Spider-Man: Brand New Day Might Be the Best Spider-Man Movie, With Tom Holland's Best Performance Yet

I saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and I am happy to say I loved it. In fact, this might be the best Spider-Man movie. It really might be. What follows contains no spoilers, so anyone who has not seen it can read on safely.

I was actually worried going in that I would not love it. That was not because it did not look good or anything like that. I simply have a lot to say, and plenty of it I cannot say without giving things away.

Brand New Day is hard to compare with Spider-Man 2

I know people are probably going to compare this film to Spider-Man 2. Brand New Day has a lot in it, and I would say it is a very different movie, so it is a little hard to put the two side by side. What I can say is that there was so much I loved about this one.

I was smiling the entire time. There are some sad moments, but even then I found myself just looking at Tom Holland's face and enjoying what he was doing on screen. There is so much to this movie. It is deep, and I like it.

Tom Holland gives what I think is his best performance

I think Tom Holland is phenomenal in this. I have seen most of his work, including of course the other Spider-Man movies, and out of everything I have seen, "This is his best movie." He has matured and elevated, and he has leveled up as an actor. He brings so much to this film, and I love it.

Without spoiling anything, there are MJ scenes, some of which appear in the trailers, where he sees her. In some of those moments he is just looking at her, and I kept thinking "it might not be acting." He is genuinely looking at his wife, since they have confirmed they are married. Seeing Tom Holland just smiling at Zendaya made me really happy. To me it was a man smiling because he is in love with his wife. It kind of broke the fourth wall a little for me.

I did not feel the third act problem some reviews mentioned

Some of the reviews and reactions said Marvel has a third act problem here. I did not think so. I have talked to people who felt the film dips a little for a short stretch before picking back up, but I did not feel that at all. I am someone who gets very aware of being bored, and when that happens it ruins a movie for me. Brand New Day has slow moments, but I never felt bored, not a single time.

I was invested the entire time. A lot happened in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and this film does a great job of bringing you into the aftermath of that. It shows what it means not just for Spider-Man but for Peter and the people around him.

Then there is the Punisher. There are so many good scenes. Some parts at the end in particular were so funny and so good. The comedy in this film was great to me, and pretty much everything landed without taking away from anything else. I think Marvel can sometimes go overboard or put comedy in the wrong place, but here I think it is designed pretty perfectly.

The action is phenomenal, and the trailers held a lot back

The action in this film is phenomenal. Surprisingly, the trailers did not show a lot of the Spider-Man action, the web swinging and all of that. I was actually worried they were showing too much, because Marvel likes to drop a short TV spot on Instagram every day, sometimes twice a day, in the week or two leading up to a movie. As it turns out, you do not see too much.

Sadie Sink is a great actress, and this is probably my favourite Zendaya performance

That is especially true of Sadie Sink's character. I am not going to say who she is playing, but Sadie Sink as an actress is phenomenal. I really liked her in Stranger Things. You get introduced to her, you follow her story, and by the time the film really gets into it, you are just amazed. She is a great actress. You can see why Marvel would want to lock her down, because she is coming off Stranger Things and is a really big name. I think everybody really likes her for the most part. I am sure some people are lukewarm about her, but I thought she was phenomenal.

I do not have anything against Zendaya, but sometimes I feel like she kind of acts the same in all the movies. This was a good performance from her, and this is probably my favourite time seeing her in any film. I really liked it.

The twists proved some of the leaks right and others wrong

There are some really interesting scenes, some you do not see coming, and some twists that left me thinking, "Whoa, like that's that's really interesting." We have talked a lot about Spider-Man: Brand New Day and gone through a lot of plot leaks. Some things were right and some things were wrong. Based on some things in the trailer, I and other people all thought the story was heading in one direction, when really it went in another.

I was pleasantly surprised by that. Since I cover leaks, that is one of the parts I find really fun: seeing that one thing was real, another was not, and the story took a different direction than expected. I think the whole cast in general did a phenomenal job.

My brother, who is harder to impress, rated it at least a nine

I came home fresh from the theater, so my thoughts are off the cuff. I did not have much time to think about the film except on the car ride home, when I talked it over with my brother. He loved it too. He is definitely harder to impress than I am, especially when it comes to Marvel, because I love Marvel. He said he would have to think about it more, but he gives it a nine or higher.

There is probably only one thing I could say about this movie, and it is not even a complaint. I just wish there was more. About 25 or 30 minutes in, I was sitting there thinking I loved it so much and hoped it would stay that way. Then, about an hour and 25 minutes or an hour and a half in, after laughing or smiling at something, I literally had this thought: "I don't want this to end." It has been a really long time since I felt that way about a movie. I was on the edge of my seat, and I wanted it to go on and on. I wish it could have been a four hour movie.

The packed theater was probably the most electric crowd I remember since No Way Home

One of the coolest things for me was the crowd. The theater was packed, and people were dressed up as Spider-Man, Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen, or wore Spider-Man and X-Men shirts. I saw The Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts the day each came out, and my theaters probably were not even half full then. For this one, granted, tickets had to come through Amazon Prime, but it was completely packed and I did not see an empty seat.

There were adults and older people too. I saw a couple walk in together who looked like they were probably in their 80s. No kids, nothing like that. They just wanted to see a Spider-Man movie, and I hope that will be me one day. We cheered many times, starting before the movie as the screen went black, and again after it ended. I think Spider-Man: No Way Home was the last time I remember a theater being that electric. There is one post credits scene, right at the very end, with no mid credits scene, so you have to wait through all of the credits.

The suit was fixed and the story never felt convoluted to me

The film makes you happy, makes you sad and makes you think. The action is there, and the Spider-Man suit looks amazing. I think in some of the trailers it looked a bit muddy and grey, and that was fixed for the movie. The Punisher was fantastic, and Bruce Banner was fantastic too. Sadie Sink is a legend, and I think everybody is going to be quite impressed with her. Tom Holland brought it, and I believe he captured the essence of Peter Parker and Spider-Man.

I have seen some reviews say the story was convoluted or a bit messy. I did not feel that at all. I thought everything meshed well together. There were even moments where I started to wonder about something, and then the film addressed it. By the end, nothing is left too ambiguous. It has been a while since I felt we had a top tier, amazing film, and we got it with Spider-Man.

At the time, there was talk of making five more films with Tom Holland, and he said, "As long as they have me, I'll stay." I want him to stay forever, until he is 90 and longer, along with Miles, Gwen and everyone else. If you liked what you saw in the trailers, I think the film is even better than the best trailer moments.

Do you think Brand New Day can stand alongside Spider-Man 2 as the best Spider-Man movie, or are the two too different to compare?