MOVIE REVIEW: 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' teases Marvel's post-multiverse future

One way to look at Tom Holland’s fourth Spider-Man film is to see it as a story about evolution — both for the character and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

One would expect Marvel to use Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which opens in theaters on Friday and is the only MCU film — other than “Avengers: Doomsday” — to come out this year, to do the heavy lifting of setting up the first Avengers team up since 2019. One would be disappointed if they expected that.

This film seemingly does nothing to set up “Doomsday.” That’s because it’s too busy setting up what the MCU will do after the multiverse saga ends with next year’s “Avengers: Secret Wars.”

That’s not a bad thing, actually.

The multiverse saga has been a confusing dumpster fire-level mix of stories. You had streaming TV shows that, for the most part, were seemingly created solely to pad out the Disney+ library. You also had movies that either set up an underwhelming overarching villain (Kang, who we’re now supposed to forget was intended to be the saga’s big bad until his portrayer ran into some legal troubles), told muddled universe-hopping stories (Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness) or seemingly had nothing to do with the multiverse at all (see The Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder).

Perhaps it’s for the best then that “Brand New Day” seemingly pretends the multiverse isn’t a thing any more (interesting since it was a such a big part of the last Spider-Man movie).

But, while “Brand New Day” is a good movie and a lot of fun, it isn’t a flawless film.

There are three storylines going on in this film.

You have the story of Peter Parker moping around (perhaps a bit too much at times) over the fact that his best friend, Ned, and longtime love interest MJ can’t remember him. This is juxtaposed against the goofball antics of the buddy comedy that is Spider-Man and Frank Castle (aka The Punisher).

We should all thank the Hollywood gods for the fact that Jon Bernthal has the ability to breath some much needed life and humor into scenes that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

If we’re not going to get a Deadpool and Spider-Man action comedy, at least Spidey and Frank make up for it.

There are actually some good aspects to this part of the Peter/MJ/Ned story, however. It allows “Brand New Day” to throw off the weight of the rest of the MCU and focus on Spider-Man’s story from “Homecoming” through “Far From Home” to “No Way Home,” giving this film a heart that can otherwise get lost in films about universe-ending threats.

The second story line is Peter Parker literally evolving. Spidey’s storyline in the MCU has always been, “Yeah, he has some spider DNA in him but not enough that he can make his own webs.” That of course changes in this film and we get to see Peter going through whatever you would call the spider/human-hybrid equivalent of puberty.

Peter is going full on superhuman spider now.

This oddly freaks out Peter even though he should have expected this since he met another Peter Parker whose body could produce his own webs. This movie is trying not to outright mention the multiverse as much as possible, however, so there’s no acknowledgement of Tobey Maguire’s Peter having this ability at all.

And, finally, the third story in this movie is the origin story for one of Marvel’s most well-known heroes — interestingly by introducing them as a villain — and opening the door to a whole new set of characters who can carry the MCU well into the 2030s.

Marvel hasn’t publicly said who Sadie Sink is playing in this movie so I won’t spoil it for you, but the reveal about partway through the film is a big one. Go into it with no expectations of who she could be and just let your mind run through the possibilities during the first half of the film.

Just be prepared for her character, and her backstory, to dominate the story for the second half of this film with Spider-Man more of a spectator and occasional participant.

It might be a crime that the best and most interesting part of a Spider-Man movie is the part that is not about Spider-Man at all, but this part is so good that you can forgive it.

The MCU is evolving, and you know who’s coming when you start bringing evolution into the equation.