Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) – Review by Andrea Carnevali

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay it is this: after two hours and twenty minutes, I walked out wanting another adventure with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker as soon as possible

I have a confession to make: when it comes to Spider-Man, I am completely biased.

He was my favourite superhero growing up. Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe turned capes and masks into everyday entertainment, I was that skinny little boy running around in a red-and-blue suit (and looking pretty ridiculous, I now realise nearly 50 years later), convinced I could climb walls and shoot webs from my wrists.

And every time a new Spider-Man film comes out, that little five-year-old boy is still there somewhere getting excited all over again.

Perhaps that’s also why I’ve grown more and more tired of superhero movies in general. Somewhere along the way, they became so obsessed with bigger spectacles, darker tones, interconnected universes and endless cameos that they almost forgot what made them fun in the first place. Give me Peter Parker desperately trying to juggle love, friendship and saving New York over another brooding billionaire staring moodily into the rain any day.

That’s why Spider-Man has always been different; that’s why he still works while so many other superheroes have started to feel rather interchangeable. Beneath the mask, he’s always been Peter Parker first and a superhero second. And as this film shows, there is no one without the other.

We last left Peter Parker at the heartbreaking end of No Way Home: victorious, but utterly alone, with the world (and crucially his best friend and girlfriend) having forgotten he even existed. It was a surprisingly brave ending to what became the film that reminded audiences just how magical a packed cinema could be after the pandemic.

Brand New Day wisely resists trying to outdo that spectacle. There are no multiverse gymnastics or reality-bending shenanigans this time (and sadly not Maguire or Garfield either). Instead, it tells a far more ‘grounded’ story (if that’s a word that you can honestly use in a Spider-Man film), and for the most part, that’s exactly what the character needed.

The emotional side of the film is where it truly shines.

Peter’s loneliness, his desperate longing to reconnect with MJ and Ned, and the quiet ache of a life nobody remembers, all feel genuinely moving. I have to admit there were several moments when I felt unexpectedly close to tearing up. That’s something very few superhero films have managed to do for me in recent years. In fact, the last one probably was one of the Spidey films.

Tom Holland continues to be a wonderful Peter Parker. I wasn’t entirely convinced by him recently in The Odyssey, but here he slips back into the role as effortlessly as ever. He captures Peter’s awkwardness, kindness and vulnerability beautifully, reminding us that beneath the mask he’s still just a young man trying to do the right thing.

Visually, the film is terrific. The web-swinging sequences across Manhattan have reached a level of confidence and fluidity that would have seemed impossible back when Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man arrived in 2002. I still remember watching those early CGI swings and thinking they looked astonishing; today they feel almost quaint compared with what the artists achieve here. The cinematography is often striking too, with several beautifully composed moments that stand out amid the chaos. New York shines through in every sequence (except those filmed in… Glasgow).

If I have a frustration, it’s one Marvel still doesn’t seem willing to let go.

Even when the story is firmly Peter Parker’s, the film insists on bringing in other familiar faces from elsewhere in the Marvel universe. I don’t object to the occasional cameo or bit of fan service, after all; No Way Home was practically built on it (and I loved it), but there comes a point where these appearances start feeling less like treats and more like obligations.

The Punisher, for example, arrives with almost no introduction whatsoever, the film simply assuming we’ve all watched every television series and spin-off. But what if we haven’t? And more crucially, should we really have to? (Having said that, I loved what they do with him at the end and how his ‘shoot first ask later’ attitude pays off…)

The action is exciting, energetic, and often spectacular, although occasionally it becomes so over-the-top that it starts to lose its sense of weight. It also plays rather fast and loose with its own internal logic. Spider-Man survives an impact with a truck that should flatten him, only to find himself suddenly vulnerable in situations that seem far less dangerous. I know… complaining about realism in a film about a man who swings through Manhattan on webs probably says more about me than the filmmakers. But fantasy still needs consistency, and this one occasionally stretches its own rules a little too far.

My other reservation is the ending (don’t worry, I’m not spoiling it). Not because it’s bad, but because it feels strangely abrupt. Rather than building towards a truly satisfying conclusion, the film almost seems to… stop. So many threads left open, so many characters left hanging…

There are clearly more adventures ahead (Marvel wastes no time reminding us of that in the credits), but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that I’d watched the first chapter of something bigger rather than a fully complete story.

And yet, despite all that, as the credits rolled and the music blasted through (Composer Michael Giacchino deserves a mention too, by the way), none of those issues really mattered all that much.

Because once again, Spider-Man reminded me why I’ve loved this character for so many years.

I’ve often said that Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 remains the gold standard for superhero cinema, and Brand New Day doesn’t quite reach those heights. Nor would I place it alongside No Way Home as one of the great Spider-Man experiences I’ve had in a cinema.

But that’s OK.

Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay it is this: after two hours and twenty minutes, I walked out wanting another adventure with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker as soon as possible.

Could I justify three-and-a-half stars? Probably. But Spidey has been getting away with worse from me since I was five years old. Objectivity, when it comes to the friendly neighbour, went out of the window a long time ago.

I might be suffering from superhero fatigue, but thankfully, I’m still not suffering from Spider-Man fatigue.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in cinemas everywhere (and it’s going to make gazillions!)

Andrea Carnevali is a Bafta winning film maker who lives in Chiswick, and a co-creator of the Chiswick In Film festival.