10/12 ForReel Score | 4/5 Stars

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has irked me from the moment he swiped Captain America’s shield in Civil War. That isn’t to speak ill of Holland himself, who has otherwise proven to be a vibrant performer and an uncharacteristically lovely celebrity. He’s just been stuck playing a comically subservient and often outright stupid Peter who dwells in the shadow of his MCU elders. Well, Marvel’s blockbuster machine isn’t self-sustaining anymore. Spider-Man is now one of a few beloved superheroes who can draw massive crowds regardless of genre fatigue. It is time for him to stand on his own. That is exactly what Destin Daniel Cretton’s vibrant and significantly more mature Brand New Day allows him to do. In fact, this Spider-Man is so well realized that Peter Parker starts to seem like the alter ego.

We re-unite with Holland’s Peter as he dissociates through the years that have passed since Spider-Man: No Way Home. If the sound in your theater wasn’t drowned out by unshackled quarantiners hooting and hollering, you might remember that Peter decided to void the world’s memories of him in order to reverse the spell that unleashed his variants and their villains upon the world. Now, he’s devoted his entire life to crimefighting and is hitting burnout, pining over social media videos of MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) living their best lives at MIT. Any attempt at reconnection will have to wait, because a malevolent mind hopping force is using New Yorkers to terrorize the Damage Control agency that keeps things under control while the new Avengers are buffering. Perhaps it has something to do with the character Sadie Sink is portraying.

After somehow wringing a genuinely soulful and human story out of MCU TV in Wonder Man, Cretton expands his ambition to wildly successful effect. This is the first time in years that Marvel’s New York has felt like a place where real people live, not just a vehicle for scattershot plot points. Cretton along with screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have a perfect understanding of what aspects of superhero stories require little exposition. Early on, we learn that Peter has become frenemies with The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) following an incident in Staten Island that they cannot quite agree on the particulars of. We don’t need to flash back to it and learn that it was somehow caused by the events of Multiverse of Madness or whatever. It can just be and that allows more time to be spent with Peter and Frank trading hilarious banter. This Punisher is not as demented as the man we saw in One Last Kill, he’s a cartoonish bruiser with a heart of gold because that’s what serves this specific story best. All of the pop ins by other MCU players have a similar organic, easygoing nature to them. They’re here because they contrast and challenge Peter in compelling ways. It is a far more well-engineered version of what James Gunn is attempting to do with his DC ensemble stories that feature other superheroes as supporting players. The likes of Hawk Girl and Guy Gardner get relegated to cheap clownwork. These guys matter.

It helps that Peter is now a hero worth following. Tom Holland has never been more lovable as he takes total command of this character for the first time. Spider-Man is always at his best when he’s a bit miserable and this Peter is dealing not only with the wreckage of his personal life but also some physically punishing changes to his body chemistry. In an attempt to deflect all of this pain, he spends the vast majority of the film in the beautifully designed suit. It is a joy to watch Holland get to do so much expressive, animated physical acting under this costume. He also finally nails the signature mid-fight Spider-Man humor now that Peter is a formidable threat and not a bumbling buffoon. He’s always been inhibited by the plastic CGI rags he’s been forced to wear in the other films. It is clear that he feels like Spider-Man while performing more than ever before, and it makes a huge difference.

It’s also lovely to watch him get to fall in love with Zendaya’s MJ all over again. While the lingering amnesia cliffhanger often feels like more of a curse than a gift to the film that has to follow it, Zendaya makes a meal out of MJ’s reluctant attraction to the webhead. She may have a boyfriend now but he’s certainly not the one helping her when an invisible enemy starts invading her mind. It is easily her most dramatically rich turn in this role, no longer relegated to spouting off a few snarky lines before kissing Peter before the climax. Meanwhile, Sadie Sink makes a strong impression as REDACTED, and her powerset is rendered in ways that inspires a deep paranoia that feels insurmountable to little ol'Spidey.

When it’s time for theatrics, Cretton ensures that we’re not watching the same boiler plate CGI messes that have plagued this franchise for years. Instead, he’s brought on Jackie Chan’s stunt team to design several acrobatic showdowns that show off the true capabilities of this character. These sequences are heavily influenced by Spider-Man cartoons and video games, in which his fighting style is based far more on instinct and reflexes than high flying web slinging tricks. There’s some of that here, and those sequences are a bit more plastic (although some in-camera swinging is used for reference) but Cretton still takes far more joy in them than Jon Watts ever did. Not a high bar, I’ll admit. Regardless of if we’re fighting ninjas or The Incredible Hulk, this action is captured with weight, clear physical/emotional stakes and playful camerawork. It honors Spider-Man’s cinematic legacy as a character who forces his filmmakers to push the technical boundaries of superhero action.

While I do deeply appreciate Cretton’s impulse to slow down and wring out more human moments, Brand New Day’s 145 minute runtime can be a bit grueling. The first hour is perfectly paced and rather suspenseful but once our cards are on the table we spend a lot of time tediously resetting and processing between setpieces. Sink is particularly hurt by this. Cretton strains to develop a backstory that can only be delved into so deeply in this particular film. This character would’ve been far better served with as much mystery preserved as possible. In fact, Cretton tries so hard to crack her open that the climatic emotional push ends up turning into a therapy session eerily reminiscent of Thunderbolts* down to the use of a nearly identical looking grey laboratory.

Brand New Day is the first live action Spider-Man film since the end of Sam Raimi’s trilogy to not take its audience for granted. Holland has spoken at length about his renewed motivation to create a passionate and intentional film after finishing The Odyssey. It is the first MCU film in years to inspire genuine childlike glee in me. I could at last sincerely imagine a young person seeing this and becoming just as awestruck as I was watching Raimi’s 2002 origin story. Although I’m sure that Holland is eager to pass the torch to Miles Morales before he turns 40, I can only hope that we can get a couple more outings with his reborn Peter Parker first. At this point, Marvel is the only thing holding Spider-Man back.

Movie Review: Tom Holland’s Peter Parker Finally Blossoms in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day"