It’s nigh impossible to talk about any MCU film without talking about how they are marketing their material.
(Come to think of it, it is also impossible to review Spider-Man: Brand New Day without spoilers: here is your warning.)
Sure, I would love to just try and dispute about the material on screen in general, but with the way my mind works, so many permutations form in my head with every ad shoved my way. As someone who has always been prone to overthinking, I have tried in recent years to avoid ads and trailers as best I can (with some exceptions). Yet when you go to the theater as often as I do, the struggle is real.
Nevertheless, it does not take much thinking to know that Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland) has had a ragged road the last four years since the memory wipe (courtesy of Dr. Strange at the end of No Way Home) of his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and girlfriend MJ (Zendaya). All the ads have already told us he will somehow find himself fighting Scorpion (Michael Mando) and Tombstone (Marvin Jones III). His path will also cross with the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). His real threat, however, is dealing with feelings of not only losing his close friends, but also his late Aunt May (Marisa Tomei, shown here in flashbacks).
Then there is Sadie Sink (finally free of the shackles of Stranger Things). Before release, the bigwigs were keen on making sure we, the public, did not find out who she was. Of course, all the hardcore fans were speculating about who she would play, and they were right: Jean Grey. While this is not at all surprising to me (it is really difficult to argue the casting of Sink), it still makes me feel a little disrespected as an audience member that the MCU is almost spoon-feeding us at this point, just to make sure we are happy (regardless of how deep our personal fandom goes).
Parents, as long as your kid has seen at least one Spider-Man film, they are fine here. Some swearing, but the violence is toned back somewhat (especially considering the film has The Punisher).
Looking back, Holland (who has played the role more than anyone else) is most likely the best live-action version we have had so far (though Maguire and Garfield can bring their own positive aspects to the character). He is no longer a teen, but has managed to swing into the adult life of Peter Parker rather well (although this film does not mention how he gets money to pay for his gadgets). All of his outings have been really solid.
That is why it was not easy ranking all 11 films released this century. There are obviously a couple of bad ones that fail mainly due to being over stuffed (Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2), but the best of them are really neck and neck. That is one of the main reasons why this latest film, while good, lies somewhere in the middle. It does approach the line of being overbloated, but thankfully does not cross it.
Credit should also be given to the film for its approach to dealing with loss (something my church has had to deal with far too much of this summer). Spider-Man does give one line a lot of us can indeed live by:
“Just because we’ve lost someone… It doesn’t mean we have to do this alone.”
Overall:
Nothing else to say 