Spider-Man Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the fourth film in the series that began with the 2017 Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Tom Holland shines as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. This is a great performance, and he has really grown into the role. He is starting to rival my previous favorite Spider-Man actor, Tobey Maguire, who also did a fantastic job.

We also get some good emotional moments involving Peter Parker's former love interest, MJ, and his former best friend, Ned, neither of whom can remember him because of events that happened in the previous movie. The central theme of the movie is that Peter Parker feels alone and isolated. He is not the only one.

With a production budget of $225 million, the movie is full of action sequences, which is probably what we want from a Spider-Man movie, but it is a little over the top. There is a major fight sequence involving another superhero.  Movies like this try to overwhelm our senses.

My biggest problem with superhero movies in general is that the characters do things that are physically impossible and would kill ordinary human beings, so watching requires an extra level of Suspension of Disbelief.

A great superhero movie needs a great villain, but what we get is a psychic who can take over people's bodies. This seems to rip off the movie Fallen, where a demon rapidly jumps from one body to the next. And maybe the villain isn't so bad after all, which doesn't make for a great villain.

The movie is so complicated that it becomes a bit messy. There are some good emotional moments, but the motivations and allegiances of the characters change, which makes the story feel awkward. The production values are very good, and the movie has a lot of individual elements that are entertaining, but they don't come together in a way that feels as satisfying or meaningful. If this were a better movie, I would want to see it again right away, but I'm not feeling it.

I get the impression that some executive approved the story because it was just good enough, and regardless, it was going to make a ton of money.

Rating: B

Every Marvel film has had a post-credits scene, which is usually a preview of what the next movie will be about. It was interesting to see a theater full of people completely frozen in their seats for five minutes, watching the credits and waiting for that final scene. Unfortunately, what we actually got wasn't amazing, and I was a bit disappointed.