When Tom Holland first appeared as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, I immediately thought Marvel had found a promising newcomer to take on the role of Peter Parker. Holland had the charm, humor, and personality to play everyone’s favorite web-slinger. However, once Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home were released, I found myself disappointed. While I really enjoyed Michael Keaton’s Vulture in Homecoming and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio in Far From Home, I never felt like Peter Parker was truly the star of his own story. More often than not, it felt like Spider-Man had become a supporting character in his own movies, with Tony Stark and other characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe taking priority over Peter Parker’s personal journey. Then came Spider-Man: No Way Home, and everything changed. I absolutely loved that film because it embraced the legacy of Spider-Man while finally giving Tom Holland the emotional material he deserved. It reunited three generations of Spider-Men, brought back some of the franchise’s most iconic villains, and somehow balanced nostalgia with genuine heart. Until now, I considered No Way Home the greatest Spider-Man movie ever made. I still stand by that review, but I never expected Spider-Man: Brand New Day to come along and surpass it. Not only do I think it’s the best Spider-Man movie, but to take it one step further, the best film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far.
The reason Spider-Man: Brand New Day works so well has very little to do with having bigger action scenes or trying to outdo previous Marvel movies. What Destin Daniel Cretton understands is that Peter Parker has always been more interesting than Spider-Man, and that’s exactly why this movie succeeds. Instead of making the film about saving the world or setting up the next chapter of the MCU, the screenplay focuses on a young man who has lost everyone he loves and is desperately trying to figure out how to move forward with his life. The action is exciting, the visual effects are terrific, and there are some genuinely entertaining superhero moments throughout the film, but those aren’t the scenes that stayed with me and made me feel ultimately feel emotional connection to the main characters. The moments that stood with me were the conversations, the quiet moments of reflection, the heartbreak, and the emotional honesty between the main four characters. This is a superhero movie that works best when it plays like a character-driven drama, and I think that’s a tremendous credit to both the screenplay and Cretton’s direction.
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A huge reason why the emotional material lands as well as it does is Tom Holland, who delivers what I believe is the best performance of his career. It’s honestly remarkable watching how much he has grown as an actor over the last decade. The charm, humor, and awkwardness that made him such a likable Peter Parker are all still there, but now they’re accompanied by a level of emotional maturity that we simply haven’t seen from him before. Following the events of No Way Home, Peter is forced to live with the consequences of the choice he made. Everyone he loves has forgotten who he is, and Holland allows that loneliness to quietly exist underneath almost every scene. He never overplays the sadness or asks the audience to feel sorry for him. Instead, he gives Peter a quiet sense of grief that feels incredibly authentic. Whether he’s trying to reconnect with MJ or Ned or simply trying to find purpose in his everyday life, you can feel the emotional weight he’s carrying. At the same time, Holland never loses sight of what makes Peter Parker such an endearing character. He’s still funny, kind, optimistic, and the kind of hero who genuinely wants to help people. The difference is that there’s now a level of vulnerability and emotional honesty to the performance that elevates everything around him. I was genuinely taken aback by how phenomenal Holland is here, and I walked out of this film convinced that this is the performance that establishes him as an actor with a very long career ahead of him.
Zendaya is equally outstanding, and I don’t think it’s possible to talk about her performance without mentioning the chemistry she shares with Tom Holland. Obviously, they’re together in real life, and I think that natural connection comes through every time they’re on screen together. What makes this movie so heartbreaking is that we’ve already spent three films watching Peter and MJ fall in love, only for all of that to disappear because of the memory spell at the end of No Way Home. Peter remembers everything they shared together, but MJ doesn’t remember any of it, and that emotional disconnect becomes one of the driving forces behind the film. Zendaya has always played MJ as sarcastic, witty, and emotionally guarded, but Brand New Day gives her the opportunity to explore a much more vulnerable side of the character. Watching her interact with Peter as though he’s just another person is absolutely devastating because the audience knows exactly what has been lost, even if she doesn’t. I think this is among the best work Zendaya has ever done because she brings so much emotional honesty to the role, and every scene she shares with Holland feels completely genuine. Their chemistry has always been one of the franchise’s greatest strengths, but here it becomes the emotional foundation that holds the entire movie together.
Jacob Batalon also delivers what I believe is his strongest performance as Ned. In the previous films, Ned largely existed as the comic relief, and while he’s still funny here, I really appreciated that the screenplay finally gives the character more depth. Just like MJ, he has no memory of Peter Parker, but there’s this feeling throughout the movie that something is missing from his life. He doesn’t understand why he feels incomplete, but the audience does, and that makes his journey surprisingly emotional. I liked that the film explores the friendship between Ned and MJ because they’re both trying to move forward with their lives without realizing there’s a huge piece of their world that’s missing. Batalon handles those moments beautifully, and for the first time I found myself just as invested in Ned emotionally as I was in Peter and MJ.
Jon Bernthal was another huge surprise for me. I’ll be completely honest and admit that I never watched his Punisher series, so this was really my first experience spending a significant amount of time with his version of Frank Castle. I absolutely loved the dynamic between Bernthal and Holland because the two characters represent completely different worlds. Spider-Man always believes there’s hope, while the Punisher believes justice usually comes through violence. That polar-opposite mentality creates a really entertaining relationship that occasionally feels like a buddy cop movie, even though both characters approach every situation from completely different perspectives. Bernthal also gets a surprisingly emotional arc that I won’t spoil, but I appreciated that the screenplay gave him more to do than simply being the tough guy. He becomes an important part of Peter’s journey, and I thought Bernthal brought exactly the right amount of intensity and humanity to the role.
One of the more difficult performances to talk about without spoiling the movie is Sadie Sink’s. I obviously can’t reveal who she’s playing, but I will say she’s stepping into the shoes of a very iconic character, and I think she does a solid job making that role feel like her own. Some of my favorite scenes involving her character revolve around her relationship with her sister, and those moments give the story a surprising amount of emotional weight. There’s also a scene between Sadie Sink’s character and Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May that absolutely devastated me. I don’t want to say anything more because it’s a spoiler and one that’s best experienced without knowing what’s coming, but scenes like that perfectly showcase why Spider-Man: Brand New Day works so well. Rather than relying on nonstop action or spectacle, the movie trusts its actors to carry the emotional weight of the story, and time after time they rise to the occasion.
One performance that didn’t completely work for me was Florence Pugh’s. Over the years, I’ve really grown to appreciate Florence Pugh as an actress, and I think she consistently brings something unique to the table. Even in Black Widow, a movie that I wasn’t particularly fond of, I thought she was one of the highlights. I also wasn’t a fan of Thunderbolts, and unfortunately I do think Spider-Man: Brand New Day leans far too heavily into that version of the character. The performance feels like an exaggerated extension of what we already saw there. The accent is much stronger than I remember, the comedy is dialed up way too much, and there are moments where the character almost feels cartoonish compared to everyone else in the movie. She doesn’t fit naturally into this story and it feels like the character was added in to tie together an upcoming movie rather than being naturally part of this journey.
Mark Ruffalo also returns as Bruce Banner, and while I’ve always liked Ruffalo as an actor, I’ve never thought this version of Bruce Banner has been the best showcase of what he’s capable of. If you’ve seen films like Crime 101 or the television series Task, you know just how talented he really is. Here, he does exactly what’s required of him, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the performance itself. I just never found Bruce Banner’s storyline particularly compelling. I understand why the character is part of the movie, and I understand what he represents within the larger narrative, but I never found myself especially invested whenever he appeared. Ironically, I think that’s actually a compliment to Destin Daniel Cretton because the movie consistently reminded me that the emotional strength of this story doesn’t come from the larger Marvel mythology. It comes from Peter Parker.
What impressed me most about Spider-Man: Brand New Day is that it never loses sight of who Peter Parker is beneath the mask. This isn’t a movie about a superhero trying to save the world. It’s about a young man trying to survive the emotional consequences of sacrificing everything for the people he loves. Peter spends much of this film carrying around grief, loneliness, heartbreak, and a longing for a life that no longer exists. There are several moments where he reflects on the relationships he lost with MJ, Ned, and Aunt May, and those scenes hit harder than any of the action sequences because we’ve lived through those relationships alongside him over the course of four movies. You desperately want Peter to find happiness again, and the movie understands that emotional investment is far more important than simply delivering another elaborate superhero battle.
That’s really where Destin Daniel Cretton succeeds as a filmmaker. He understands that the biggest action sequence in the world means very little if the audience doesn’t care about the people involved. Every major emotional beat in this film feels earned because it grows naturally out of the relationships that have been established over multiple movies. When Peter is hurting, the audience hurts with him. When he finds small moments of hope, you find yourself cheering him on. That’s something the screenplay consistently gets right, and it’s why the quieter moments become the most memorable scenes in the entire film.
The movie also explores some surprisingly mature themes about humanity, identity, and the constant battle between compassion and darkness. Throughout the film, there’s this ongoing idea that every person has both light and darkness within them, and the choices we make ultimately define who we become. It’s certainly not the first superhero movie to explore those ideas, but I appreciated how naturally they were woven into Peter’s emotional journey instead of feeling like heavy-handed moral lessons. They become another extension of the larger story rather than distracting from it.
For as much as I enjoyed the film, I don’t think Spider-Man: Brand New Day is perfect. If I have one major criticism, it’s that the film occasionally tries to juggle too many storylines at once. There are moments where it feels a little overstuffed because so many different characters and subplots are competing for attention. Ironically, the strongest storyline in the movie is also the simplest one. Peter, MJ, and Ned remain the emotional heart of the film, and every time the screenplay returns to those three characters, it immediately finds another level emotionally. There were several points where I actually wished the movie had slowed down and spent even more time exploring those relationships because that’s where the screenplay shines the brightest.
At the end of the day, I walked out of Spider-Man: Brand New Day feeling emotional. I wasn’t thinking about the action scenes, visual effects, or the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but rather about the characters and their journeys. I was thinking about loss, friendship, love, hope, and what it truly means to keep pushing forward even after life takes everything away from you. That’s why this movie impacted me as much as it did, and that’s why I believe it surpasses Spider-Man: No Way Home. Like I said earlier, No Way Home celebrated Spider-Man’s past, but Brand New Day invests completely in the emotional complexity of the future, and by doing so it manages to become the most satisfying live-action Spider-Man film to date.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens in theaters and IMAX on July 31, 2026.
