Posted by I swear at this point I should just become a comic book news blog given how much I’ve been writing about comic books and comic book news lately. But I digress. There’s a new Spider-Man movie. I saw it. Let’s talk about it.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
The story follows Peter Parker in the wake of No Way Home as he buries himself in work as Spider-Man. He dedicates a lot of his time and energy to fighting crime and upgrading his equipment. All the while, he’s grappling with the isolation and loneliness of having his best friends forget him, and losing Aunt May. Meanwhile, an enigmatic threat keeps attacking Damage Control Headquarters in New York. While trying to shut down one of the attacks, Spider-Man realizes that whatever is trying to get in is able to jump from person to person remotely, like possession or mind control. Spider-Man consults with Yelena, who gives him a lead to follow when he meets with the director of Damage Control. All the while, Peter is dealing with internal changes as the balance between human and spider hormones in his body begins to fluctuate with the spider side growing stronger. Peter consults Dr. Bruce Banner about suppressing the problematic genes, and he begins experimenting with prototypes. Shortly thereafter, the figure confronts Peter and taunts him about keeping MJ safe and knowing who he really is. He races across town to save her, and seemingly stops his enemy from jumping bodies. He finds MJ and brings her back to his apartment where they have a moment until it’s revealed that she’s actually possessed. Peter barely saves her and is given a final threat by the figure, who then drives away. He gets a brief look at his opponent, successfully saving a photo of her face. Peter takes MJ to Frank Castle and asks him to watch out for her while he figures out what’s going on. Peter researches the girl and gets a name: Jean Grey. MJ helps Peter fix his inhibitor chip to keep his spider genes in check, and then he leaves to stop Jean. MJ convinces Frank to go with him. At Damage Control HQ, Peter and Frank confront a rampaging Hulk who is under Jean’s control. She eventually drops control of him, instead choosing to take Frank over. Peter tries to help Bruce, but he transforms into the Hulk. Like the actual, monstrous, uncontrollable Hulk we haven’t seen in years cause Jean messed something up in his head when she was inside. Jean and Frank open the Damage Control vault, and she asks the director about V-MAX–the thing that she’s been looking for. Spider-Man arrives just in time to put an inhibitor on her, nullifying her powers and allowing her to be captured. Peter returns to find MJ reading the explanation letter about his identity that he had been meaning to tell her for years. Unfortunately, things just can’t be the same between the two of them, at least not yet, and Peter brings her back to her apartment. He is reintroduced to Ned, who is still a massive Spider-Man fan, and the two of them build some LEGOs together until MJ makes a comment that makes Peter realize the director of Damage Control was lying to him about something. He calls Yelena again and learns that Jean has a sister–Sara–who had similar powers to Jean, and that Damage Control kidnapped her. Now fully aware of what’s going on, Spider-Man races back to Damage Control to rescue Jean. Meanwhile, the director is beginning to experiment on Jean as they test her telephonic powers and her jumping abilities. It’s at this point that Jean looks up and sees “V-MAX” written on the torn label of the fan unit above her. She realizes that this “V-MAX,” this final message from her sister, was the last thing she saw before she died during a similar testing experience. Jean releases a massive wave of psychic energy, freezing(?) a large portion of New York and kind of putting everyone under her control. Spider-Man fights his way inside, all the while talking to Jean through the possessed damage control enforcers. He faces off against members of The Hand who now work for Damage Control, and during the battle he’s confronted with the question he’s been grappling with for so long: “are you Spider-Man or Peter Parker?” He embraces both roles and lets the spider hormones rise, finally giving him the edge he needs to get past Damage Control’s specialized anti-Spider-Man brigade. Peter then allows Jean into his mind where she gets a message from Aunt May about what it means to have such great power. Then a gunshot rings out. Peter pushes Jean out of the way and taking a massive bullet for her. Frank, who took the shot, rushes Spider-Man to the hospital where New York holds its collective breath in vigil for their hero. He survives and recovers, and as he leaves, he realizes just how important Spider-Man is to the world, and that he doesn’t need to go it alone anymore. The movie ends with Peter buying flowers for May’s grave, and he notices Ned sitting at a table. Peter approaches him, introduces himself, and does his special handshake with Ned, who then seems to remember everything as it ends.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is an absolutely phenomenal movie. Everything about it is what a Marvel movie SHOULD be. It genuinely makes me want to go out and get caught up on the prior MCU projects I missed; unfortunately, those projects include absolute stinkers like Secret Invasion. Now, the movie is nearly 2.5 hours long, so there’s plenty of time to tell the story it’s trying to tell, and it really does it. Truth be told, after Jean got captured, I assumed that the movie was preparing to wrap-up, and I was fairly satisfied with it. But then Peter realized that he had been lied to, and I realized that we had just finished act two and still had a whole third act to get through. The third act absolutely nails it and brings the movie to a very satisfying conclusion.
Thematically, the movie actually says something about being a hero, and specifically the hero of Spider-Man. It’s no secret that Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes of all time. The end scenes of New York watching his hospital room with bated breath is both a cathartic moment of gratification for the character of Peter as he realizes how important his influence is, and a commentary on how important heroes like Spider-Man are to us as viewers. Everyone wants to be special. Everyone wants to be seen. And with great power comes great responsibility. Peter and Jean both struggle with the darker aspects of their powers. At first, Peter tries to run from it or banish the bad parts. By the end, he fully embraces himself and his new, stronger abilities. The movie has a deeply tragic undertone as we see an older Peter from when we last saw him, and in the four years since No Way Home, he has fallen into a dark place mentally. He works and works and works, doing almost nothing except for fighting crime because he CHOSE to be Spider-Man at the expense of being Peter Parker. He never reconnected with Ned and MJ because he knew that being a hero was dangerous, and he didn’t want them to get hurt like Aunt May did. But by the end of the movie, he has grown and realized that he needs people, just like how New York needs Spider-Man. It’s an optimistic and heartwarming moment of character growth.
Peter as a character is incredibly well-written throughout the movie. One of my personal favorite details is just how quippy and sarcastic he is–exactly as he should be. However, the jokes and humor feel different from before. In the past, he was a high schooler just cracking jokes because that’s what high schoolers do. But now, it felt more like the humor was a part of his branding as a hero. Spider-Man as a brand and symbol is a recurring theme throughout the film as Peter tries to hide his identity, sometimes to comedic effect. And it’s those little moments that make the times he unmasks himself that much more meaningful and cathartic.
Turning to the supporting cast, it’s also great. Frank Castle is a perfect foil for Spider-Man. The Punisher has zero qualms killing his problems, which makes his banter back-and-forth with Spider-Man that much better. The whole idea of heroes not killing is such a difficult topic sometimes, but I think that it’s handled very well here. Having both sides of the question with Punisher and Spider-Man present leads to a fantastic execution. Truth be told, both stances are valid. Yes, the audience is going to side with Spider-Man since it’s his movie, but Frank isn’t written off as the bad guy. At the end of the day, he’s still a hero trying to do the right thing, just in a very different and morally questionable way. It feels like a parallel with his initial appearance in Daredevil season two. He also isn’t just a throwaway character or cameo, but he has a genuinely important role in the plot.
Turning to Jean, oh boy is there a lot to unpack here. First and foremost, my jaw dropped when we got the name reveal. I absolutely was not expecting such an important character to appear in the movie, so it definitely caught me by surprise. Not to say that the movie couldn’t advance the MCU’s trajectory, but I wasn’t expecting anyone new to be introduced. She’s a great addition. She represents a more mental, and then existential, threat towards Spider-Man and his identity. The fact that they’re able to see eye-to-eye by the end and realize that they aren’t so different is peak superhero writing. Her backstory is tragic enough to understand why she opposes Damage Control. But she’s also willing to grow and develop as a character, which is good because Jean Grey is a VERY important character in Marvel. As for how she’s going to influence the MCU moving forward, I don’t know. Will we get a well-executed “Dark Phoenix” movie? Maybe. I’m especially curious about her role stuff like Avengers: Doomsday because we know that Cyclops is going to be in that one too. However, I just don’t see her and Cyclops being a couple like they have been in the past because the age difference between the characters just won’t make sense. Same goes for Wolverine. I almost wonder if the MCU is trying to set up Jean and Peter as a couple, and if they do, I think that could be really interesting. I can’t deny that they had good chemistry.
Lastly, I want to talk about the Hulk. I owe him an apology. I knew that Spider-Man fought him because I saw clips from the trailer, and I can’t deny that I rolled my eyes a little. All I could think was, “he’s fighting the Hulk for some reason? Really? We don’t have any other characters we could use here that might be a little more interesting? Is it going to be a repeat of No Way Home where he’s at odds with Dr. Strange?” The answer is no. Hulk as an antagonistic force makes so much more sense within the confines of the movie, and I know that it’s going to have interesting ramifications on the characters down the line.
Turning to the action and cinematography, it was GOOD. A lot of movies, and Marvel movies especially, tend to fall into the same general cinematic style. Brand New Day actually used some really fun, dynamic shots. The CGI generally looked pretty good. However, I cannot deny that there were a few shots that looked a little like the uncanny AI generated style. But if that’s the only real complaint I have, that’s not bad. I think that the action and fight choreography was very well done, especially Spider-Man’s final fight. The ending also felt refreshing, even if we’ve been seeing a few similar movies ending with words over actions.
SPOILERS END
Go watch Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It’s a great movie. I have minor complaints about some cinematography and CGI, but for the most part, those areas of the movie are still better than average. The story is outstanding. The characters are well-written. I went into this movie with no expectations because I’m so checked out of Marvel movies. Brand New Day might have changed that for me. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.
Broad Scope Entertainment 