Spider-Man: Brand New Day - A Movie That Understands Spider-Man

I believe Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a movie that truly understands Spider-Man. In about 2 months since it's release, Brand New Day has gone on to become the third highest grossing film of all time, only behind Avatar and Avengers: Endgame, earning a total of $2.48 Billion. This is not at all the first MCU movie to cross the billion dollar threshold, the others being: Avengers 1, Iron Man 3, Age of Ultron, Civil War, Black Panther, Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Endgame, Far From Home, No Way Home, and Deadpool & Wolverine (a lot more than expected, they were really moving like that). With that list of high earning films, I would go as far to say that including Brand New Day, only 5 of those movies actually deserver there earnings, Brand New Day being one of them.

I was very excited for this film going in but cautious at the same time. Spider-Man is my favorite superhero and one of my favorite fictional characters so I am always excited to see another Spider-Man film, but I am not the biggest fan of Tom Holland's movies. I think he is a talented actor, and I think he does a great job as Spider-Man, probably the best fit for the role out of the three, but I think all three of his movies have been lackluster, so I wasn't sure what to expect going into this. But my expectations were exceeded tenfold. I absolutely LOVED this movie. It is easily my favorite movie of the year, and my second favorite Spider-Man film only behind Spider-Man 2. And it is easily, without question, my favorite MCU film. This movie understood Spider-Man,which I don't think the other Holland films have. I want to break down some of the things I love about this movie, where I want it to lead to (even if I am not convinced it will) and a few negatives also, so lets get into it.

As I have said already, the big thing I think Brand New Day accomplishes that the previous Holland fims did not, is that they understood Spider-Man. Now to explain what I mean by this, I think I should start with what I think the previous Holland films miss with the character.

Firstly, his father figure. Peter in the MCU is notoriously referred to as Tony Stark Jr. And I think for good reason, Tony takes a father-figure-like role in Peter's life in the movies, enaging in a (albeit one scene) flirty relationship with Aunt May but being in Peter's life almost more than May is, acting as a mentor to him. Though I do believe this decision takes away from some important parts of the character, it is not inherently bad, it is the way it is executed that I have an issue with. Tony is sort of a replacement for Uncle Ben in the MCU, though not a 1:1. Uncle Ben is integral to who Peter Parker is, but not because it is Uncle Ben, but the lesson he teaches him. Ben is responsible in most Spider-Man iterations for teaching Peter the lesson of "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" the famous quote we all know and love. That single line is essential to who Peter is and should be the cornerstone of every Spider-Man story. Ben's death teaches Peter this lesson, and it does it through one very important way, that being that it is Peter's fault.