Film: Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

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There have been quite a few Spider-Man films over the years, but in recent times, they’ve officially become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) where these have included:-

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

These all star Tom Holland in the titular role and are all interlinked in some way. However, you can see this latest one without knowing much about what went before as it’s all explained in the opening ten minutes. Prior to being integrated into the MCU, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield donned the scarlet spandex!

For the complete history and summary of Spider-Man on the big screen, there’s a great article HERE, courtesy of Odeon Cinemas.

Official Synopsis

Peter Parker fights crime full-time as a street-level Spider-Man in a world that completely forgot his civilian identity following the events of the previous film: No Way Home. Four years after his sacrifice, the immense pressure of isolation and watching his old friends Ned and MJ move on with their lives triggers an unexpected, terrifying physical metamorphosis within him.

RUNTIME = 2 hours 25 minutes

Official Trailer

Main Cast

For more details on each cast member, click HERE to visit IMDB.com

See the remaining cast and the creative team behind this one HERE at IMDB.com

We headed for an early one with Janet, with Jo picking us up at 5.45 for the 6.15pm performance at our now, go-to Cinema. In spite of the short distance, the Sat-Nav went all ‘AI’ and took us on another variant on this well-worn journey! We got there with minutes to spare and just in time for the now-mandatory pre-film promotions. Looks like there are plenty of sci-fi yarns coming our way, including Dune Part 3 and, of course, Marvel’s much-hyped Avengers: Doomsday (both coming in December) 👍👍

The first thing to note when we joined Screen 2 was that it was already almost three-quarters full! We haven’t seen attendance like that since the Bond era, and it certainly explained why we couldn’t book our favourite seats. We headed for the next favourite position — the back row — but even then we were ‘relegated’ to the left side rather than our preferred more central position. And they kept coming! By the time the lights eventually went down, it looked pretty much 100% full 😲. Yikes! This looks like it’s going to be a noisy affair!

Not so! No noisy sprogs and even better, no-one appeared to be faffing around with their phones or having loud conversations! 😊. That’s a first for a long while: it looked like the audience were simply here to watch the latest Marvel Film production – how refreshing! 👍

Marvel Productions?

It’s been a while, but this was the 38th Film in the Marvel’s Cinematic Universe series – 38th!! Yes, really! 🤯

The quality had dipped just a few years back (2022’s Thor – Love and Thunder, anyone? Nope, didn’t think so! 😱). This was mainly due to Marvel attempting too many productions in any year, but the aforementioned was a real disappointment!

As a result, Box office numbers had dwindled as we all suffered from what became known as ‘super-hero fatigue’ where even Marvel finally admitted that they’d prioritised quanTITY over quaLITY. Subsequently, they chose to restrict their blockbusters to maybe one or two per year, going forward. In the past few years, QUALITY has thankfully returned (Fantastic Four – First Steps being a great example!)

If you’re feeling brave and have staying power, check out the full list below that stretches back as far as 2011.
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Any Good?

‘SPOILER LITE’
Don’t read any further if you’ve booked tickets and want to be genuinely surprised

Gosh! We haven’t seen a Marvel Blockbuster on the big screen since March 2025 – Captain America – Brave New World – so Jo and I were especially looking forward to this one!

Just before the Film began, Tom Holland appeared in a short piece-to-camera, thanking us all for coming and praising the team that pulled it all together. I’m not sure if I’m a fan of this approach, but having seen it before in previous Marvel Movies, it’s clearly part of the overall marketing strategy to help us fall in love with what’s to come 🤔

So, did anyone have to be familiar with the previous Marvel productions, and more especially, the Spider-Man series to make sense of this one? Happily no! As a standalone offering, Spider-Man: Brand New Day held its own really well and was a great introduction to the superhero genre. As a sequel to Spider-Man: No Way Home, it continued the narrative seamlessly, whilst as part of the wider MCU, it positioned the lead character as a pivotal player in the superhero series.

As you might expect, in 2026, and anything of this genre, there’s plenty of action (right from the ‘off’), where the stunt work was some of the best we’ve seen. The fight scenes were expertly choreographed and introduced some sequences that I’ve never seen in any other film. There’s a fair bit of violence, but it’s all done very tastefully (if that were possible), avoiding the blood and gore often seen elsewhere.

Tom Holland, as Spider-Man, is in pretty much ALL the scenes, and he carried the part very well, even if, in reality, when ‘suited-up’, it was probably one of the stunt team. There are a number of flashback scenes to earlier Spider-Man outings, for context, and it was interesting to see how the character (and the actor) has grown into the part from naive schoolboy, first seen in 2016’s film Captain America: Civil War, to a fully fleshed-out mature superhero. For MCU and Spider-Man addicts, there are cameo appearances by some VERY well-known characters plus one you won’t have expected — their first on the big screen — and better known in Marvel circles on the Disney+ Channel. Intrigued? Click HERE for the reveal! 🤔.

Actor Zendaya is also in the film and happens to be Mrs H too! She’s in a lot of big-screen adventures at the moment, but what is her real name? Oh, I didn’t know that! – I expected her to be ‘Doris’ or ‘Pauline’ or something similarly ‘ordinary’! 😲

Back to the Film! It’s not the most complicated of plots, although there’s a lot going on. Those new to the whole MCU ‘thing’ won’t feel disadvantaged, but it’s a fast-paced affair, and so it’s probably not a good idea to pop to the loo or grab a trough of chilli partway through! 🤔.

The production features a multi-layered storyline too! At one level, you have the expected ‘good vs evil’ trope, whilst simmering in the background is a heartfelt tale of lost love and friendship. Add to that a broader and bigger storyline revealing that some characters aren’t who they appear to be, and some organisations aren’t as ‘white’ as their business card suggests (does anyone carry business cards anymore?) 🤔. There’s also the not-so-small matter of Spidey having a personal crisis of his own that impacts the whole story as it unfolds.

Criticisms? Well, not many. For me, the film structure didn’t follow the tried-and-tested ‘three-act’ convention, which fooled me slightly! Just as I thought the film was concluding, up sprang a twist… and it was a significant one!

The runtime (unlike The Odyssey) felt a little long, and maybe slicing 15 minutes off the 2-hour 25-minute runtime might have helped.

Marvel pioneered the ‘mid-credit’ and ‘end-credit’ scenes. It was first used by Marvel in 2008’s Iron Man. On the positive side, it’s a clever way to ensure we watch the (always long these days, but thoroughly deserved) credits! 😂. Cleverly though, it’s used to present a short scene of ‘what’s to come’ and get everyone talking. Sadly, this one was, to be honest, a massive let-down! It was short in length and detail, leaving those of us left (whilst the Savoy cleaning crew, armed with black bin bags, attempted to do their job) feeling massively underwhelmed! ☹️☹️☹️☹️

Having said all that, we ALL enjoyed the visit. Jo gave it a full 10/10, Janet and I, a solid 9, whilst Ann scored it 7/10 for the ‘weak plot’ and preferred The Odyssey. So, if you fancy an introduction to the Super-hero genre or just want to see a great, well-acted production that requires no prior knowledge of what went before, this is a great place to start – just don’t stay for the end-credit scene!