Over the past few years, it has become a rather rare treat when I end up genuinely, unequivocally enjoying the latest superhero film. Mostly I find them to be middling entertainment, sometimes a bit dull—and for The Eternals, nearly unwatchable—with the notable exception of 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine and last year's Thunderbolts*.

Add Spider-Man: Brand New Day to that list of exceptions. Tom Holland's latest outing as the titular web-slinger reminds us that superhero movies can still be very, very good—as much about well-drawn characters with interesting developmental arcs and well-timed emotional beats as CGI-filled action extravaganzas. There's plenty of the latter in Brand New Day, of course, but it's the grounded humanity at its heart that makes director Destin Daniel Cretton's film work so well.

(Spoilers below but no major reveals until after the gallery. We'll give you a heads up when we get there)

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The Odyssey might be cleaning up at the box office at the moment, but in two weeks another mega-blockbuster hits theaters: Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). Sony Pictures dropped one last trailer for this follow-up to 2021’s No Way Home, which is purportedly intended to launch a fresh trilogy of films with Tom Holland in the title role.

No Way Home ended on a pretty bleak note, with Peter Parker (Holland) asking Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to erase him from everyone’s memory to protect the multiverse, including his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya). Per the official synopsis:

It’s a Brand New Day for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control. But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves–a powerful villain no one can even see. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.

Holland is reprising his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, along with Zendaya as MJ and Jacob Batalon as Peter’s former bestie Ned Leeds. The film also features Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/Punisher, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, Michael Mando as Mac Gargan/Scorpion (captured by Spider-Man in Homecoming), Marvin Jones III as albino crime lord Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone, Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil (briefly Peter’s lawyer in No Way Home); Liza Colon-Zayas as detective Jean DeWolf; Eman Esfandi as MJ's new boyfriend; and Trammell Tillman as Bill Metzger of the Department of Damage Control (DODC) who is policing superpowered individuals.

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