Following Avengers: Endgame, I have grown pretty fatigued by Marvel films.
It has got to the point that I even find myself having little interest in watching the supposedly good ones, like Fantastic Four.
The exception to this is, of course, Spider-Man.
Excluding Batman, he is probably my favorite superhero, and I have enjoyed each of his films in the MCU.
So, I went into Spidey’s latest film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day with fingers crossed it would be just as good if not better than those films.
But, as someone who has not watched the MCU shows, could I connect with a film that has quite a few connections to those projects?
Thankfully, the answer is yes. 

After Peter Parker (Tom Holland) had to erase everyone’s memories of him to save the world in No Way Home, he now has a lonely existence, protecting New York as the web-swinging hero.
However, when a powerful telepath begins terrorizing the city, Peter must put his feelings aside to protect his former best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), and especially his ex-girlfriend Mary-Jane (Zendaya).
Too bad a mysterious mutation is affecting Peter, forcing him to turn to other heroes like Yelena (Florence Pugh), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) for help.
Of the three, Frank has the most amount of screen time and serves as the comic relief of the film.
You would not expect the Punisher to work as a comedic foil but the script and Bernthal’s performance sell it.
His bond with Peter is also great, and we can see the two care about each other, despite getting on each other’s nerves every conversation (argument).

As for the spider himself, Tom Holland is once again excellent as Peter Parker.
Dealing with his loneliness, along with the unwilling evolution of his powers makes for a compelling arc that he sells well.
My favorite of the cast though is definitely Sadie Sink as… well, I won’t say.
What I will say is that her sympathetic, yet powerful performance got me interested in seeing a certain group of characters enter the MCU, which is more than I can say for any of the setup beforehand.

That being said, while I did love Sadie Sink in the role, I do think the writing around her was a little messy in terms of morality.
Nothing to ruin the film, of course, but I think it required a few tweaks.
What did not need to be fixed was the action, which is engaging and full of great shots.
Although I enjoyed the previous Spider-Man movies, they were lacking in the cinematography department, so it was a relief to see this was improved upon with Brand New Day.

There was something that let me down though and that was the post credits scene.
You could pretty much just look up what happened after the movie and have the exact same experience as waiting to see it.
This and the slight messiness of Sadie Sink’s character are my only flaws with Brand New Day.
It is another fun Spider-Man film in a long line of them and it is justifiably making bank at the box office.
If you are a Spidey fan who has somehow not seen it yet, I would recommend getting your butt to a theater and expecting a good time.