Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

Was anyone else confused that Max from Stranger Things spent this whole movie looking for V-Max?

Finally, a sad Spider-Man without tons of crazy Tony Stark tech. I like my Spider-Man broke, lonely, and stuck somewhere in the middle of puberty, and Brand New Day gets him back there.

Peter is fighting crime full time in a city that doesn’t remember him, watching MJ and Ned move on without him. That’s the Spider-Man I want. Holland is good at sad.

The action is the best of the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies. Destin Daniel Cretton made Shang-Chi, and he stages these fights like Hong Kong action, which suits a hero whose whole deal is flipping around people in tight spaces.

The weird part is how fake the whole thing looks. Almost every scene seemed like it was shot on a green screen. Then I watched the behind-the-scenes footage and a lot of it wasn’t, which I still can’t wrap my head around. Real sets, and somehow it looks like a render.

It’s also way too fucking long. Two hours and twenty-five minutes for a movie that wanted to be a little under two.

So: fine. Better than fine whenever someone’s getting punched.

Also on Letterboxd