🕷️ Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review — Maybe the Real Superpower Is Not Being Alone

By Jared Harding Wilson

Warning: Major spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day ahead! 🚨🕷️

I absolutely loved this movie.

I got excited. I got worried about the characters. I laughed. I found myself getting surprisingly emotional at a couple of points, and at one point I was very close to crying.

And throughout the entire thing?

I just had a blast.

I’m not a professional movie critic. I’m just a normal guy who loves movies, and I’m married to a cinematographer, filmmaker, photographer, and video editor who also happens to love stories. We have a lot of fun talking about movies after we see them, reading other people’s reviews, looking up little details we missed, and asking each other, “Did you catch that?”

So consider this less of a professional review and more of one movie-loving guy’s thoughts after watching Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

And yes…

Major spoilers from here on out. 🚨

First things first: I had a LOT of fun watching this movie

One of my favorite things about Brand New Day was how much it made me feel like I was actually in the action with Spider-Man.

There were moments when I felt like I was running with him.

Falling with him.

Swinging with him.

Getting thrown around with him.

And just generally thinking, “HOLY COW!” 😂

The web-slinging in particular was fantastic.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton has talked about wanting the web-swinging to feel more physical and real, and I think that really came through. The filmmakers also spent considerable time researching the physicality of Spider-Man and how he moves through New York. 

And apparently I wasn’t imagining it.

The movie was designed to make New York feel like more than just a backdrop. The filmmakers have talked about the city itself functioning almost like another character. 

I loved that.

Because Spider-Man belongs in New York.

When he is flying between buildings, dodging traffic, running across rooftops and swinging through the streets, it feels like we’re experiencing the city with him.

But underneath all the action, I think this movie is really about loneliness.

And this is probably the part of the movie that stuck with me the most.

Peter Parker is lonely.

Really lonely.

The world has forgotten who he is. MJ doesn’t remember him. Ned doesn’t remember him. He lives alone. He works alone. He fights crime alone.

And Peter has convinced himself that this is exactly how it is supposed to be.

He thinks he’s protecting the people he loves by staying away from them.

And honestly, I understand that.

Not the Spider-Man part. 😂

But the instinct to think:

“I’ll just handle this myself.”

“I don’t need anybody.”

“If I don’t let people get close to me, they can’t get hurt.”

I’ve learned through some pretty painful experiences that trying to go through life completely alone is one of the most unhealthy things we can do.

We live in a world where we can communicate instantly with practically anyone on Earth.

We can have hundreds—or thousands—of online connections.

And yet, it can still be incredibly easy to feel completely alone.

I know what it is like to go through long stretches of life without having close friends.

And I can tell you now:

I don’t recommend it.

😂

Seriously, though, having people in your life matters.

Find a friend.

Someone you can call.

Someone you can sit with.

Someone you can laugh with.

Someone who knows some of your story and doesn’t run away when they hear the difficult parts.

I feel incredibly wealthy in that regard.

I have so many friends who know me—my past, my present, the good parts, the not-so-good parts—and we get together and do fun things.

That has been one of the biggest blessings in helping me live a healthy, happy life.

And that’s one of the reasons Peter’s journey in this movie hit me.

He thinks being alone is what makes him responsible.

But he’s actually misunderstanding what responsibility means.

Peter Parker has to learn that Spider-Man and Peter Parker can both exist.

This was another moment I really loved.

Throughout the movie, Peter is struggling with his identity.

Is he Peter Parker?

Or is he Spider-Man?

And when Jean Grey essentially forces him to confront that question, he finally realizes:

He’s both.

And I loved that.

Because isn’t that part of growing up?

We aren’t supposed to erase pieces of ourselves.

We’re supposed to learn how to bring those pieces together.

Peter doesn’t have to stop being Spider-Man to be Peter Parker.

And he doesn’t have to stop being Peter Parker to be Spider-Man.

He can be both.

And once he accepts that, something changes.

He becomes more powerful, more confident and more capable of controlling what is happening to him.

To me, that felt like more than a superhero moment.

It felt like an identity moment.

A growing-up moment.

And then there is Jean Grey.

Okay, I have to admit something.

When I saw that Sadie Sink was in this movie, I was excited.

I know her from Stranger Things, and I think she’s a really good actress.

I also knew Marvel had been extremely secretive about who she was playing.

Turns out…

Jean Grey.

And yes, I immediately thought:

“Ohhhh. So we’re doing this now.” 😂

The X-Men are coming.

And apparently they’re coming in a pretty big way.

Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey is introduced as a powerful telepath, but what I appreciated about her character is that she isn’t simply a traditional villain.

She’s hurting.

She’s searching for her sister.

She’s dealing with abandonment.

She’s angry.

She’s lonely.

And she doesn’t know what to do with all of the power inside her.

Sound familiar?

It should.

Because that’s basically Peter’s story too.

They’re both incredibly powerful people who are trying to figure out how to live with that power while feeling profoundly alone.

Jean Grey’s story hit me personally.

This is where the movie got a little closer to home for me.

Jean’s story involves abandonment, and that’s something I have struggled with since childhood.

My father left my mother when I was very young, and he also left us kids.

For years, I didn’t see him.

Eventually, we gradually began reconnecting.

That wasn’t necessarily easy.

There were a lot of complicated feelings.

But therapy helped me work through a lot of those feelings over time.

One of the things I eventually came to understand was that my father is human.

He makes mistakes.

And I also came to understand that when he was younger, he simply didn’t know how to be the father he needed to be.

That doesn’t erase what happened.

It doesn’t make the painful parts suddenly not painful.

But understanding someone can sometimes help us release some of the weight we’ve been carrying.

And thankfully, my father has worked very hard since then to be there for me and my siblings.

I’m really glad I gave him another chance.

And I’m also glad I eventually learned how to let go of some of the harder feelings.

That’s one reason Jean’s story resonated with me.

She isn’t simply fighting a superhero battle.

She’s fighting the pain of feeling abandoned and alone.

Then came the scene I wasn’t expecting to hit me quite so hard.

Jean Grey entering Peter Parker’s mind.

Wow.

I loved this scene.

Peter allows Jean to see a memory of Aunt May, played once again by Marisa Tomei.

And instead of defeating Jean with some giant superhero punch, Peter reaches her by allowing her to experience something she desperately needs:

love.

Aunt May’s words remind both Peter and Jean that their worth isn’t simply determined by how powerful they are.

And there is something incredibly beautiful about Peter sharing the love he received from Aunt May with someone else.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton has actually talked about how emotional this scene was to make. He said the writers specifically wanted Aunt May to be part of this moment, and when he read the scene aloud to his wife in a coffee shop, he became so emotional that both he and his wife ended up crying. 😂 

Okay.

Now I don’t feel quite so bad for getting emotional watching it.

😂

And I thought the scene connected beautifully to the lesson Aunt May gave Peter in No Way Home:

With great power comes great responsibility.

But Brand New Day seems to ask:

What if Peter misunderstood what that responsibility meant?

Peter thought responsibility meant carrying everything alone.

But perhaps part of that responsibility is allowing other people to love you.

Allowing other people to help you.

And not deciding for everyone else that they would be better off without you.

That is a very different kind of responsibility.

And then Frank Castle shoots Spider-Man.

😳

I did NOT see that coming.

Frank Castle—the Punisher—is another character in this movie who is carrying a tremendous amount of pain.

And when he accidentally shoots Peter while trying to stop Jean, Peter takes the bullet meant for her.

Peter is willing to die for Jean.

And then something beautiful happens.

Jean—who has spent the entire movie using her powers to control other people—uses those powers to save Peter.

She keeps him alive.

The person who desperately needed someone to save her becomes the person who saves someone else.

I thought that was really powerful.

Frank is also devastated by what he’s done. Peter isn’t just some random guy to him anymore. Through everything they’ve experienced, Peter has become someone he cares about.

And suddenly this movie about people trying to protect themselves by isolating themselves becomes a story about people discovering that we need each other.

And that ending…

Peter survives.

Frank stays with him.

And when Peter finally gets out of the hospital, he sees just how much Spider-Man means to New York.

People are waiting.

People care.

People are worried about him.

And Peter finally seems to understand:

He doesn’t have to do this alone anymore.

Then he sees Ned.

Ned doesn’t remember him.

At least…

Not completely.

Peter introduces himself.

And then they do their old handshake.

And suddenly something seems to click.

Ned remembers.

Maybe not everything.

Maybe enough.

And I loved that ending.

Because Peter doesn’t magically get his old life back.

He doesn’t magically undo everything that happened.

He doesn’t get to go back to being the Peter Parker he was before.

Instead…

He gets a new beginning.

A brand new day.

Wait… What about that post-credits scene?

Yes.

I stayed.

😂

And as far as I could tell, there was one post-credits sequence.

It’s not exactly a traditional Marvel post-credits scene where a character walks onto the screen and says something mysterious.

Instead, we see Ned’s Spider-Man tracking app, and the camera moves out beyond Earth and the Moon into space, leaving Spider-Man’s icon out there in the darkness. 

And I immediately thought:

Okay… what are you guys planning?

Could it connect to Avengers: Doomsday?

Maybe.

Could it be pointing farther ahead toward Avengers: Secret Wars?

Also maybe.

At this point, I’m just guessing.

Some of the speculation I’ve read suggests the cosmic tease may be more likely connected to Secret Wars than Doomsday, but nothing has been officially confirmed, so I’m putting this firmly in the “Jared’s Internet Rabbit Hole” category. 😂 

And just to clarify something I initially wondered about:

Doctor Doom does not have a standalone movie coming this December.

The big December 2026 MCU movie is Avengers: Doomsday, featuring Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. 

So… maybe Spidey is headed somewhere very interesting.

Is this Tom Holland’s last Spider-Man movie?

This is another question I couldn’t help thinking about while watching.

Historically, when an actor has played Spider-Man this many times, you start wondering when the torch will eventually be passed.

Tom Holland has now played Peter Parker across four solo Spider-Man films, along with his larger MCU appearances.

So is this his last?

I honestly don’t know.

And neither, apparently, does the rest of the internet. 😂

Holland has actually said that there is a long-term plan for eventually passing the Spider-Man mantle to someone else, and he’s mentioned the possibility of helping establish the next Spider-Man—whether that could eventually be Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman, or someone else. 

But here’s the interesting part:

Holland has also recently backed away from his old statement that he shouldn’t be playing Spider-Man in his 30s. Now that he’s 30, he has said he is open to continuing as Spider-Man as long as Marvel and Sony want him. 

So maybe this isn’t goodbye.

Maybe it’s the beginning of something new.

And honestly, after seeing this movie…

I hope it isn’t goodbye.

Tom Holland has been an incredible Spider-Man.

A few fun things I learned after the movie 🎬

Because, of course, I went home and started Googling things. 😂

🎭 Sadie Sink didn’t even get the full script at first

Marvel was extremely secretive about Jean Grey.

Sadie Sink said she wasn’t given the script until she arrived in London to film. She was also offered the role without an audition because she had previously worked with director Destin Daniel Cretton on The Glass Castle. 

That’s a pretty wild way to join the MCU.

🕷️ The filmmakers wanted a more mature Peter Parker

Cretton intentionally wanted this movie to feel like a natural progression into adulthood.

Peter isn’t a high-school kid anymore.

He’s dealing with work, loneliness, independence, grief, responsibility and figuring out what adulthood actually looks like.

Cretton has specifically described Peter’s isolation as something that comes from his mistaken interpretation of Aunt May’s lesson about responsibility. 

🎥 And yes, the movie really was designed to feel physical

The filmmakers talked extensively about researching Spider-Man’s physicality and making the web-swinging feel more visceral.

That was one of the things I noticed most.

I didn’t just watch Spider-Man swing.

I felt like I was swinging with him.

🥹 That Aunt May scene was personal for the director

As I mentioned earlier, Cretton couldn’t even finish reading the scene to his wife without breaking down.

I think that tells you something about what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish with that moment. 

🦸 And yes… the X-Men really are coming.

Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey is officially part of this movie, and Marvel has now announced an upcoming X-Men film for May 2028. 

So that little voice in my head saying,

“Wait… are they really doing this?”

was apparently onto something.

So… what did I think?

I loved it.

Was it perfect?

Probably not.

There are things I could nitpick.

There are probably plot holes I haven’t noticed yet.

There are definitely things I will understand better after I read other people’s interpretations.

And I’m sure someone who knows a whole lot more about cinematography, Marvel comics, visual effects, editing, screenwriting or Spider-Man lore could explain this movie to me in ways I haven’t even begun to understand.

But that’s part of why I love movies.

Sometimes you don’t need to know everything about how a movie works to know how it made you feel.

And this one made me feel a lot.

It made me excited.

It made me laugh.

It made me nervous.

It made me care about the characters.

It made me think about loneliness.

It made me think about friendship.

It made me think about forgiveness.

It made me think about the people we allow into our lives—and the people we sometimes push away because we think we’re protecting them.

And it reminded me of something I’ve learned in my own life:

We aren’t meant to do everything alone.

Sometimes the strongest thing you can do isn’t to carry the burden yourself.

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is let someone help you carry it.

Peter Parker finally learned that.

And maybe that’s what makes this particular Brand New Day feel so hopeful.

Not because Peter gets his old life back.

But because he finally realizes that he doesn’t need to.

He can become someone new.

And he doesn’t have to become that person alone.

🕷️❤️

Now I want to know what you thought!

Did you see Spider-Man: Brand New Day? What did you think of Jean Grey? Did the Aunt May scene get you? And what on earth do you think that post-credits scene means?

Because apparently I’m going to be Googling Spider-Man theories for the next several days. 😂🕷️

Photos taken by Jared Harding Wilson. All rights reserved.