Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) | Film Review

As a Spider-Man fan since almost birth, I have liked all of Holland’s movies but only loved the last one. I have also had the same issues throughout them all: Spider-Man was more Tony Stark than Peter Parker, they ignore Uncle Ben (now Aunt May), and that’s not my Spider-Man. No Way Home – which had a wonky first half before a stellar second half of nostalgia – finally righted the ship and left Peter alone, fighting for good and his own survival by his own sheer ingenuity and resolve. Poor, detached, but wholesome and moral. That’s my Spidey. Now we have arrived at Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Holland’s first truly solo Spider-Man film.

Brand New Day continues that storyline as Spider-Man has become a city sensation, while struggling with his loneliness as everyone who knew Peter Parker has forgotten him. Which is the result of the spell Doctor Strange cast, and Peter uses to protect his friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), both of whom are characters I would have been fine with moving on from in this franchise, though they do work for the purposes of this film. The emotional weight of Peter’s sacrifice in No Way Home hangs over every moment here, and Holland gets to play Peter Parker as a young man carrying the burden of being forgotten by the people he loves most. There is a sadness to the character that has often been missing from previous entries, and Holland absolutely nails it.

I will not spoil anything since Marvel has done a great job hiding the story in the marketing (I love THAT casting of Sadie Sink), but let’s say an impossible force is threatening NYC, and there’s only one web-head who can help, if he can just deal with a tinge of mutating DNA first. Director Destin Daniel Cretton wisely leans into the weirdness and unpredictability of Spider-Man comics. There is a genuine sense that anything can happen at any moment, and that feeling of comic-book insanity fuels the entire adventure.

As I mentioned earlier, this is the first of the Tom Holland movies where I feel like is his own Spider-Man flick. Yes, there are great cameos, but this is Holland’s movie with no Stark tech or Avengers to save his day – Peter Parker is on his own… mostly. Holland injects heart, depth, and hope into the film, and carries it swinging to the very end. His performance feels more confident than ever, balancing Peter’s loneliness, determination, and optimism without losing the awkward charm that made audiences connect with him in the first place.

My only complaint is these films are still missing Spidey quips. Spider-Man should be talking trash, annoying villains, and firing off one-liners in the middle of life-or-death situations at every turn. We get glimpses of that here, but not nearly enough. But that is my ONLY complaint this time.

Pairing Spidey up with Punisher (Jon Bernthal) is the buddy action-comedy franchise I’m dying to see going forward. Bernthal is better when he gets to crack a joke (his Frank lives in a world on nonstop pain), and he’s the funniest thing in this entire film. Watching Spider-Man’s relentless optimism bounce off Punisher’s brutal worldview creates some of the movie’s best moments. Bernthal plays Castle with the same intensity fans expect, but he also finds random opportunities to inject surprising humor into the role. The back-and-forth between the two characters feels natural, funny, and completely earned. Now that Peter and Punisher’s chemistry is proven, Frank Castle better return for Spider-Man 5 or fans might just riot.

I have not spoken much about it, but the action is straight out of a comic book – I felt 10 years old again – and director Destin Daniel Cretton has conducted a masterful symphony of flow and execution. More than any previous MCU Spider-Man movie, the action embraces the exaggerated visual style that made readers fall in love with the character decades ago. There are sequences that feel ripped directly from a splash page, where Spider-Man is bouncing between skyscrapers, weaving through impossible obstacles, and using every ounce of creativity to stay alive.

What really impressed me was how animated everything feels. Not in any sort of hokey or cheesy way, but in the sense that the filmmakers finally understand Spider-Man should move differently than every other superhero. His fights are fluid, acrobatic, and inventive. He twists, flips, dives, and ricochets through action scenes with a sense of momentum that feels closer to a Saturday morning cartoon or a classic comic panel than a traditional superhero blockbuster. Several set pieces had me grinning ear-to-ear because they captured the pure joy of watching Spider-Man simply being Spider-Man. Minus the quips, of course.

Even the larger-scale sequences never lose sight of the character. Whether he is swinging through Manhattan, battling overwhelming odds, or desperately trying to save innocent randos, the action always reinforces who Peter Parker is at his core. He is not the strongest hero, nor the richest one. He is simply the guy who refuses to quit on humanity when everyone else would.

That is ultimately why Spider-Man: Brand New Day works so well. For the first time in Tom Holland’s run, it feels like Marvel fully trusts Peter Parker to carry a story on his own shoulders. No Iron Man shadow, no Avengers safety net, limited distractions. Just Peter Parker remembering that with his great power, comes a greater responsibility.

I am throwing a Shocker’s gauntlet down right now and calling it: Not only is Spider-Man: Brand New Day the absolute best of all the Tom Holland Spidey movies, it is easily the best film of the summer.