A Brand New Day for Marvel? Maybe.

I recently had the opportunity to see a pre-release screening of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and I wish I could say that it left me optimistic for Marvel's future. Now, this isn't so much an indictment on the film itself-- as I'll get into it was by all rights a good experience that avoided many of my biggest issues with Marvel's films-- rather this comes from a complete distrust in Marvel to learn lessons from their successes.

Going into Brand New Day I had a laundry list of bad expectations and complaints I was ready to make, due in part to what I had seen in the marketing for the movie as well as from my learned experience with prior Marvel films. And to keep away from spoilers, I'll focus on these big picture elements that to my surprise were majorly successful here.

Chief among my concerns was the bloat of characters that I knew would populate the movie, pulled from all across Marvel's line-up. Between Punisher, Hulk, the newly introduced Scorpion and Tombstone, the ninja organization The Hand, and whatever else I knew we would be surprised by, I was sure Brand New Day would begin to feel disjointed and cramped. This was perhaps the most surprising net-positive the film had to offer. With only a few relatively minor exceptions, these characters were well integrated and didn't distract from the film's focus on Peter and his growth and journey.

This was especially important for this movie since it, smartly, focused heavily on the interiority of our hero. We follow his experience throughout and can see and hear as he goes through his arc of character development. In this way the film reminds me favourably of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 (2004), which similarly features a Peter whose difficult emotional experience involves a choice between his life as Peter and his life as Spider-Man. The movie has a different take on it, with a "man or monster" angle which keeps the idea somewhat fresh.

However, while I was overall pleasantly surprised with the integration of non-Spider-Man characters within the film, it doesn't come without growing pains. Again to keep out of spoiler territory I'll be brief and vague: I feel that Tombstone and especially Scorpion somehow feel out of place within the movie despite being actual Spider-Man villains due to them not getting much in the way of proper characterization or an exploration into their motives. Additionally, Punisher's implementation often has him serving the roll as comedic relief, which on one hand I think is appropriate since he probably needs to have the piss taken out of him every once and while and not be treated completely straight-faced. However, I felt that the prevalence of his jokey interjections highlights Jon Bernthal's largely mediocre performance, one where you can almost watch the man perform acting in real time, where the script becomes brutally present in the scene.

This also leads to the one big worry I had going into the film that wasn't really assuaged: the humour. Marvel are of course infamous for their quippy dialogue shared between just about every character and not withheld from any scene, regardless of intrinsic drama or established tone. Historically this hasn't been as big of an issue with Spider-Man, since it is a well established trait of his. Any good adaption would have Peter making jokes mid-fight or trying to make light of the bad situations he finds himself in. But that only really clears his and a few other characters, for those like Punisher and miss "small potatoes" who I won't name for spoiler reasons, it remains a frequent tonal mismatch-- like the jokes per minute were mandated from above and not a single scene or character could be spared.

For me, Marvel's "comedy problem" comes in part from their reliance on a jack-of-all-trades format for their movies, almost every one of them is trying to be a family comedy, an action-blockbuster, and a character drama all simultaneously. Unfortunately, I don't think Brand New Day is fully spared from the awkward and unnatural jumps in tone within scenes or from the lack of over-arching creative direction and purpose. Even when the narrative and Peter's characterization definitely point somewhere thematically, it isn't really held up or supported by other elements to the plot or in the stories told through other characters.

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One worry I had going into the movie was puled off: the actual look of the film and its sets. My big punching bag with Marvel has always been their bland, grey, parking-lot-looking sets, costumes, and even colour-grading. Too often their reliance on CGI and the clashing colour-schemes between characters results in the films looking like colourless sludge. Brand New Day, while far from breaking new ground in cinematography, is much more attractive to look at than most of Marvel's output. I think this is most important in how lived-in and full of life this version of New York looks. It's a cliche to say that the city is a character in-and-of itself. But for a character like Spider-Man it really is a necessity that the setting of the movie feel alive and reactive. My favourite way this messier New York is integrated is with Peter's focused and proactive concern over her citizens as well as their concern for him-- a staple of Spider-Man movies.

So what's my verdict? Is Marvel saved? Will this reviewer return in Avengers Doomsday?

I don't know. It's not as if Marvel haven't made any decent movies since Endgame (2018), and yet they rarely seem to learn anything from their successes or failures. It is my opinion that in the grand scheme of things it almost doesn't matter whether this film is good or not, whether it performs at expectation or not. Spider-Man as a character is simply too big to realistically compare anything but an Avengers film to, and Marvel have shown time and again that they are more interested in sticking to formula and in expanding franchise-wide integration and uniformity than developing unique character-specific approaches for their movies.

I can say that I think this film is quite successful at what it sets out to achieve. Brand New Day isn't really an ecstatic success in any regards, but it is on the whole consistent and satisfying. Despite it's near 2.5 hour runtime and 4-act structure (which makes it feel even longer), Brand New Day is exciting and even-handed with both a strong character focus and a fun tone in spite of its depressed and overstressed protagonist. Would I appreciate a less blunt voicing of the themes and more nuance in how these ideas are presented within characters? Sure. But on the whole I'm happy with what we got.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out exclusively in theaters July 31st.

-Paul Taylor

(Web Director at WXOU)