Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the newest Marvel movie and the first to hit cinemas in 2026. Photo: Sony Pictures.
2026 is the year Marvel chose to return to its biggest hits: the Avengers and Spider-Man.
The two franchises combined have brought in over $10 billion for Marvel, and after a recent lean run in form, it was a surefire way for the studio to bring in some coin.
The first of their two big blockbusters this year is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth movie starring Tom Holland as the iconic wall-crawler.
Brand New Day is set several years after the events of the previous Spider-Man film, which saw the world forget who Peter Parker is after a spell cast by Dr Strange.
With no one knowing who he is, Peter becomes a recluse, focusing solely on his responsibility as a crime fighter while following his former friends via social media.
Spider-Man has become a popular figure within New York, with even the captain of the local police department calling on him to help reduce crime.
When a mysterious villain who can possess people’s minds and control their actions begins breaking into top-secret government facilities, Spider-Man must locate the telepath and uncover the cover-up they’re trying to expose.
Brand New Day is the first Spider-Man movie in half a decade, which is crazy to think about, as it feels the character has never left the cultural zeitgeist.
It’s always pretty exciting when a new blockbuster comes out, and this one was no different. Thankfully, this new film is quite a bit of fun.
Off the top, this is easily Tom Holland’s best performance in this franchise. Comparing him from his first outing to now is almost night and day. He’s grown as an actor and delivers a great performance as a man struggling with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Zendaya as MJ, Jon Bernthal as Punisher and Sadie Sink as the mysterious villain are also very strong, all adding emotional weight to what could have been dismissed as ‘just another superhero movie’.
The film’s aesthetic is the best among the newer Spider-Man movies. The first half, especially, feels like scenes ripped from early-2000s Spider-Man comics. It was fantastic.
Mixing these with some very impressive action set pieces made the film’s overall look visually pleasing.
But there are issues, including story beats and how it fits into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The first half of the film felt almost perfect. It was a street-level crime-fighting movie that spent time with the character we paid to watch.
It was personal and intricate. However, there is a specific point about an hour in, with a cameo from an Avenger, where the movie’s smaller focus shifted to building out the larger world of the Marvel franchise.
It doesn’t completely derail the movie by any means, but the direction it takes from that point isn’t as engaging as the opening act.
Sadie Sink’s character is also a slight point of contention. While the performance is great, people familiar with the source material for her character will be left scratching their heads.
She felt like a massive departure from her comic counterpart and more like a moment for readers to go, ‘Oh damn, I know her!’ in the cinema than as a character necessary for this movie’s plot.
The choice to have Zendaya return is also a mixed bag. Again, she is a true acting powerhouse, but where the narrative left her at the end of the last film, the decision to have her back here felt more like a retread than a push toward the story’s progression.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the best of the Tom Holland movies. When it shines, it shines bright, and it truly looks to bring something fresh to the exhausting superhero genre, especially in its first act.
Unfortunately, a handful of story beats do prevent it from reaching its highest potential. Its change of focus led me from thinking, ‘We’re on for the best Spider-Man movie ever’ about an hour in, to ‘Yeah, that was a bit of fun’, by the end.
With all the things the movie does well, there are just as many things it does that left me a tad disappointed.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is showing in cinemas across the country.
