Spider-man proves that growing up doesn’t have to happen alone
The latest Spider-man film, Brand New Day, had a bit of a bumpy start. Coming off of the wildly successful No Way Home, the movie’s announcement and production was beset by All Of Our Comic Book Truther Friends telling us that it was going to be bad. That this was the wrong story to tell. That the creative and character choices were going to suck. That the last minute production completion was a sure sign that there were problems. “This is going to be bad, they screwed up, wrong choice in directors, the MCU sucks and now so does Spider-man.”
The movie was over before it began, they argued.
But boy were they wrong. Spider-Man is good! Still! And Brand New Day is exactly the Spider-Man movie we need.
Spider-Man has always been a tale about growing up. About changing and going through life’s stages, about the relationships we build, about love and loss. It’s an allegory for becoming a teenager, what with the strange changes to his body that he wants to hide from his friends and family. For Peter those changes can be difficult to deal with, especially if they happen all at once. Sometimes they’re good, and can lead to love, and sometimes they’re bad and can make us fearful. In the previous three films he dealt with the effect of those changes by angling for the opportunity, but with Brand New Day those changes (and new ones) are much less predictable, much more difficult to deal with. And paced as a Charles Dickens story, with three complete acts, we finally see what that means.
The film tells the story of Peter coming to grips with those changes, alone, in a world that doesn’t know him. His actions at the end of No Way Home were selfish. He thought he was doing the right thing, but now those people who forgot have lost far more than he has. Nobody knows Peter, and that reveals that Peter actually does not know himself.
And so the movie deals with that, often crushing him under his sadness. He tries to help people but keeps a distance, he’s separated from his friends, he has no family, his enemies have a far fresher start than he does; he’s more broken than the world that he broke. But there’s only one way to solve that issue in a comic book movie: meet someone who may have it even worse.
SPOILER START:
It’s this new person, Jean Grey, that brings self-reflection to Peter. It’s a Marvel movie trope at this point: What starts as someone who is really evil, hurting and killing others, turns out to be someone who has an incredibly difficult situation. As Peter discovers more and more about Jean he does so about himself too, ultimately reckoning with what he’s done and how it’s affected others. As an aside, much like how Spider-Man was introduced and launched in a bigger ensemble movie, Civil War, Jean Grey and the X-Men are now receiving the same in Brand New Day. And, if we look close enough, we may also catch a lite Miles Morales tease.
SPOILER END
Is it filled with fan service? Yes. There are great choices for what enemies Spidey takes on and what heroes he works alongside. Being a smaller, more grounded and less grand plot movie means that it can be much tighter and more practical in who is brought in. Punisher steals the show, but the return of Bruce Banner’s Hulk is a nice touch, and The Hand have some of the coolest fight sequences, even though the group is a little wasted.
While the movie is fun, there are a few issues. Plot points sometimes don’t go far enough, sometimes getting lost within themselves. Damage Control is a huge aspect of the film, but we never learn much about it, and its real agenda is telegraphed so far in advance. In fact, the majority of the character arcs are this way, as we can figure out what’s ultimately going to happen without needing much information. A little less of that would be ideal, especially in a movie like this that is the biggest reset to the MCU in ages.
At least we have Peter’s friends. Ned and MJ are fantastic, fleshed out individuals in this, having their own motivations away from the Grand Scheme. For the first time we feel like they have lives they live. Peter “not being there” is a lot like a Christmas Carol moment, where the Ghost of Spider-Man Future has shown him that his friends may actually have been better off without him there. But there are holes, and they acknowledge those holes as being what has driven them. Peter wasn’t there, but that may have been enough to BE there. This is probably showcased best in my personal favorite scene in the film, which just so happens to be the last one. Peter walks into a bodega, buying his regular bouquet of flowers for Aunt May’s grave, when he sees Ned sitting alone at a table. He hesitates, before finally walking over to say hello, and then both he and Ned subconsciously recreate their personal secret handshake.
Spider-Man is growing up, but now he’s not doing it alone anymore.
This review is based on my ass buying tickets weeks ago to see the film on Thursday previews. I didn’t get the food I ordered.
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