The Inlander6%
Spider-Man: Brand New Day initially has some fun flair and a game Tom Holland performance, but ultimately gets tangled up in its own web 29%
By Chase Hutchinson70%
7/30/2026, 1:30:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 12 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Biased Writer Voice, and Hindsight Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 42.7% saturation with 344 hits. Analysis detected 865 faulty-reasoning hits from 806 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 38.8% and a BS Rank of 29% (15,983 of 22,312 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 71.60% of the article peer group.
Though many actors have taken up the mantle, none has played the live-action Spider-Man more than Tom Holland.
First appearing in Captain America: Civil War, he’s now helmed multiple of his own films (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home) and joined in on Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
Even as Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire (who both humorously popped in alongside Holland in No Way Home because of multiverse shenanigans) brought their own unique takes to the character, it’s Holland who has emerged as the most ubiquitous because of the sheer size of the machine that is Marvel.
He is, to a modern generation, their Spider-Man.
Alas, ubiquity is not a sign of quality, and nowhere is this more felt than in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
A supposed new chapter for the superhero that sees him operating solo after the world — including his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) — has forgotten who he is.
It’s a film whose title about starting over fresh is hard to take remotely seriously considering how haphazardly it draws in characters and elements that, by this point, we’ve seen many times before.
For all the ways it attempts to initially lean into embracing the idea of Holland’s Peter Parker being a true neighborhood hero, soon the many obligations of the vast Marvel Cinematic Universe come knocking.
As is so often the case with entries in this unending franchise, it takes what could’ve been a more unrestrained, fun little Spider-Man film free of any other nonsense and makes it feel like it’s trying to be Avengers 2.5 or, without spoiling, a backdoor origin film for a certain other all-powerful mutant who will now certainly become important in later entries.
Some of this is just the nature of a Marvel movie, but it’s still quite disappointing considering how much promise this one started with.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, who previously made the now seemingly largely extraneous Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, it all begins with more kinetic flair that sees Spider-Man soaring through the air in a way that feels genuinely exhilarating.
There is even a cheeky montage set to “Wolf Like Me” by TV on the Radio that feels similar in spirit to the Sam Raimi films of the early 2000s (if not quite as good).
Unfortunately, Spider-Man: Brand New Day can’t maintain this fun and soon comes crashing down.
Some of this is an emotional crash, with Holland’s Peter completely isolating himself as he throws himself into superhero work.
It’s something the writing struggles to make feel layered or earned, with the experience becoming frequently downright cloying as a result.
However, worse than this is the way the high-flying fun of the opening soon becomes about Peter/Spider-Man having to bumble his way through piecing together who a new being that can hop from body to body is and how they connect to the shadowy government agency Damage Control.
In addition to the agency having a terrible name, checking in there continually brings the film to a screeching halt.
Even the always terrific Tramell Tillman (Severance) as the head of it all can’t make it come alive.
While there are some fun action sequences scattered throughout and the scenes of the new being taking over bodies can be genuinely unsettling, so much of the rest of Brand New Day is oddly tiresome.
This is a movie that feels long, with a couple of key revelations coming after we’ve long realized what they are… yet Peter still remains five steps behind.
In a recent interview, Holland, who also starred in the far superior recent The Odyssey, said he hoped they could take some of what he learned with Christopher Nolan about working practically and apply it to open up more room for creativity into future Marvel entries.
It’s a nice sentiment, but when you sit down to watch Brand New Day, not only do some of the iffy visual effects make things never feel emotionally engaging, but you realize there is only so much room for creativity in a franchise like this.
For all the more inventive sequences in the beginning as well as a more potentially intriguing throughline about Pete changing, all Marvel movies ultimately have to pay their dues to the broader franchise, and this one comes at too steep a cost.
While all else in the MCU keeps moving forward, its supposedly central character feels increasingly stuck in his own web.
He hides himself from the world, but the greatest “mask off” moment comes when you realize how even he can’t hide from a Marvel machine that’s still struggling to find its way forward.
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