Tom Holland, fresh off his role as Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, in The Odyssey returns for his fourth movie as a superhero in Spider-Man:: Brand New Day. I’ve seen Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
I’m blaming Director Destin Daniel Cretton and his scriptwriters–Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers–for this deadly dull move. Spider-Man is tormented by headaches. One cause is the spider DNA that gives him his Powers is increasing its affect on him. Also, as Peter Parker, he’s friendless because of the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home where he had Doctor Strange wipe his friends’ memories of him.
Cretton, McKenna, and Sommers try to jazz things up with special guest stars like The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and The Punisher (John Bernthal). But the fight scenes are low-energy going-through-the-motions exercises.
What might have saved this movie are the scenes with Peter Parker’s former forgetful friends, MJ (played by Zendaya–Holland’s wife in Real Life) and his pal Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon). But those scenes are few and far between the mind-numbing “Action” escapades.
On top of all this boredom, the 20 minutes of Previews–none of which interested me–foretells that the Fall movie season might be as dreary as the Summer movie season of 2026. The only move I’m looking forward to is Avengers: Doomsday coming in December. GRADE: C-
I like Tom Holland as Spidey, but as with most of the Marvel flicks, I find the entire Spiderman series to be unnecessarily complicated, overly CGIed, And far less than what they should have been. Again, this falls into the “I’ll watch it, but I won’t pay for it” category.
Jerry, even though SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY took in a record $167 million, it’s the weakest of the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies.
I think the people making movies today have no idea what movies are supposed to be and I can’t believe how bad the situation has become in the past decade. At this point it’s very possible I will never again see a new film.
Byron, the focus is on making money, not art. Most of the film decisions today are marketing.
What is with all the Spiderman crap? Four movies? I must admit that I have no interest in the character and have never watched one of the movies all the way through, but a C- from George is a bad, bad sign.
Jeff, a C- rates the quality of the movie. The $167 million it made gives SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY an A for profitability.
I only watch them if nothing else is on or I need to do something else while watching and know I’m not going to pay attention.
On the other hand, the first time I saw the ad for sheep detectives, I roared with laughter. I loved that movie.
Maggie, THE SHEEP DETECTIVES is one of my favorite movies of 2026. Way better than SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY.
I have had an advance copy of the book since it was published. I’m going to try to read it after the next 3 on .mount TBR
Maggie, friends have told me the movie varies from the book.
I can recommend THE INVITE, which was the first film I’ve seen in a cinema in several years, a few days ago. Forgot how much A/C they will pipe in.
Todd, my son is going to see THE INVITE this weekend.