances from previous outings. Both actors add new shadings and tones to their relationship with Peter, which has in a strange way been fundamentally changed.

Sadie Sink – playing a character that I cannot really describe without giving spoilers – does become the emotional throughline of the film; a complex and haunted character who may be good, or may be evil, or may just want to be left alone. Jon Bernthal also brings a new shot of energy to the film by transitioning his cynically violent small-screen role of Frank Castle / The Punisher to the big screen. (That is not a spoiler, Bernthal’s role is one of the few plot points that Marvel has been open about.) Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner / The Hulk and Florence Pugh’s Black Widow also add fun MCU texture to the film in their limited roles.

Cretton balances the darker tone with moments of warmth and humor, keeping the film from collapsing under its own weight.

That said, I do have to admit the antagonist’s superpower – or at least one of them – is a little silly. (Of course, no spoilers of what it is, but when you see it, you’ll know it.) According to my nephew, who is much more versed in Marvel lore than I am, it is not part of the graphic novels which inspired this film. Strangely, however, I kept feeling a nagging sensation that I had seen it before and it finally hit me, they used the same power for one of the spirits in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. And I thought it was a stupid power in that movie, too.

Speaking of past inspirations, there was also one comic stunt sequence that surprisingly felt like something straight out of the early 1980s TV series The Greatest American Hero – all flailing limbs, wipeouts and accidental heroics – but I have to admit it was a lot of fun.

So the real question is – does Spider-Man: Brand New Day work in the context of the series? The answer to that is a bit complicated, but mostly, yes. In certain ways, Brand New Day is the most intelligent and philosophically astute of the Spider-Man films. It is certainly the most well-made of the Holland Spidey series.

Yet, at the same time, due to the somewhat oppressive darkness of the storyline (which, again I will not reveal), it is not quite as much fun as some of the previous chapters. I have the feeling I will not revisit this film with as much regularity as some of the other movies.

Brand New Day is not quite what I was expecting from a Spider-Man movie (although the subtitle itself may have been fair warning about that), but it is definitely an intriguing new vision of a character whom we thought we had figured out.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2026 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: July 31, 2026.