At the Movies: Spiderman - Brand New Day
The poster for 'Spiderman - Brand New Day'
It’s probably wise to recap where Spiderman is at as we enter this latest instalment. In the previous film, courtesy of some occult help from Dr Strange, a spell was cast to make the world forget that Peter Parker is the famous web-slinger.
That far-reaching choice involves painful on-going consequences for Peter. Chiefly, he has been totally erased from the memories of his first love MJ and best friend Ned. They weirdly can remember Spiderman’s heroic interventions in their lives but have no notion of ever knowing Peter.
Naturally enough, this results in a very isolated and reclusive Peter who is stoically trying to embrace the loner aspect of his narrow existence. He still stalks the rooftops of New York and intervenes in and thwarts crime but the loneliness of his increasingly solitary calling is causing him mental anguish. And that festering hurt is suddenly matched by a physical pain as the arachnid part of his nature mutates within his body.
All of which means that we are a very long way from the bouncy carefree superhero who has always been defined by his positivity. Sure, the movie ensures that Spiderman still goes the extra mile to protect innocent bystanders and bond with kids but this film really leans into the growing pains of Tom Holland’s character.
It doesn’t help that the main threat he faces is a nebulous opponent who is nearly impossible to nail down. Instead, this new foe can flit from body to body, possessing each individual in a chain and making the occupied person do the villain’s will. The same entity is seemingly desperate to break into a government facility with repeated attacks suggesting there is something secret of massive value inside the fortified building.
Peter blindly backs the establishment forces of law and order at first, but is he on the right side of this fight? When the mind occupier starts to invade his brain and threaten those he holds dear, Spiderman actually needs help from local vigilante, the Punisher, who amusingly rides to the rescue in explosive style. Peter also approaches a certain Dr Banner for advice on how the professor is keeping the Hulk at bay.
However, even a glimpse of Banner preps the audience that the big green giant is going to show his true colours at some stage. Even the poster overtly promises his appearance and thus it comes to pass. Elsewhere, there is an extra frisson to watching the onscreen chemistry of Tom and Zendaya now that their offscreen relationship has been confirmed for the watching world. In fairness, Zendaya maximises every minute she has onscreen, elevating the emotions and injecting enough warmth to make the audience care for the characters amid a predictable blizzard of CGI and special effects.
Overall, the film serves up the requisite action and set pieces in quite a rote fashion. Part of the remit of this film is to edge the franchise closer to an imminent crossover with another brand of superheroes. I won’t spoil it but even in this regard, the film is rather snail paced. All of which just amounts to the illusion of forward movement. This film is running to stand still. If Peter’s big emotional breakthrough is the realisation that he doesn’t want to be alone, then we’ve all just spent a lot of time and money to get back to where we were a few movies ago.
So it’s not really a case of a brand new day. More like the same old story.
