Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Four movies in and Tom Holland's Spider-Man is finally allowed to grow up a little, and for the most part, that's exactly what makes Brand New Day work.

Picking up years after No Way Home, Peter is living completely alone, off the grid, having erased himself from the memory of literally everyone he loves just so the world could be safe. That premise alone gives the film a heavier, more grounded starting point than anything we've gotten from this version of the character before, and the first half absolutely runs with it. We get Peter as a proper street level hero again, no fancy Stark tech, no training wheels, just him figuring it out on his own while quietly falling apart on the inside. The action in this stretch is some of the best the MCU Spider-Man movies have ever put on screen, fluid, inventive, genuinely thrilling to watch, and it never once feels like it's leaning on CGI spectacle to distract from a thin story. There's real craft in how these fights are shot and choreographed.

Where things start to wobble is the back half, and it's not really the emotions that are the problem, it's the sheer amount of plot the movie tries to juggle at once. New villains get introduced and then rushed off screen almost as fast as they arrive, there's a whole thread about Peter physically changing and losing control of himself that feels like it deserved way more screen time than it actually gets, and Bruce Banner shows up mostly just because Marvel loves a cameo. None of it is bad exactly, it just feels like the screenplay is constantly cutting away right when a scene starts to breathe. You can feel the film wanting to slow down and sit in Peter's grief and isolation, and then yanking itself back into plot machinery every time it gets close.

What actually lands, and lands hard, is the relationship stuff. Peter and MJ never quite clicks the way you want it to, which almost feels intentional given where they both are in life now, but Peter and Ned is where the movie's heart really is. You can feel how much this friendship means to both of them even though Ned doesn't remember any of it, and by the time the film gets to its real ending, the quiet one where Ned actually recognizes him, it hits way harder than any of the big set pieces. That moment alone might be the best character beat this franchise has ever done. Jon Bernthal's Punisher popping in and playing off Peter is also a surprisingly great dynamic, way more fun and layered than I expected going in. Sadie Sink's character is kept mysterious for a good chunk of the runtime and honestly the mystery works, once it clicks into place it recontextualizes a lot of what came before.

The post credit scene is fine, a fun little tease pointing toward whatever comes next for the wider universe, but after how emotionally satisfying that final scene with Ned is, it almost feels unnecessary tacked on right after. It's not bad, it just didn't need to be there.

So where does that leave it. Not the best Spider-Man movie ever made, Spider-Man 2 isn't getting dethroned any time soon, but it's easily one of the more ambitious and emotionally mature entries this franchise has attempted, even if it bites off more than it can chew in the process. Tom Holland gives probably his most grown up performance in the role, the action is consistently great, and when the film slows down for its people instead of its plot, it's genuinely special. It just needed either a longer runtime to let everything breathe or the discipline to cut a villain or two loose. Okayish undersells it honestly, this is good, just messily good.