"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" Proves It's Possible to Try Harder with a Marvel Movie

At the end of 2021's 'Spider-Man: No Way Home,' Tom Holland's Peter Parker was a shattered young man. His best friend Ned and girlfriend MJ had forgotten him entirely thanks to a mystical spell; his Aunt May had died in the Green Goblin's attack. 'Brand New Day' begins right in the wake of that devastation: "Sometimes Spider-Man has to break Peter Parker's heart in order to do the hard thing."

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, the film is so packed with what could be called clichéd themes, plot maneuvers and colliding emotions that it sometimes struggles to focus on the actual story — and our hero's pain. Still, underneath all that overcrowded machinery lies a genuinely enjoyable summer entertainment.

Holland's sincerity remains the film's biggest asset: Peter's loneliness never hardens into bitterness; he keeps fighting crime in New York, but he's unhappy doing it. According to TIME critic Stephanie Zacharek, the film shows Marvel's willingness, in the face of its late-stage fatigue, to at least "try to do better" — and that alone counts as an achievement.