Spider-Man: Brand New Day review – Zendaya saves Tom Holland’s semi-Cronenberg-style superhero

Just a few weeks ago, Tom Holland was telling us that his role as Telemachus in Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey was his “last chance to play a boy”. Well, Holland is back as the supposedly scrappy, gawky, arachnid young superhero Spider-Man. Not Spider-Boy admittedly, and these days Holland is actually a chunkier and more stacked Spidey than previously, flexing some pretty serious biceps. He is maturing in the role. But is the role maturing with him?

The point is that this film is a reset. At the end of the last movie Spider-Man: No Way Home, courtesy of Dr Strange’s colossal psychic powers – which might have come in handy in this episode incidentally, part of the narrative-universe inconsistency that you just have to overlook – Peter Parker was able to erase everyone’s knowledge that he is, in fact, Spider-Man, and that includes his goofy best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) and more to the point, the love of his life MJ (Zendaya).

So now Peter is simply back where he started, adored by New Yorkers for crime-fighting as Spider-Man, living in a scuzzy single room with all his screens and tech gear, his secret identity a secret once more, but pining for the people he loves. And he’s not getting any younger. How much of a “brand new day” is this?

Now Spidey has to tackle a sinister new entity that appears to be possessing the bodies of important people around town – starting with the villainous Scorpion (Michael Mando) – with a view to attacking and infiltrating a key government unit, the department of Damage Control, run by Bill Metzger, played by the excellent Tramell Tillman (from TV’s Severance). It is a disquieting new development that coincides with unprecedented new physical and mental health issues for Parker. He has headaches, and these appear to be taking our hero to what I can only describe as the David Cronenberg zone.

To tackle these inner and outer crises, Parker/Spidey has to consult Black Widow (an amusing cameo from Florence Pugh) who talks to him while reclining in a plunge pool in which shy Spidey joins her while wearing his mask and also underpants. He also had to ask advice from ageing academic Dr Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) AKA the Hulk, a revived acquaintance which ends in chaos, and Spider-Man also finds himself in a fractious frenmity-bromance with the highly strung tough guy Frank “Punisher” Castle, whose life he once saved, played by Holland’s Odyssey castmate Jon Bernthal.

But most importantly of all, Parker is obsessed with finding ways to cross paths with MJ, effectively stalking her and masochistically witnessing her making out with her new boyfriend. And he has some very big, even slightly shocking scenes with Zendaya – the other Odyssey cast-member, in fact. These are encounters which hold out the painful hope that he can somehow rekindle the flame, somehow find happiness while pursuing his lonely vocation.

Zendaya saves this film. She rescues it from silliness and the generic deja vu overfamiliarity that is always threatening to sink it. Something in MJ’s civilian status, her non-superhero identity, brings Zendaya’s grownup acting presence to the fore in ways denied to everyone else on screen, including Holland. Her naturally relaxed style and self-possession give the proceedings a boost, especially with the flash of transgressive sexuality that she shows us at one moment. Director Destin Daniel Cretton gets the best out of her.

Otherwise, things are the same in Spideyworld in ways that we will recognise with affectionate exasperation. As ever, Spider-Man can swing through the air across Manhattan without the overhead horizontal plane that his web would surely need to attach to, even in non-built-up areas (although he might be using power lines). And Spider-Man: Brand New Day, like all MCU movies, always gravitates towards apocalyptic but weirdly temporary destruction in the digitally confected big city. It’s an entertaining spectacle, but really without the novelty of movie-iterations like the more experimental Spider-Verse animations. A more radical reboot is needed.