Lead image: Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures
The film touches on loneliness, friendship and family
Half a decade since the last “Spider-Man” film, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” hit theaters on July 31.
The last film, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” left fans on a cliffhanger: with the help of Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, aka Peter Parker (Tom Holland), wiped the memories of his best friends Ned (Jacob Batalon) and MJ (Zendaya) to protect them from the villains.
“Brand New Day,” for the most part, spared fans of Spider-Man’s ensuing loneliness by jumping ahead four years. While he thinks wiping his friends’ memories was the right thing to do, once his Aunt May dies, Peter is left alone in his apartment full of spiderwebs, observing his friends’ lives from an outside view. Paired with music like “Loser” by Tame Impala, viewers can feel the palpable loneliness of the superhero oozing out of the screen in the film’s first half.
After being alone for years, apart from his partial friendship with Detective Jean DeWolff, (Liza Colón-Zayas), Peter thought this isolation was maintainable. That is, until his spider senses become overloaded and his hormones surge from extreme emotional stress due to missing MJ and Ned.
The timing for this imbalance in Peter’s spider senses is anything but convenient, with a villain on the loose who has the capability of inhabiting everyone’s minds except for Peter’s. This villain was none other than the mind controller, Jean Grey, played by Sadie Sink— something Marvel has tried to keep under wraps for over 16 months.
After playing Max Mayfield, who was possessed by Vecna in “Stranger Things,” Sink has no problem playing an adjacent character who has similar capabilities. She has a great performance portraying the villain, until, close to the end, the audience realizes that she is not the villain after all.
The true antagonist is an organization called the Department of Damage Control (DODC), who Peter assisted while believing they were the good guys. He later finds out that they hunted and killed Jean Grey’s sister for being a mind controller, or “different,” and planned to do the same to her.
With the help of Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), Peter takes down DODC, but not without receiving a few battle scars in the process.
While alone for the majority of the film, Holland’s dynamic with Bernthal provides comic relief and an unexpected friendship amidst Peter’s estrangement from his two high school buddies— one of my favorite parts of the film.
Though they defeat DODC, Peter’s two best friends still have no memory of him before their encounters with him throughout the film. That is, until Peter enters the Peter Pan Donut and Pastry Shop, where MJ used to work, and sees Ned sitting at a table. Peter approaches him, reintroduces himself and begins doing their best-friend handshake. Ned looks up, recognition in his eyes, and exclaims, “Peter!”— the exact resolution the film needed and fans demanded.
The movie ultimately concludes with Marvel’s classic end-credit scene. The short clip shows “Spidey Tracker,” an app Ned developed. In the app, Spider-Man’s location slowly shifts from New York City to space, ending with “Spider-Man will return.”
After being on the edge of my seat for two hours and 25 minutes, I sure hope he does.
Tickets for “Brand New Day” can be found here.
Cecilia Wallace can be reached at celiadw016@gmail.com.
