I had an epiphany tonight watching the latest “Spider Man” movie: they’re going to outlast me no matter how long I live.
“Spider Man: Brand New Day” is now the 9th live action installment of the series. That doesn’t count two “Spider-Verse” films, which would make this one the 11th.
So wouldn’t you know it? Just when you’d think it would be time to wrap it up, producer Amy Pascal delivers the best in her series of four Tom Holland-led “Spider Man” movies, an adult take on teenage themes, a coming of age story for cartoon characters.
For reference, the first Tobey Maguire film was in 2002, basically a quarter century ago. The elder George Bush was in the last year of his presidency — this was before Bill Clinton! The stars of this film were just 6 years old.
By now, the “Spider Man” movies have taken on the traits of the afternoon serials of the late 30s and early 40s, like “Flash Gordon.” There is no endpoint. And if there is, it just starts all over again. Nothing is really going to happen of any consequence, don’t you worry, you will still be entertained.
Tom Holland, aka Peter Parker, is now an agreeable 30 years old, in great shape (as they show off as much as possible), and not going anywhere. Even Holland appearing in the much more serious undertaking of “The Odyssey” won’t stop him from making at least one more “Spider Man” in his series. Spoiler alert: “Brand New Day” is not the end.
The good news is that “Brand New Day” is an unusually good super hero film, a solid action adventure with stunning set pieces, lots of carefully crafted explosions and fires, and derring-do fights between good and evil. Obviously, the good guys win, but it’s the getting there that director Destin Daniel Cretton and writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have made so much fun. “Brand New Day” is like going back to a restaurant you really loved, and feeling the same way again.
You may recall the last “Spider Man” movie was a salute to the multi-verse, with the two preceding Peter Parkers and lots of old enemies all folding in on each other. It was a huge hit, but dizzying, and the end of the road for such complex gimmicks. Where else could you go?
“Brand New Day” is a lot more straightforward, episodic by nature as if you were watching an entire season of a TV show in two hours. . Picking up from the end of the last movie, Peter’s been living and working as Spider Man but girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) don’t remember him. Peter pines for their ld relationships, so he must figure out a way to reveal himself. At the same time, he’s battling a bunch of villains with the help of his begrudging friend Frank Castle aka The Punisher (an outstanding Jon Bernthal). Also noteworthy is Liza Colon-Zayas (welcome anywhere, any time) as a motherly police detective.
Of course, Peter comes into contact with an array of Marvel somebodies including scene stealer Florence Pugh as witty Yelena Belova (a Black Widow), David Banner aka The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Marisa Tomei as the now-deceased Aunt May (in newly made flashbacks), and so on. Sadie Sink, of “Stranger Things” fame, comes from another Marvel world, and diehard fans will know who is she right away. Sink is especially good at two things: looking distraught, and running in slow motion.
Newly married couple Holland and Zendaya still have all their chemistry, although they’re starting to age slightly. They’re no longer in high school or college. That’s okay. If their next film is their last in this series, and they’re each under 35, no one will mind. But going beyond that, things might get tricky.
Writers McKenna and Sommers are basically giving us the middle part of a second trilogy, so not too mach can actually happen. There’s a lot of time to stop and examine Spider Man’s mechanics, like his web-shooting ability. There’s a lot of deepening of the characters we already know, which makes “Brand New Day” seem more like a movie than a reel. The writers pull it off with a light touch and a lot of humor, relying on the glibness of Holland and Zendaya and their natural playfulness. It all works.
Some of my favorite things: Ned having a Spider Man tracker that plays the cartoon’s old TV theme song. Also, Marisa Tomei still in the game, with Peter never forgetting his roots. On the other hand, there is no explanation for how Peter lives financially but owns a lot of complicated technology. That’s just called suspension of disbelief.
Kudos to the casting director, Sarah Finn, for finding a huge number of very talented unknowns to play a variety of tiny roles. You can tell she had a ball. All the below-the-line production work is top notch, too. Particularly worth admiring is the dazzling production design, which shows off Peter’s daredevil swings around towns like dizzying real life Tik Tok videos.
“Brand New Day” will be a huge hit, there’s no doubt. Sony is saved once again by the wall crawler, which is ironic since the company ousted executive Amy Pascal years ago, only for her to come back bigger and stronger than ever. And — without giving too much away — this chapter up future Marvel stories in a clean and undistracted way. Did we ever think in 2002 that this stuff would have such a long life? No. But there could be worse things.
PS It is time for Zendaya to make a real movie, with a great director, as a lead character. She’s a movie star with only supporting roles. She can do it with the right story. And please, no cannibalism.
