Spider-Man: Brand New Day reviews say Tom Holland and Zendaya save the franchise
By Lauren Del Fabbro, Press Association Entertainment Reporter
Spider-Man: Brand New Day reviews have praised Tom Holland and Zendaya for saving the film and offering the franchise a needed reset.
The upcoming film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been met with mostly positive reviews ahead of its anticipated release.
The film sees Holland reprise his role as the endearing Peter Parker as he navigates his new life four years on from the events of the last film, 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw a spell cast to make the world forget his real identity in order to save the universe.
It means his budding romance with Zendaya’s MJ and friendship with Ned Leeds, played by Jacob Batalon, have also been totally erased from the civilians’ minds, leaving a lonely Peter to continue his crime-fighting in secret.
The Independent praised the movie as being the best Spider-Man film in over two decades with a shiny four out of five stars.
The review read: “Brand New Day is not only the best of the MCU takes on the character, it’s flat out the best Spider-Man film since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (2004).
“This is a more mature but no less funny and winsome take on the character.”
The Telegraph also gave the film four stars adding that Zendaya and Holland made a “persuasive romantic pairing” on screen.
“The now-classic shot of MJ falling to her doom, only for Spider-Man to swoop to the rescue, has a palpable emotional charge.”
The review added: “Proper Spider-Man films – the ones that embrace the character’s particular qualities and foibles – should be proper New York movies too. Brand New Day, basking in the sun as it rises over the Manhattan skyline, is both.”
The Guardian gave the film a solid three out of five stars claiming that Zendaya “saved” the film, rescuing it from “silliness and the generic deja vu overfamiliarity that is always threatening to sink it”.
The review continued: “Something in MJ’s civilian status, her non-superhero identity, brings Zendaya’s grown-up acting presence to the fore in ways denied to everyone else on screen, including Holland.”
The Times also gave it three stars, but praised Holland for “single-handedly rescuing the ailing superhero genre” and providing the film’s “undeniable emotional power”.
“The rest of the movie? It is, sadly, MCU by rote.
“There is evident frustration about where this drama might have gone if freed from the limitations of overfamiliar box-ticking biff-bammery,” the review added.
Meanwhile, Rolling Stone appeared less impressed and described the film as getting “tangled in a complicated web of its own making”.
The review added: “Calling this Brand New Day feels like a cosmic joke. It’s the same old MCU B.S., coasting by on the considerable charm of its two resident stars and a legacy of goodwill. There’s nothing new here whatsoever.”
Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be released in cinemas on July 29th.