'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' Find Brand New Ways to Express Old Themes
It’s a brand new way to show how Marvel thrives in the writing department. But only when it comes to Spider-Man. Perhaps it’s because he’s a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man; the writers can explore more with him than just throwing Avengers cameos at the screen. There are many multiverse shows that have succeeded and failed since Endgame. Mostly failures. As a Marvel picture, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is one of the best films since, well, Spider-Man: No Way Home. As a live-action Spider-Man movie, it’s up there, although it doesn’t quite hit those strings the way NWH did. With the way things ended in the last film, this movie is a grand follow-up that says more than “with great power comes great responsibility, " which is what will always be the theme in Spider-Man. Yet, it’s how you can mix the themes of power and responsibility up that is where the writing thrives.
If you haven’t seen the last film or aren’t caught up in Marvel lore, then you might be a bit confused. After Spider-Man defeated his enemies from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films, Peter Parker has Dr Strange cast a spell for everyone to forget who he is so that nobody from any other universe can hurt the people he loves. Having forgotten him, it’s his mission to keep them protected. But he can’t help but make them slowly try to remember him. As much as Peter wants to keep his friends safe, he can’t help but draw his enemies to them. So why try to make them remember you, hence put them in danger again? His enemies can unmask him in an instant and then go after them. It happens all the time to Spider-Man in particular. Unfortunately, Peter Parker can’t just forgo all personal relationships. Neither could Captain America.
After working for a period of time as an anonymous vigilante, Spider-Man/PeterParker (Tom Holland) lives in a garden unit apartment outfitted like a bunker. Peter is taking missions for the police, apprehending various bad guys from the classic Spidey catalog in a wonderful opening montage. These moments are what Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 could have been if not for variable behind-the-scenes drama. This picture handles characters from the MCU roster with a good enough sense of familiarity. Even if you wouldn’t know who The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) is, you’d get the idea in a few seconds. This movie keeps everything very central to Spider-Man himself. Not the Avengers. Unlike Homecoming. With everyone forgetting who he is, Spider-Man’s only friend is a detective who sends him on missions to catch bad guys.
With no friends, we see Spidey in costume throughout almost the whole movie. But as much as he tries to hide his identity, eventually, some secrets are going to come out. Yet unlike most Hollywood flicks, when Spidey does have those hard conversations, they don’t turn out the way he thinks they would. It’s a good lesson to teach children. It’s important to talk to someone, but don’t expect it to get the results you were hoping for. Furthermore, watchout for when people try to manipulate your emotions. For as good as Peter tries to be, he always has to suppress his rage against all the villains who want to do monstrous things to him.
Although the last movie did explore this theme when Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin was an epitome of evil, Peter still found the good in himself to save him. Every superhero is only one push away from putting their enemies in the ground. Which is odd why he’d be pals with the Punisher. Although they’ve worked together before in the comics and the Fox Kids TV show from the 90s, it still just doesn’t seem to work. Spider-Man goes out of his way to keep people alive. Well, except for Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. Spidey would likely throw Frank in jail for murder, even if he were taking down criminals. They try to make a point of this in the movie, but it doesn’t come across when Frank is screaming like a gorilla while firing a machine gun. At one point, two people get shot in the head, and Spidey just moves on. Wouldn’t his Spidey sense have stopped that from happening? Still, their relationship does work in some ways. They both have no family, and they both live in shambles.
Where Peter Parker has more potential with his knowledge, Frank is limited due to his continued sins. Frank is living a sentence, while Peter can live a life. For a Marvel movie, Brand New Day tackles heavy themes like how grief and empathy can bring us together that’s rare. Empathy is a rare quality many can’t bear, but Peter Parker has it. It can even make a hardened murderer like Frank Castle soft. There are a few plot holes. Especially in the third act, but the rousing emotions and resonant themes make this Spider-Man a swinging success. Spider-Man has had the luxury of faltering, then coming back from the box office graveyard. From its missteps, Spidey’s writers have learned how to evolve its themes into something greater. Not only is Spider-Man: Brand New Day a very good comic book movie, but it’s also an effective tale about the weight that comes with heroism.
