Spider-Man Brand New Day is MOSTLY PERFECT | Review

And it's everything that I could hope for in a Spider-Man film. Stay to the end to hear my rating as well as some clips from the Q&A I attended with Kevin Feige. Everything I'm about to say is spoiler free unless I say otherwise. I mean the first thing that I noticed while watching it was the presence of the world that surrounds Peter. New York feels like a living breathing city and all the appearances from the various villains and uh heroes and characters adds a lot of nice texture to it. It gives a sense of realism like this is an actual experience that someone is going through and not just a fictitious story. It's also really reminiscent of the comics um you know you read those and you're reading Spider-Man and oh I don't know where Daredevil swings in or the Punisher bursts through the world. Makes the world feel tangible and real that these characters actually interact with each other and don't live in their own little bubbles. So if Spider-Man is chasing a tank through the city why wouldn't Punisher show up? Or if he has a scientific question that he can't wrap his head around why wouldn't he go to Bruce Banner for advice? It feels so nice to have these little interactions throughout the film that you know yes in some ways they're fan service and some ways they're cameos but they have a purpose. Building off of that I mean the Punisher what is there to say? The chemistry that he has with Peter and Spider-Man is phenomenal. The dynamic between them plays so well with them helping each other at certain points but then also turning around to have moral disputes over the actions that they're taking mid-fight. They manage to stay true to Punisher as a character right for those who are fans of the show and Daredevil but also keeping him within the PG-13 rating. It doesn't feel like a totally different guy it's reasonable what he's doing but they tone it down for this audience right. I'm not going to say too much but there's an incredible scene at the end between the two of them that absolutely blew me away. I mean Jon Bernthal's performance there is spectacular and you know Tom Holland it's great as always. He's a perfect Peter Parker more on that later. The next bit here is a spoiler warning so just watch out for what's ahead. I will put a time code on the screen for what you can jump to. Okay last chance so the big secret. Who is Sadie Sink playing? A lot of us speculated this but it is in fact Jean Grey and I could not be more excited about this. I mean we are finally getting mutants in the MCU and this is such a surprise and not something that you would expect out of a Spider-Man movie. I've heard people complaining that you know it's a Spider-Man movie why is mutants in this why is Jean Grey in here but I mean maybe I'm biased as an X-Men and Spider-Man fan but I think it really works. You know they incorporate her into the story so well but it does still feel like a Spider-Man movie. It doesn't feel like a mutant movie. They don't say the word mutant at all but it establishes her as a new character and it works really well and it still feels grounded and you get to see all the other villains that are playing a role in this story while having her as the central antagonist. I have to say as well that she is incredible in this role. Truly I think this is another one of the great Marvel casting decisions and I can't wait to be watching her in these movies for many years to come. What's interesting though is she actually wasn't the first choice to be the villain right so after our screening the man himself Kevin Feige came in to discuss this. But that was one of the big developing changes that was going on was who was the bad guy. One version of a bad guy then another version of a bad guy then a version essentially of of this bad guy that was revealed to be a very obscure character nobody ever heard of and and it just wasn't it wasn't satisfying and that might be what Tom was talking about because he said well what about this character and he was this character but and knowing that all of the journey that Peter was going on has to culminate in his confrontation with the villain at the end that's when Jean starts to come up. I think she plays off Peter really well as do all the characters in the film they kind of represent different aspects of his struggle on psyche and what he's going through at this moment which is something that was entirely intentional which Feige also mentioned. A young a young person it's very similar in age to Peter and a little younger Peter again who I just said had a mentor in each of the other Spidey movies and seeing a young person who did not have a mentor seeing a young person who has power like Peter did but didn't have an enemy they didn't have anybody to help God to help and that is what led and the origin story of Jean Grey in the in the comics before Xavier finds her before she joins the X-Men does have something to do with her sister and something to do with her not not controlling Tom Holland's performance in this movie is it's quite moving I think he reaches a deeper level into the character and he's really leveling up his acting skills you know it's hard not to compare this to the Odyssey but if you were to twist my arm I would say that this is the much better performance arguably and that that might be a hot take I'm unaware but I think he really understands this character and the script gives him the flexibility to bring that level of emotion and introspectiveness that isn't necessarily there in the Odyssey both great films I'm not diminishing his performance in any way shape or form I just do think that he has an understanding of Spider-Man that I haven't seen in any other actor and I would be more than happy to watch him for many many years to come I want to see him grow into a full adult and I want to see him go from the high school problems to the kind of college post-college problems to the full-blown adult problems and I want to follow him on this journey and I hope we get to see him in a lot more films in the future this brings me to Zendaya and Jacob Batalon I think them coming back was a good decision I will be curious to where they go in the future I hope they're in the other movies because I think if they were to leave them they would have to leave them in no way home or or not at all right this is not the move to leave them in now that they're back I want to see more from these characters again I'm not spoiling anything here but they really play into the dynamics of them in this and it really hurts to watch it in a good way and what about what I mean by that is as an audience member it hurts to see the path that this takes but from a creative standpoint it's absolutely the right decision right it pulls on the heartstrings of Peter and it motivates him I'm very interested there's scenes at the end of this movie that imply things in the future I have my own opinions on that but I'm curious as to what all of you think Zendaya absolutely brilliant in this movie I think she adds a lot of emotion and balances off Peter really well there's a scene when they're on Punisher's boat if you've seen it you know what I'm talking about the pain in that scene it's incredible the tonal shift that this movie took was also absolutely right it takes Peter in a whole new direction and brings him back to the archetype of Spider-Man living alone in his apartment in New York City I love the coming-of-age high school style of the original movies it's almost kind of reminiscent of a Harry Potter or Breakfast Club sort of thing but this is just a natural progression of that and it dives deeper into the character and its emotions more so than we've seen before I think at the end of the day this film has the emotion and intensity of the Andrew Garfield films the hope of the Tobey Maguire films in the ensemble world and character of the Tom Holland films so I can't not talk about the swinging sorry John but on this one you were wrong this practical swinging is breathtaking I haven't seen a film that makes you feel like you were Spider-Man quite like this does I mean it feels like I'm playing the Insomniac game in the same way where it puts you in his shoes as you were swinging around the city right now I understand that a lot of this is CGI and not all practical swinging but I do appreciate the effort to bringing on set physical practical effect whenever possible it's also not just the CGI or the practical swinging that makes this work so well but it's the sound the team behind this film did incredible work to place you in the shoes of Peter Parker as he dives off buildings right you can hear the sounds of the city and the wind ripping against his suit and what pulls us all together is the music my screening the composer Michael Giacchino was also there to talk about his process for creating the score for the film and what he said was that instead of diving into the technicalities of the music he thinks about it and puts himself into the shoes of the character right he imagines what the world sounds like and what the character is feeling and he really emphasized this but at the end of the day it all comes down to feeling and emotion this is where the music comes from if you're not feeling it he said it doesn't matter it doesn't matter how pretty it sounds or how nice it sounds he the emotion needs to be there and this certainly comes across in the film and is yet another amazing score from the brilliant composer the grounded street level hero and it checks every box for Spider-Man in my opinion and is kind of the culmination of what the previous films have been trying to do and I can't wait to see where this goes in the future I do have one negative thought about this film and I'm not necessarily strong-willed against it it's just one thing about the ending and I don't want this to be taken the wrong way because I actually really love this film and I love the ending of this film I found it to be quite reminiscent of Thunderbolts maybe it was just the lighting or whatever but the kind of like misunderstood hero with powers to control people diving into the mind of somebody to kind of resolve the issue now it's not done the exact same way and I don't want to limit this in any way shape or form but I did see an interesting connection there and I think it could have been explored a little bit more but again small potatoes right uh not a big deal I think what this movie does is it shows that not everyone is perfect and everybody struggles even Spider-Man and I think that's what movies are for it makes life a little bit easier and it brings you characters that you can relate to and I think Spider-Man is such a relatable character and Tom Holland is incredible in this role overall this film is a wonderful addition to the Spider-Man franchise and I give it an easy nine out of ten I loved it as compared to the other films in this series I think this is the best Spider-Man film in the MCU coming just above Homecoming and yes I'm a huge Homecoming supporter I did not realize this was an unpopular take apparently it is but anyway in total I think it is the best Spider-Man film ever made alongside Spider-Man 2 but remember to follow us on social media and check out our podcast SeaListers where we put Spider-Man head-to-head with the Odyssey and comment down below your thoughts on the film and what your favorite Spider-Man film is thank you so much for watching see you next time