~ my review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) dir. Daniel Destin Cretton. Spoiler-free!
Video Game + Stark Influence
What jumped out to me the most with this iteration of half-rebooted Spider-Man, directed by Cretton of Shang-Chi fame (great martial arts hero flick), was how much the aesthetic of Peter ‘doing his rounds’ as a masked crime fighter was drawn from the Insomniac Spider-Man video game saga and the vibe of a video game experience of reality in general.
Watch some of those early isometric-view rooftop and phone-tracker-alert scenes and it is clear to the game player; he even webs criminals to the sides of buildings and leaves them bagged up like so for the police to discover. Later, when Spidey faces off against The Hand, he is surrounded in a radial nature just like in Assassin’s Creed, Batman, and of course, Spider-Man (2018) and Spider-Man 2 (2023). (We even go inside the mask, first-person POV on his HUD while diving down skyscrapers or taking a priceless call with Frank Castle. XD)
Something that Insomniac’s Spider-Man gets right – including its general gameplay cribbing of the Batman Arkham Series (I welcome 2nd movers) – is how the ‘job’ part of Spidey’s volunteer vigilantism works. He is constantly checking police feeds and real-time city heatmaps. He is in constant anonymous converse with police captains to coordinate the gathering of evidence. Spider-Man, operating for years as a hero now, has his tech set up to deliver him where he is needed most in a timely manner. // It also introduces the concept of Spidey being part of the mass surveillance state; I think most viewers, for better or worse, have no problem with this because they simply love Spider-Man.
Tom Holland is great once again in the role. Contrary to some common opinions online, I love how his Peter is a total tech genius, post-memory wipe and carrying on fatherly Stark’s mission (RIP). This is mostly well-drawn from the source material as Peter Parker is effectively a boy genius or savant or on his way to becoming a great scientific figure, if only he can gather his confidence and find the time to be in the lab and not on the streets whooping ass. The MCU’s primary influence upon this story comes with Peter following in Stark’s footsteps. I always thought their teaming and Father-Son relation to be one of the best aspects of the Infinity x Endgame-era, allowing Downey to explore another major dimension of Iron Man.
By the end of the film, you get to see some great Spidey tech moments – and mess ups – that are supremely satisfying.
Super Sentai Sensibility
As a young American boy in the 90s, I grew up watching Power Rangers – and only later in life grew to appreciate other related gems like Kamen Rider and The Guyver – and one of the main draws is the overly dramatized martial arts combat. There is a kinetic force in a 90s-era Power Rangers fight that is peerless even today, despite all our advances in filmmaking and technology. These children’s programs focus on superheroic teen teams, big transformations, and fist-on-flesh martial arts. Super Sentai is the genre, drawn from Japan and adapted globally due to popularity.
Some of the special charms of these programs are the camera angles, the sparks from swords (blood not allowed for a kids’ program), and most of all — the visceral physicality taking place with mass combat against goons and super villains. Our heroes, the Rangers or the Rider, are capable of extraordinary athleticism once transformation into their alter egos are complete; there is a natural escalation from goonocide > orchestrated disasters > giant monsters vs. combinatory mechas. The focus is always on teamwork and friendship, and the world is at stake, you know. // Enjoyers of the ludicrous locale of the epic fight in Captain America: Civil War (2016) – a giant grey airport tarmac – will also appreciate (due to artful shooting limitations) the nature of locale for the average Power Ranger battle: giant fields, concrete industrial parks, titanic back alleys.
Super Sentai and the superhero genres of Marvel and DC fame are clearly interrelated in many ways. But most MCU flicks especially feature heavy draughts of CGI violence, where characters wear CGI nanotech suits, and the enemies are CGI freak-beasts with minimal tactile realization, green screens everywhere around them. // DCU movies are largely the same, and often worse, in terms of boring and fleshless combat; from all recent eras, the best combat is coming from Affleck’s Batman taking down the goons guarding Martha Kent and later mass-murdering Darkseid’s Parademons with an automatic rifle in a futuristic apocalyptic sequence. For the MCU, exceptions to this include the excellent martial arts faire in films like Shang Chi and Winter Soldier. On the whole, the MCU’s fight scenes are CGI-fests — though no doubt generally well done, in my view.
Cretton bucks this trend with Spidey’s battle sequences in Brand New Day, especially during his apotheosis encounter with The Hand, with a firm Super Sentai sensibility to the battling itself. Here are stuntment doing flips and rolls and acting their asses off as Spidey vs. Ninja squad. They fly at Peter and bash him with fist and electrode mallet. He fights back with webs and flips but is repeatedly overtaken by their expert coordination. The whole scene is a dream and is one of my foremost memories from the film.
It also produces one of the best story moments of all…
Spidey x Peter
The fundamental core of a Spider-Man story deals with issues of identity, responsibility, and ‘making the big sacrifice.’ Spider-Man’s and Peter Parker’s tension lies with his youth and inability to live the normal life that he craves – and tries desperately to create for himself with convoluted plans that often go awry (or dormant, in this case). Cretton’s vision, and from screenwriters Erik Sommers & Chris McKenna, deals with the changes that come about after prolonged isolation. For four years, in effect, the character has only really been living as Spider-Man and not Peter Parker. No one knows Peter Parker – and there are serious consequences to that.
The major one being dealt with in this film is the loss of MJ and Ned, Peter’s best friends, because he had to wipe their memories to save the world in the previous film. // From an acting and storytelling standpoint alike, it was awesome to see the recontextualized lives of MJ and Ned away from Spider-Man, yet still clearly connected to him in other ways. Their arcs, and the emotional core of the cosmic separation of MJ and Peter, are the best aspects of the film’s quieter, hearty moments.
The comic book reader knows: Spider-Man works primarily alone, though he is frequently teaming with partners, such as Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Black Cat, and whole squads like the Avengers or Midnight Suns. Spider-Man does both, he is your friendly neighbor in Queens with his own flush rogues’ gallery <and> he is a vital member of the defenders of Earth; just like Peter does both school x romance x job and Spidey stuff at the same time {and here the conflicts arise!}
In this film, Spider-Man is led to continuously working with others, unto a spectrum of results. A favored aspect of the filmmaking choices comes with many scenes of suited Spider-Man acting as the dominant character – and not Peter. It fits the story, of course, and allows for a different persona to emerge for Holland’s portrayal of the character. He resembles Sentai heroes once more, as he is forced to perform attention and emotionality with the mask on in face to face conversation. At key moments, Cretton even lets you see Holland’s eyes through the white fabric, to great effect.
I won’t go into spoilers but Spidey’s relationships with the other folk in this film – heroic and not-so-heroic – allow us a deeper window into the character than we have ever seen before. It was very satisfying to watch the multiform arc of this film play out! The Punisher and Spidey’s duels and team ups in this one are fantastically hilarious; Bernthal knows how to play the heck out of that character. It was also great seeing lovely Florence Pugh reprise her role as Yelena, the nouveau Black Widow and effective captain of the New Avengers. She was the major highlight of Thunderbolts for me and I love to see more of Pugh’s cheeky, adorable performance as this cinnamon rollish super assassin.
Spidey’s fight against Hulk is another blockbuster moment and I greatly appreciated Ruffalo’s performance as a relapsing Banner. He really sells the freefall of the transformation. Like everyone has been saying for years, I wholeheartedly agree we have been robbed of a Ruffalo Hulk solo film. The Hulk sequence yet again melds emotional impact within the action flow. That character is one of the richest in comics and it’s a shame we don’t get to see more of his story. Spidey makes for a great counterpart, no doubt – both able to handle his power level and also deal with the rage in an artfully jesterian way. Hulk’s role in this film is a wonderful flashpoint for Ruffalo. Hope to see more of his Banner in the future.
Overall, I really enjoyed Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Truly, the writing is inventive, the fights are tactical, and the surprises are deeply emotionally compelling. A grieving Peter escapes into Spidey and arrives at some new truths about his life and the universe he lives in. Eventually, the chaotic realm of Spidey merges with the golden heart of Peter, where the final ‘choice’ becomes about harsh synthesis and an embrace of the character’s inherent revelation: No one is truly alone.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thresholds of Transformation 