Spider-Man: Brand New Day premieres to mixed reviews; Tom Holland says he'll keep playing Spidey 'for as long as they'll have me'

Premiere and first reactions

Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiered in Los Angeles on Monday, July 27, with early social media responses overwhelmingly upbeat. Fandango’s Erik Davis wrote that Destin Daniel Cretton’s sequel “feels deeper, more thoughtful and more mature than the previous trilogy” and called the Spider-Man/Punisher banter “so much fun.” Critic Wendy Lee Szany said she had “no notes,” while TV host Brandon Pope labeled it “the most Marvel Marvel movie I’ve ever marveled” and “the best of the Tom Holland Spidey series.” Peter Howell of the Toronto Star (per Variety) praised the return to a “grounded Spider-Man tale” that cuts “multiverse tedium” and argued Holland “finally nails the sarcasm, angst and love hassles” of the character.

Story and darker tone

Set four years after the memory-wipe finale of No Way Home, the film finds Peter Parker alone, his identity still erased from the minds of MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon). He lives in a dingy one-room apartment, works nonstop as Spider-Man, and spends his downtime cyberstalking his former love. His superpowers are malfunctioning: he suffers strange physical ailments that hint at metamorphosis. Meanwhile, a telepathic villain (played by Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink, according to several outlets) can possess anyone, from bank robbers to super-criminals like Scorpion (Michael Mando), and uses this ability to infiltrate the Department of Damage Control, a secret government outfit run by Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) that weaponizes captured villains’ skills. Spider-Man allies with police detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) and later Frank Castle, the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), who makes his first Marvel appearance since the Netflix series. Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk and Florence Pugh’s Black Widow also make cameo appearances, the latter during a scene in a Russian bathhouse. The action shifts from multiverse spectacle to street-level crime: an early set piece involves Spidey chasing a tank through Glasgow city centre (standing in for downtown Manhattan), with cars flipped and buildings destroyed.

A split critical verdict

Formal reviews published on Tuesday, July 28, were sharply divided. Rolling Stone called it “the same old MCU B.S.” and said “there’s nothing new here whatsoever.” The Irish Independent found the film “scrappy” and “ties itself in knots,” ending its review with “Meh.” RTE described it as “hit and miss” with “very little brand new going on.” The Scotsman, while awarding three stars, noted that Holland gets “sidelined in his own movie.” The Irish Times wrote that the franchise now feels like “a cell in the corporate matrix” and “might as well have a barcode on screen.” Despite the criticism, many reviewers highlighted the central romance, the Punisher banter, and the film’s willingness to tackle Peter’s existential crisis as redeeming elements. A major third-act reveal was teased by several first-reaction accounts and is apparently a crowd-pleaser.

Holland’s future and production timeline

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere, Tom Holland said he will keep playing Spider-Man “for as long as they’ll have me,” adding, “If this movie does good, I guess we’ll see!” The actor revealed that he personally called Sony Pictures head Tom Rothman to delay the film’s production so he and Zendaya could first shoot Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Rothman agreed, saying, “It’s unusual, to say the least, that the two movies came out so close together but I’ve always believed that a rising tide lifts all boats.” Brand New Day, at two hours and thirty minutes the longest Spidey entry yet, opens globally this week and is expected to be one of the year’s highest-grossing movies. It arrives ahead of the next MCU ensemble, Avengers: Doomsday, due in December, which will see the return of Robert Downey Jr.