REVIEW: Our favourite friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is back! 

by | Aug 10, 2026

After five years of waiting, Spider-Man swings back onto our screens, and straight into his identity crisis. 

After swinging into the Ster-Kinekor cinema at Rosebank and witnessing the long queues of people lining up in anticipation for the fourth installment in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man franchise, I completely understand how it was the biggest opening weekend in South African cinema history, according to Sony Pictures South Africa.  

Brand New Day was a breath of fresh air. It felt as if it were the first raindrop after years of drought, which is somewhat true. This year marks five years since Spider Man! No Way Home last graced the big screen. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, which adapts the Marvel Comics characters and storylines created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko, seems to have been experiencing quite the dry spell since its most successful era ended. Due to the immense success of the last movie, all eyes were on Tom Holland to save the MCU – and save the day, he did.  

After the events that led to the ending of the last movie, the audience was left biting their nails in worry for our closepersonal friend, Peter Parker. Over the years, I found myself wondering if he was okay and how he could be dealing with Aunt May’s death as well as the loss of not just his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon), but his girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya), too.  

He took it just as I expected: not well. Obviously.  

Peter chooses to isolate himself altogether, even from the only people he has left. One of the only connections he appears to have is with Jean DeWolff, played by Liza ColonZayas, who is the police captain that Spider-Man works very closely with. However, he is hardly close to her, if at all. DeWolff makes this a talking point in the first act, essentially calling him out on the fact that he knows nothing about her outside of work. When having a meeting with Florence Pugh’s character, Yelena, and speaking to Frank, (The Punisher,)played by Jon Bernthal, Peter never takes the mask off. This is done to mirror that Peter does not engage with anything or anyone outside of his Spider-Man persona. It is no longer his alter ego as Peter Parker, but rather his sole identity. It really does feel as though Peter Parker never existed.  

The film centers on Peter’s want and need to only be Spider-Man, while ignoring everything that made him into the fantastic superhero he had grown into. While the first three movies followed him along his journey of Peter trying to become Spider-Man, this one focused on Spider-Man trying to figure out how to be Peter Parker. 

Tom Holland knocked it out of the park with the most genuine and realistic portrayal of this allegory. He has always excelled at playing Peter Parker, but this film cemented his legacy as the current generation’s Spider-Man. Oftentimes when we watch movies, especially ones with high-status actors, we tend to pay extra attention to how they act. We notice how their eyebrows slightly crinkle, or how their mouths twitch when trying not to break character, and we realise that we are watching an actor act. Yet, as I sat in the movie theatre, that was the last thing on my mind. Holland did an incredible job capturing my attention. It felt as though I was pulled into the screen. 

Visually, this is one of the most stunningly shot Spider-Man films. The creativity of the cinematography truly added to the audience’s experience of joining Peter’s grief, stress, and anxiety of facing the inevitable. The scenes of New York City helped us feel as if we were right there with Peter, with the web-swinging scenes beautifully executed. Brand New Day was visually dynamic and vibrant, the opposite of the blandness that has plagued cinema over the past few years. All of these aspects added to the comic book illusion. Destin Daniel Cretton, the director of Brand New Day and Shang-Chi, has also solidified his position as one of the MCU’s top directors.  

Brand New Day gave us more than just a fourth Spidey movie. It gave us a superhero who resembles pieces of us that we would not normally expect them to. We have all been this version of Spider-Man: still in the process of becoming, struggling between doing what is required from us and doing what we desire to do. This is what made this movie so enjoyable. Instead of following the usual formula of villains trying to kill Peter, it showed us an emotionally charged street-level Spidey story. No Avengers intervention, no multiverse concerns, and no “end of the world” problematic threats.  

Instead, it raises the question: what happens when a superhero becomes more than just the man wearing the mask? A person like you and me, figuring out their identity, while ignoring who we really are, because it frightens us?  

This is why the antagonist of this film not being necessarily evil is so impactful. The secrecy surrounding Sadie Sink’s character had us in a chokehold for months, and the wait was definitely worth it. 

The heart and soul of this film were the scenes between Peter, Ned, and MJ. Their presence emphasised  the sadness of Peter succumbing to his loneliness. One thing that movie did incredibly well was not having Peter’s grief categorised in a hierarchy. He missed Ned just as much as he missed MJ. The writing spectacularly delivered us with the purest portrayal of Peter Parker when he shows MJ unconditional love.  

Brand New Day proved that Peter does not have to face life alone in order to be successful as Spider-Man, if anything, it is the complete opposite. Although Ned and MJ will never be able to remember the Peter they once knew and loved, it does not mean that Peter cannot build something new with them.  

Vuvu Rating: 9/10 

FEATURED IMAGE: Spider-Man logo drawn on a red background. Photo: Kerese Govender