Spider-Man: Brand New Day Reviews: Critics Split on Marvel's Mature Sequel

Tom Holland’s Peter Parker no longer swings through high school hallways in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Marvel veterans Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, the sequel picks up after the spell Doctor Strange cast at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home erased the world’s memory of Peter. He is alone, his Aunt May is dead, and his best friend Ned and girlfriend MJ now see him as a stranger. The Motion Picture Association has rated the Columbia Pictures release PG-13 for sequences of action, violence and some language, and its running time is 145 minutes, according to the Associated Press.

AP’s reviewer awarded the film two and a half stars out of four, praising its final image of community and interdependence while noting the organic web-shooting and blinding headaches caused by a DNA imbalance. Cretton, who moved into Marvel fantasy with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in 2021, is clearly aiming for something more contemplative and adult, Variety observes. The magazine finds stretches of the film fun, especially an extended skyscraper set piece featuring Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, but also calls the movie arduous, overly episodic and half an hour too long.

Several critics single out the amnesia premise as both the film’s emotional engine and its weak point. Variety writes that Peter’s reunion scenes with MJ are playful and poignant at first, yet after a while the situation becomes dramatically frustrating because the relationship feels frozen in sad irony. Time adds that the film treats loss, mourning, yearning, rage and befuddlement seriously but cycles through them so quickly that the pace never lets a single feeling settle. That said, Time calls the movie proof that Marvel can still try to build a better blockbuster, singling out Holland as a smart, sensitive actor who takes Peter’s pain seriously.

On the other end of the spectrum, Polygon argues that Brand New Day is the best Spider-Man movie since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, surpassing or matching an extremely high bar. The site highlights smarter storytelling, a more satisfying payoff and a more confident Holland, and notes an early montage of Spider-Man fighting Scorpion, Tombstone and The Hand while Peter tracks Ned and MJ’s lives through Instagram. Zendaya is also given more room to act, with Time noting that she is allowed to do more than scowl disapprovingly.

The supporting cast expands the film’s street-level universe. Jon Bernthal appears as Frank Castle, the Punisher, while The Bear actor Liza Colón-Zayas plays NYPD detective Jean DeWolff, Peter’s closest quasi-friend. Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk shows up, though Variety suggests he is mostly there to provide Hulk time. A mysterious body-hopping villain adds intrigue, but reviewers warn that giving away the surprise character would spoil much of the plot.

Peter’s physical crisis mirrors his emotional one. His AI assistant E.V.I.E. tells him that surging arachnid hormones are scrambling his powers and making him angrier and more aggressive, according to Time. He temporarily fixes the problem with a silvery inhibitor attached to the back of his neck, a device Variety feels resolves the conflict too neatly. The film’s core tension, then, is whether Peter can rebuild a life when the people he loves have forgotten him.

The consensus is less unanimous than Marvel might hope. Some reviewers admire the attempt at emotional sophistication and the reduced reliance on CGI overkill; others find the storytelling busy and self-serious. For audiences invested in Holland’s Spider-Man, the film offers a darker, lonelier chapter that tries to grow the character up.