Near the end of Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, I was reminded of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (in my eyes the best Spider-Man film). It’s a scene where the superhero (Tobey Maguire) has prevented a train from derailing. Using all his might, tensile strength and will-power, he faints after the act. About to collapse, he’s caught by those inside the train. His unconscious body surfs over a sea of New York commuters, after which he’s carefully laid down. It’s the first time the city sees him without his mask. Similarly, in Cretton’s film, Spider-Man (Tom Holland) needs to be saved by the very city he’s spent his life defending. In a genre that thrives on an individual saving the world, I was touched to see a hurt, vulnerable ‘hero’ extending his hand (ever so briefly) to the city’s finest. It’s no surprise both scenes, championing community values, take place in films centred around the ‘friendly, neighbourhood superhero’. In a franchise that now spans nine films, two reboots (Tobey Maguire featured in three, Andrew Garfield in two, and this is Tom Holland’s fourth standalone film), it would be easy for Cretton to come on board and make a film that looks, sounds, feels like the umpteen green-screen films churned out on the superhero assembly line. And yet, a thing that genuinely took me by surprise is how writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, along with Cretton, are able to locate a young person’s honest feelings and anxiety underneath that franchise bluster.After Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), where Peter Parker’s (Holland) memory is wiped for the whole world, including partner MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), Peter is forced to live in his own exile. Working through the day developing his own tech, while stalking both Ned and MJ as they go through MIT, Peter might be on the verge of burning out. And he shows first signs, when after complaining about stiff intermittent headaches, he injures a cop. It doesn’t look sustainable, but Peter looks resigned, living the oft-repeated adage of “With great power, comes great responsibility”. Holland is exceptional in these scenes, where he sees Ned and MJ living the life he envies, but also making the hard choice of sparing them the looming threat of being Spider-Man’s loved ones. The antagonist here is a young girl (Sadie Sink), who inhabits people’s minds within a range of 33 feet. In a thrilling sequence, we see her travelling from one consciousness to the next, as one person after another gets mind-controlled. Similarly, Cretton brings back the abandon with which Peter swings from one skyscraper to the next, making it a visceral experience for the audience (especially more rewarding in 3D). There’s the expected star cameos flexed from around the cinematic universe, like Frank Castle/Punisher (Jon Bernthal), Yelena (Florence Pugh) and Dr Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), which don’t feel as intrusive as some of the other films.As the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) rebuilds after the franchise fatigue of the early 2020s, this has emerged as the third consecutive film after Thunderbolts* (2024) and The Fantastic Four (2025) to raise expectations. In fact, it has more than one connection to Jake Schrier’s Thunderbolts*, where the antagonist has a valid cause—and they’re able to have conversations inside mind palaces. A screengrab from the trailer of ‘Spider-man: Brand New Day’.Sink plays Jean Grey, a mutant from the X-Men comics (X-Men are also a part of Disney/Marvel now, as we saw in Deadpool & Wolverine), capable of mind-control. She’s searching for her sister. After shooting to fame in Netflix’s Stranger Things, Sink is on strong footing here too. The set-pieces are fun to watch, and the film treads similar ground as Schrier’s film, where “trauma” is the villain and “empathy” is the way to overcome it. Flirting with genres of psychological horror, especially in a chilling pre-interval scene on a roof-top. I enjoyed the overall bonhomie in Cretton’s film — Ned’s infectious enthusiasm about having invented a Spidey tracker (which tells you about Spider-Man’s last sighting), MJ’s deadpan face, Peter’s banter with Frank, and his phone calls with Detective DeWolff (Liza Colon-Zayas, who is carrying the motherly warmth of her character from The Bear). One of my favourite things about Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man films is seeing him grapple with the responsibility of a selfless hero and being a loving son/protege/friend/partner. I like how Cretton brings that struggle back into Holland’s Peter Parker, who longingly watches his two friends live their lives from a distance, as if his intrusion will shatter it forever. A screengrab from the trailer of ‘Spider-man: Brand New Day’.Cretton, who paved his way through independent films Short Term 12 (2013) and Just Mercy (2019), and then made his Marvel debut with the winsome Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), might be the grounding factor here. Even within all the bustle of action set-pieces, overwrought screenplays, and inane jargon thrown in for the sci-fi elements of the film, Cretton’s focus remains on the human relationships. The eternal conflict of Spider-Man being unable to take his mask off in front of anyone, to protect his loved ones, is rendered hollow here – after his loved ones are threatened regardless. One of my favourite scenes in the film is Spider-Man (after spending the entire film by himself) sitting down with MJ and Ned, and sharing a laugh. As an audience member, to hear them laughing felt like a weight off my chest.At 145 mins, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is about 10% longer than your average Marvel film. And it feels longer, because of a false ending it teases 25 minutes before it finally concludes. The machinations to keep the larger cinematic universe in orbit ensures it is never quite allowed to become its own thing. However, despite all that, I was moved by how Cretton, McKenna and Sommers focus on the simple stuff. Like Frank cosplaying as Spider-Man from the window of the hospital room and getting the crowd’s attention, so Peter Parker can exit without drawing attention to himself. Or how a simple handshake routine can revive a long-forgotten friendship. For a hero to save the world, he has to first save himself. Also, sometimes, protecting the neighbourhood can begin with letting the neighbourhood protect you.*Spider-Man: Brand New Day is playing in theatres.