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-