Brand New Day Does One Thing Better Than Every Other Spider-Man Movie

This post contains spoilers for "Spider-Man: Brand New Day"

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" looks set to bring Marvel back to life at the box office. Any Spidey film will bring out the crowds, but it turns out this one is actually pretty good. Not only does "Brand New Day" tell a more grounded story that puts Tom Holland's hero through the wringer, the action has been taken up a notch, with multiple in-camera fight scenes that feature extensive wire work. Then there's the webslinging, which has been notably improved to the extent that it not only feels more immersive but actually helps bolster the narrative.

Sony and Marvel Studios have finally given us a Spider-Man movie that's about something. "Brand New Day" sees Holland's Peter Parker struggling to move on following the events of "Spider-Man: No Way Home," wherein his beloved Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) died and his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) had their memories of him wiped. Rather than glossing over such a tectonic event, "Brand New Day" treats it seriously. The events of "No Way Home' represent a kind of trauma that Peter tries but fails to suppress. This is dramatized via a spider-pubescence storyline, in which Peter experiences heightened powers that cause him to become a much more aggressive version of himself and overlook his responsibility to protect the innocent. It's repressed trauma pushing its way to the surface, and director Destin Daniel Cretton uses the webslinging scenes to enhance this theme.

He also draws on multiple sources of inspiration to make some of the most effective and just downright cool webslinging scenes in the history of Spidey flicks. From previous Spider-Man movies to the Insomniac video games, "Brand New Day" feels like a webslinging highlight reel.

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" wants us to feel closer to its hero than previous films. That's expressed via the webslinging, most obviously through the use of a first-person viewpoint, which was also a big part of 2012's "The Amazing Spider-Man." A scene in Marc Webb's film sees Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) swinging towards a reflective building, revealing his final Spider-Man look for the first time (seriously, this film is one of the great underrated superhero movies). "Brand New Day" feels somewhat indebted to both "The Amazing Spider-Man" and its 2014 sequel, which aside from the first-person view, featured web slinging scenes that felt much more visceral than the Sam Raimi films. Webb included small touches such as wind buffeting against Spidey's suit as he falls, which helped put viewers directly in the action. "Brand New Day" does much of the same but takes things to another level. 

The first time Holland's hero swings through New York, it feels much more intense and immersive than in his previous films. We see Spidey sitting on the underside of a girder before he dives backward and the camera follows him closely — a trick that Destin Daniel Cretton re-uses throughout the webslinging scenes to great effect. One of the most memorable examples is when we're taken inside Peter's mask via an extreme closeup of his eyeball. Credit to the sound design in these moments, as the sound of Peter's breathing and the wind rushing past the fabric draws us into his experience. This is Holland's first real Spider-Man movie and these closeup shots emphasize the film's desire to stick close to its lead character.

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" uses webslinging as a way to heighten its narrative themes. A prime example is a scene in which a distressed Peter Parker falls through the New York skyline having just spent time with Ned and MJ, where he learned that his former love now has a boyfriend. This is the only time we see him web slinging without his suit, meaning we can read every emotion on his face as he falls vertically between buildings in an obvious visual representation of his spiraling emotional state. It's not the most sophisticated cinematic move, but it's effective and once again brings the web slinging into the emotional arc of the narrative.

Beyond that, Cretton seems to have drawn from the Insomniac "Spider-Man" games, which of course, actually do put users in direct control of webhead. The webslinging in "Marvel's Spider-Man" (2018), "Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales" (2020), and "Marvel's Spider-Man 2" (2023) was one of the most fun aspects of the games, and easily the most fully-realized video game version of this famous Spidey feature. 

Aside from the fact that many of Tom Holland's fight moves seem reminiscent of the Insomniac game's finishing moves, Cretton seems to have recognized the effectiveness of how the games really drew users into the Spider-Man experience, and he emulated a lot of their webslinging style in his movie. Again, it's an inspired choice for a film that needs us to be alongside Holland's character every step of the way, and one of many reasons why "Brand New Day" is sure to be remembered as one of the best Spider-Man movies.