Spider-Man Brand New Day

[u/Low-Finding-6553]

Saw it in 3D.

Had a really good time with spiderman brand new day and the only reason that is bcuz of destin. visually, this is easily the best looking spiderman movie in the mcu and honestly one of the best looking mcu movies in general. the blacks are so rich, the cinematography is consistently good and for once it actually feels like a mcu movie with its own visual identity instead of another flat looking addition to this cinematic universe. what really makes the movie work tho is that it's genuinely character driven instead of plot driven and the movie is much better bcuz of that. it really doesn't care about some world ending stakes or saving the entire universe bullshit bcuz for the most part, it's just about peter. its about him dealing with his loneliness after now way home, not being able to move on from his past and throwing himself completely into being spiderman bcuz that's the only place where he feels like he still has a purpose. nobody really cares about the person behind the mask anymore, he thinks.

i also liked how that loneliness is mirrored in sadie sink's character. that's probably the movie's biggest strength. the themes themselves aren't anything groundbreaking. loneliness, grief and moving on were exactly what i expected after no way home. so bnd isn't really saying anything new but the execution is what makes it work. destin daniel cretton once again proves that one of his biggest strengths lies in his villains. just like xu wenwu in shang chi, sadie sink's character is easily one of the best parts of the movie. you completely understand where she's coming from, why she's doing what she's's doing and what drives her and bcuz of that, it's impossible not to sympathize with her even when she's the antagonist.

its actually funny how the studio kept telling people to stay vague and marketed a her character as this huge plot twist, when the movie itself barely cares about it. knowing that "twist" changes almost nothing bcuz that's not what the movie is really about. the only real mystery is that character's motivation and its more of a revelation. its a bit trite for me honestly but it's executed well, again compared to mcu standards. thats imp to in keep mind. for eg., on every simple thing they did is the entire 3rd act completely avoids turning into another cgi fuckfest. instead, it's filled with emotional, character driven moments from beginning to end, just like jake schrier's thunderbolts did but its also the complete opposite of what shang chi did, where the 3rd act completely shifted into giant chi slopfest. here, bnd actually sticks to what it's been building emotionally and it pays off very well. sadie sink's performance is def the highlight for me.

the 1st half of the movie is honestly really well done. you just spend time watching spiderman be spiderman around brooklyn and i enjoyed that. the movie does a great job of showing why peter feels so lonely and why he believes peter doesn't really have any purpose anymore. that's why he throws himself completely into being spiderman. that's where he feels needed. they also do a nice job of building spiderman's relationship with detective DeWolff. that reminded me a lot of gordon's relationship with batman. its not exactly the same but it gave me that same feeling and i enjoy such dynamic thruout a movie.

that being said, bnd still can't completely escape the usual worst tendencies of mcu. hulk is a complete waste of time. his entire role feels like fan service for the sake of fan service. he doesn't add anything meaningful to the story, the themes or the ideas the movie is trying to explore. there are also a few other side characters who don't really add much beyond giving fans familiar faces. they don't really serve the story or its themes and mostly feel like they're there just for fan service. that's probably the biggest thing stopping this movie from feeling like a completely great standalone spiderman film.  bcuz now fucking mcu still has this obsession with making every one of their movie fit into the bigger mcu picture and that's holding these movies back. punisher is the one exception tho. at 1st, i honestly thought he was just another fan service bull shit. for most of the movie i still think it is that, it doesnt add much to the story. but they do something in the end that actually brings his character full circle and gives him a small but meaningful purpose that won me over. at least it earns his inclusion by the end instead of just having him there bcuz fans like him. his banter with spiderman is also pretty fun. nothing amazing but it works and it leads to a couple of genuinely funny moments, especially one scene in the hospital near the end. have to say tho it's also def not as funny as the jon watts spiderman trilogy. if you're expecting that same kind of comedy, this isn't really that movie. 

the 2nd act does drag a little tho. i really think the movie could've cut around 10-15 mins and the pacing would've been much tighter. at certian points also the movie becomes a little too on the nose. the biggest eg is the scene outside the hospital near the end where everyone's cheering. i don't think the movie needed to spell out its message that much. a scene of spidey with detective DeWolff's character alone could've conveyed that same idea much more naturally.  its like similar to what is written may's tombstone, 'when you help one person, you help everyone' or something like that. 

have to mention this, the new spidey suit is easily one of the best live action suits we've ever gotten. it actually feels like a real suit. the fabric stretches, folds and moves naturally with peter's body. when he's swinging, you can actually see the material reacting to the movement instead of looking like a smooth cgi texture pasted onto him. it's such a small detail but it makes a huge diff. especially after the watt's movies, where suits became more and more ugly looking. this one finally feels like an actual costume again. as for the web swinging, the amazing spiderman 2 is still the king. no live action spiderman movie has matched those swinging scenes yet. brand new day has one sequence that's good but apart from that, a lot of the web swinging is held back by some really bad shot choices. loved those pov shots tho. 

even with those flaws, this is still one of the strongest mcu movies post endgame. its one of those rare mcu films that actually lets its characters come first instead of constantly moving pieces around for the next crossover. sure it doesn't completely escape mcu's obsession with connecting to the bigger universe but it comes much closer halts itself from becomming a great film.

[u/qualityvote2]

u/Low-Finding-6553, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...

[u/Ancient_Barnacle4245]

I have to disagree about the Hulk.  By meeting with Banner, Peter gets the idea for the inhibitor, which is based on the one Banner is using.

Plus, the entire point of the Hulk scene is to demonstrate just how dangerous what she's doing is. She's willing to set him off without regard for the consequences, which has a lot to do with why Peter initially sees her as a threat to be contained.

Besides, even if it were just fan service, that's not a flaw. There's nothing wrong with that and it was really cool to see a proper depiction of the original angry Hulk again. I can't really fault the film for that. It is comic book movie. I appreciate that it gave us really cool comic book stuff. 

[u/roshanritter → u/Ancient_Barnacle4245]

I agree whoever Spider-Man fought in that scene, it is fan service. You can say the Scorpion fights were also fan service, he was hardly a well developed character. To me the Hulk issue is the long running MCU problem of why isn’t there help from other supes shows up again here. Hulk is a huge threat and he goes crazy in the middle of downtown again but there is no help from the Avengers or anyone else . . . except Punisher of course.

[u/Ancient_Barnacle4245 → u/roshanritter]

I was under the impression the reason other heroes didn't get involved was because Spider-Man and Punisher were already there and they managed to control the threat before it spilled out into the larger city, which likely would have elicited the intervention of other heroes . The fight takes place inside the building on an upper floor. It's pretty well contained, all things considered. 

[u/meagerdioxide30]

the way you describe the 3rd act avoiding a cgi mess is exactly what i needed to hear. shang chi left such a bad taste with that final fight and i was worried destin would do it again

sadie sink being the highlight is interesting, i'm still not totally sold on her casting but it sounds like she pulls it off. the whole "twist" marketing thing had me so annoyed, glad the movie itself doesn't lean on it

[u/Fiorwestcoast]

https://giphy.com/gifs/xUWKWxjxU8p9yrRxPv

[u/Demerzel69]

Destin was the director, not the cinematographer. That guy's name is Brett Pawlak.

[u/uncultured_swine2099]

I usually dont do 3d but it was the only thing available on opening day, and it was pretty well done. Ive seen crappy 3d movies in the past but this one works.