Editor’s Note: Once those new Spider-Man movies come out, who is the first one to jump at it? Freeline Media critic Mike Fried, of course! Check out Mike’s review of the latest is web-slinging action! Read on!
By MIKE FRIED
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
4.5/5
SPOILER: IF YOU DO NOT LIKE SUPERHERO MOVIES, YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN’T BE READING THIS CLASSY AND ERUDITE PIECE OF PROSE.
This is the second movie in two days that I watched that had Tom Holland and Zendaya and John Bernthal, so thank you Marvel and thank you Christopher Nolan!
Well, it’s been some time. The last time we saw Spidey was when a time rift was opened allowing three Spider-men (Spider-mans?!?) to fight together and defeat three different sets of villains. In order to protect his friends, Ned and MJ, Peter Parker had Dr. Strange invoke a time spell that would seal the time rifts but would also cause Ned and MJ – and everyone else – to forget who he was.
So, for the past four years, Peter has been “your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.” He still pines for Mary Jane and misses his friend Ned, and he still places flowers on his Aunt May’s grave. Parker intervenes when a tank crashes into the Department of Damage Control and it appears that the driver is being telepathically controlled; but whomever the Telepath is has the ability to jump from one person to the next. MJ has a new boyfriend which gives Parker his teen angst and one morning he wakes up and finds that he has a mutation that allows him to shoot webs organically. He turns to Yelena Belova and Dr. Bruce Banner for help. Things happen.
Spider-Man is my favorite Marvel superhero. There is something about the total lack of cynicism contained within the character. There is a joyful childlike ebullience that is exuded by this super hero even after the deaths of his closest relative and his closest friend. And this film continues in that spirit.
It is also the most teen-angst raging hormone movie that I have seen in a very long time. And that’s because something is going on in Peter Parker’s body that he cannot control. Ha Ha – but I’m not kidding!! He cannot control the arachnid hormones within his body, and they are making him feel weird – hello teenage wasteland!! He does everything he can to inhibit them, including turning to his unknowing former friend, Bruce Banner, who is now teaching physics at Empire State University because he has been able to use gamma rays to inhibit his Hulkinations.
But the Telepath has other things in mind. The Telepath wants something contained within the Department of Damage Control and nothing will stand in the Telepath’s way, even if it means co-opting a former Avenger.
This movie soars because the action is necessary but takes a second place to the story about friendships. It is about Peter’s loneliness because he misses May and he misses being with his friends MJ and Ned. In fact, the only friend he has is Frank Castle and that’s a toxic relationship – or is it?
This is my third favorite Spider-Man movie behind Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 and 2021’s No Way Home.
Tom Holland is terrific again as Peter. He consistently delivers the best performances in the MCU and this movie just shows what a great actor he is. Zendaya actually has her best, most emotional outing as MJ, playing the character as being very confused as she learns some truths but also as she is hijacked by the Telepath. Jacob Batalan is still his most effervescent and goofy Ned, who although he does not remember Peter Parker, he still worships Spider-Man and creates an app called the Spidey-Tracker. He is the MCU version of George Costanza, only nicer- because he is young. Give him time.
Jon Bernthal is great as Frank Castle/The Punisher. There is a great chemistry between Castle and Parker, with each of them breaking each other’s chops when they can. And as much as Castle just doesn’t want to be bothered, you can tell that he wants to be. He feels the same pain of loneliness that Peter Parker feels. Mark Ruffalo is such a good actor and he gets to play Bruce Banner through a significant part of his role in the movie and he is such a better Banner than Edward Norton. Stranger Things veteran Sadie Sink – the fourth ST cast member to appear in a MCU film – as the Telepath is the bad guy version of Peter Parker. Scared because she is young and feeling the pressures and wrongdoings of the world so heavily, the Telepath threatens New York as she tries to find what she is looking for. She is really good in the role. Florence Pugh has a fun cameo as Yelena and you can tell she was allowed to ham it up. Trammel Tillman is also good as the weaselly head of the Department of Damage Control who seeks the Telepath for his own evil ends. And Marisa Tomei makes a poignant return as Aunt May. And if you listen carefully, you’ll hear Naomi Watts.
The action is absolutely terrific and the movie gets into it right away. It is well thought out. Destin Daniel Cretton, taking over from Jon Watts, does a terrific job bringing Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers’ script to life. He focuses more on the human elements of the characters and even though there is a lot of CGI action, the humanity story of Peter trying to discover who he is after years of solitude soars above the action.
The cinematography is excellent, highlighting a gorgeous view of New York City and its environment. This is especially well-done considering that the movie was filmed in Glasgow, Scotland which has stood in for NYC on many other occasions – Moscow as well! And even though New York City is mostly computer rendered, it looks photorealistic. The editing is top-notch and so are the special effects to the point where when Spider-Man is carrying MJ through New York the effects look real and not just computer generated as in the many of the DC Comics movies.
I know there were some complaints that the movie was a half hour too long but, you know, I just don’t agree with that. There was a lot going on in this film and that required fleshing out some of the non-action story elements which was done well. If these scenes had been shortened, the emotional impact of the film would have been lost. And even though the movie was 145 minutes long (and I missed the first few minutes because my Regal only showed ten minutes worth of trailers and I waited for the next show to see what I missed), I didn’t have to pee until I got home which was close to four hours so it couldn’t have been that long! So there!
Quite frankly, this was more a movie about Peter Parker than it was about Spider-Man and that is quite the honor. So few of the MCU movies are character driven and the Spider-Man movies have been different in that respect and this one ups the stakes on the Peter story.
The movie has a terrific sense of humor as fitting, a superhero film, and, especially, a Spider-Man film and Cretton ties it all together to give us a nice emotionally charged piece.
WATCH IT!
4.5/5
P.S. – there is a slight but meaningful stinger at the end of the credits and by the end of the credits I do mean at the very end of the credits after the logos for Pascal Productions, and Sony Pictures comes on, so stick around for that.
Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.
Contact Mike at moviemike3@gmail.com
