Spider-Man: Brand New Day Squanders MCU Reset
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- Destin Daniel Cretton directs "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," the 145-minute fourth MCU Spider-Man film, which Sony Pictures Releasing opens in theaters July 31.
- Tom Holland anchors the film as Peter Parker coping with mass amnesia that erased him from MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon)'s memories — a performance the reviewer calls his most mature, sharpened by his recent turn in Nolan's "The Odyssey."
- Jon Bernthal graduates Frank Castle/Punisher from streaming to a major supporting theatrical role, which the reviewer describes as a "hilariously useless" trigger-happy comedic presence running a De Niro parody.
- The film's antagonist is a telepathic villain who hops between minds and destabilizes Peter's powers, with a mind-hopping effect the reviewer calls "much neater and more upsetting than what superhero movies usually muster" but undercut by "hopelessly rote backstory."
- Sony screened the film for critics at 7 p.m. the night before a 9 a.m. embargo — a timing choice the reviewer flags as emblematic of the studio's handling of the title.
- The Department of Damage Control plays a major role in the film, "flagrantly inspired by another Sony property" per the reviewer, while Bruce Banner appears in what the reviewer calls the least contrived of the shoehorned MCU cameos.
- The reviewer concludes the MCU is "stalling for time" and the sequel fails to meaningfully advance Peter Parker's arc, though it praises Cretton as "a more sure-footed stylist than his predecessor Jon Watts."
Why it matters: Positioned as the soft reset for Marvel's flagship character after the multiverse-era stumbles, the film instead opens a new MCU Phase on a downbeat note — a 145-minute runtime the reviewer says moves too slowly to justify its emotional ambitions and instead loads up franchise set-up work that punishes Peter Parker's solo story.
