I confess: while it was always a given that I was going to watch Spider-Man: Brand New Day when it came out in theaters, I was among those who figured that there was no way Marvel Studios was going to top the spectacle of putting three Spider-Men in one movie that they did with Spider-Man: No Way Home. I was happy to be proven wrong when Marvel did exactly that, by taking a completely different approach.
As I have said in my review, I loved Destin Daniel Cretton's extremely kinetic approach to storytelling, from using mostly practical effects like having in camera swinging done using rigs to staging some truly amazing fight sequences using wire fu. I also appreciate how Marvel actually took note of fan feedback on this one; putting Tom Holland in a physical suit rather than painting over him with computer-generated imagery.
While these little details did a lot to enhance my enjoyment of this film, what really sealed the deal for me was just how coherently Cretton and his crew told this story, hitting the emotional beats with near perfection. Even though Spider-Man had to share the screen with three other major comic book characters, namely the Punisher, the Hulk and Jean Grey, each and every one of them fit into the context of the story, and unlike, say, No Way Home where the plot had to stretch credulity a bit just to yank Doctor Strange out of the narrative when he needed to be gone, here the participation of each character felt well-thought out.
Though their dynamic here is different from what it was in the comics, this story effectively reminds folks that before achieving iconic status as a murderous vigilante, the Punisher was actually introduced in the pages of "The Amazing Spider-Man" as an anti-hero, so it's a bit poetic that his return to the big screen for the first time in almost twenty years is through a Spider-Man movie.
Now, the inclusion of the Hulk in the film could have felt gratuitous, especially since we know that this film would feature a throwdown between the two Marvel icons, but again, Bruce Banner is worked quite sensibly and logically into the script, and even his eventual exit makes sense in a way that Doctor Strange's from the last film quite honestly did not.
Then, of course, there was the masterstroke of introducing one of the founding X-Men in a Spider-Man movie, none other than Jean Grey, who was (apparently) originally conceived in the writer's room as a "young telepath" before Marvel eventually decided on her character. The intent, according to reports, was for the villain to be a misguided teenager to serve as a foil to Peter. There are few characters lonelier and more alienated from society after all, than the X-Men, so having Peter face off against one of them, and lead her to basically change her worldview, worked pretty smoothly. This doesn't result in Spider-Man feeling like a guest star in his own film, fortunately, which was something that could very easily have happened with this many other heroes in the mix.
I want to take this opportunity to pat Marvel on the back for learning from one of its biggest marketing mistakes. Though it's often said that the identify of Sadie Sink's character was one of the worst kept secret's in Hollywood, neither Sony nor Marvel cracked and admitted the truth. This was quite a departure from featuring the Hulk quite prominently in the marketing for Thor: Ragnarok even though the story for that film clearly indicated his appearance was meant to be a surprise.
There has been quite a bit of commentary about how Jean wasn't made to answer for her acts of villainy throughout the story, and although I don't want to dismiss these claims, I still respectfully disagree that this sours the narrative. For one thing, after Jean's capture, we see her getting tortured by Damage Control. Also, this is someone who has lived for years on the run without any form of parental care, whose only guiding light was snatched away from her in broad daylight. Peter's act of kindness towards her is the first she has probably seen in years, and it's worth pointing out that she's basically just a kid. So no, I wouldn't really have been keen for the story to end with her behind bars, especially since probably the only prison that could contain her would probably require superhuman restraint. Regardless of how she is written, though, I feel Sadie Sink truly killed it as this character, and she has really set the standard for how the X-Men should be cast.
There are other aspects of the story that I found interesting, though, that nobody seems to want to talk about. The inclusion of the ninja clan the Hand, for example, felt a bit out of left field, and prompted speculation from a whole segment of fandom (myself included) that their presence, as well as the Punisher's AND a character from Daredevil: Born Again, meant that we were getting another appearance from Matt Murdock, who famously appeared in No Way Home as "a really good lawyer." Unfortunately, this was not the case, and it seems that the only purpose for the Hand to show up was to provide a show-stopping fight sequence. I wouldn't say I'm complaining, but as a fan of both comic-book and MCU Daredevil I was disappointed not to see him here.
The other Jean in the story that folks aren't really talking about, however, could be quite significant for Peter's story in the next couple of films, because Detective Jean De Wolff, in the comics, is arguably most famous for the story arc "The Death of Jean De Wolff." It's a death that affects Peter quite deeply in the comics and eventually ties into the introduction of the character Venom. The thought of DeWolff dying in the MCU seems particularly tragic given that this iteration has children, but it seems that her eventual demise was the specific reason for which her character was introduced.
Prior to the heart-wrenching events in No Way Home, MCU Spider-Man films were conspicuously light in tone. Uncle Ben's death is never explicitly mentioned in any of the film's with Aunt May's death eventually superseding it, especially given that she says the line he said in both previous incarnations of the character: "With great power, there must also come great responsibility." It seems, though, that there really is no turning back, even for a film aimed primarily at kids. In the "Home" trilogy, perhaps killing off someone like Jean DeWolff would have seemed unthinkable, but now, all bets are off. Weirdly, this new darker, more grounded tone, which is quite the departure from most of the previous trilogy, works for the character at this stage of his journey. I find myself particularly impressed as it's not necessarily the most family-friendly direction in which to take this franchise, either but I am more than willing to see where this leads.
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