“Hi, I’m Peter Parker,” says the true identity of the web-slinging hero. Buddy, we know–that’s why we’re here!
It’s rather courteous of Mr. Parker to introduce himself as if he isn’t one of the most profitable characters of all time, but when you’re trying to keep reinvigorating that audience time and time again, a nice introduction goes a long way. Identity is a big theme to a lot of superhero films, no matter what avenue of the Marvel universe they stem from, but that is even more true in Destin Daniel Crettin’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth installment featuring the go-get-em pleasantries of Tom Holland. While Crettin’s film leans into expansive depths when it comes to Parker’s struggle to figure out where he lives in the world, is the horizon as rosy as the prospect of a batch of new adventures?
In order to repair the multiverse, Doctor Strange had to remove Parker from everyone’s memory in order to protect him, so Parker’s closest pal and girlfriend, Jacob Batalon’s Ned and Zendaya’s MJ, respectively, have carried on through their college years without him. On the bright side, though, New York City has never been so crime free thanks to all that time Spider-Man has to swing from bank robberies to muggings to subway disasters. The person he probably speaks the most to is Liza Colón-Zayas’ Captain Jean DeWolff, who doesn’t even know Spidey’s identity as she is seen stopping at every “most New York place” you’ve ever seen. This Peter Parker is lonely, ordering Little Caesars’ (seriously…how the hell does he keep up the physique with all that Pizza! Pizza!…oh, right, the web-slinging…), delivering flowers to Aunt May’s grave and getting lost in his own regrets.
When the Department of Damage Control (seriously…) experiences its fourth attack on the facility in one month, the chase reveals a different type of villain: one that can clearly jump from person to person not unlike how an insect hops from host to host. Citizens of the city flail and contort as the presence inhabits and then scampers to the next person in order to get further or closer to someone. Is it mind control? Some form of magic? Maybe it even makes me want to watch the 1998 Denzel Washington thriller Fallen? Just me? Okay… Sometimes this force stops and takes the control of someone long enough for Spider-Man to have a conversation or confrontation before it leaps to the next person and leaves the unsuspecting host unaware of where they are or how they got there. Spidey encounters this sensation first-hand, between him and MJ on a rooftop with the promising florescent skyline as their backdrop. Holland and Zendaya are dynamite, and the turns of the conversation have a tickled, tortured energy that we have never gotten to see in a Spider-Man film before. The source of who is responsible for all this inhabitation has already been ruined by some people online (and someone on a red carpet…eeekk…), and it should not be sought after if you are looking for a good, satisfying payoff.
There are similarities to Peter Parker and this new character that drive the emotional core of the film as it looks back towards Parker’s own isolation and sadness. A lot of the events in the middle of the film–involving scientific inhibitors, Hulk smashing, and high-rise action sequences–slow the pacing and distract from the nuances of Parker’s struggle with his purpose and even the control of his own body. If he rejects the Peter Parker of it all, does he become more arachnid? He literally has to fight for balance in his own body when he discovers that those spider levels are disrupting how he can swing, fight, and empathize. One morning, he wakes up swaddled in a delicate cocoon of his own web without knowing how he got there–or realizing how many thirsty gifs it was bound to create.
Peter Parker is a character that people believe in because they see the goodness of themselves in him while louder aspects of Brand New Day are guaranteeing us that more movies are on the horizon. Holland engages with his character’s fears while never sacrificing that goodness or dedication, but I wish the movie was as committed to that same ideal.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens in theaters on July 31.
