Gaming ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Review: The First Superhero Movie That Made Me Feel Something In A Very Long Time By Erik Kain ,
Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about TV shows, movies, video games, entertainment & culture. Follow Author Jul 31, 2026, 12:52am EDT Jul 31, 2026, 01:06am EDT --:-- / --:-- This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . Spider-Man: Brand New Day Credit: Sony / Marvel / Disney My Spidey-senses are tingling. I have a good feeling about the opening of Spider-Man: Brand New Day this weekend . If the theater I attended was any indication, this is going to be a massive box office success. There was one moment, which I’ll get to later, that made the whole theater gasp.
The real winners? Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal and Zendaya, all of whom also starred in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey ( here’s my review of that film ) which opened to a massive global box office just two weeks prior.
Of course, the films are about as different as two films can be. One is about a lonely hero trying to get back to the ones he loves while encountering strange monsters and other obstacles. The other is about a lonely hero trying to get back to the ones he loves, encountering strange monsters and hoping that his love will still be there waiting when he returns. Both of these men are battered by their pasts, by the the actions they took to protect the ones they loved, by the loss and the terrible cost of victory.
Okay, there are some very weird similarities between The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day , now that I think about it, but I suppose that makes sense since both come from the heroic tradition. Odysseus was just the Spider-Man of Homer’s ancient Greece. Beyond these striking plot similarities, however, these two films could not be more different. And the three major actors who play characters in each film. And an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition !
But I digress. Let’s get on with it, shall we?
Note: This review will be spoiler free for the first half, though I’ll obviously discuss the premise and setup (though we’ve basically seen that in the trailers and marketing materials already).
I will clearly mark when the spoilers begin , because I do very much want to talk about the ending of this movie and what it all means for the future of the MCU – and perhaps a revival of the superhero genre, which has been so very, very stale for the past few years (outside of some gems like Wonder Man , which was created by Destin Daniel Cretton, the director of Spider-Man: Brand New Day ! And was just cancelled, because the House of Mouse is apparently run by lunatics!) And more than that, I want to talk about how the end of this movie made me feel, because it has been some time since a superhero movie made me feel much of anything.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Credit: Sony / Marvel It’s kind of hard to believe, but Spider-Man: No Way Home came out in 2021. Five years ago! I honestly didn’t realize it had been so long, but then again I hadn’t been thinking about Spider-Man all that much, or Marvel, or superhero movies for that matter. For the most part, these have been pretty lackluster, in both the MCU and DCU. Captain America: Brave New World was pretty awful , proving that it’s really not that easy to swap out Steve Rogers – especially with such a lousy script.
Over in DC-land, Gua…