Imagine you win a raffle. The prize is driving a Ferrari for a whole day. A brand new day. Dawn to dusk. Initially, you are still within city limits and you drive slowly, waving at acquaintances. The scenery is familiar, but seems slightly different because you are in a Ferrari. When you get out of the city, but you find the highway roads are being repaired. You still can’t go as fast as you want. You know a couple of places you could drive to. But there are diversions everywhere. Like someone wants you to go to a different destination. As if the ‘universe’ has different plans and you have to fit into it.
When we last saw Spider-Man and friends, things were bad. When you mix regular superpowers with magic, they don’t tend to go well. Everyone who knew Peter Parker was Spider-man forgot that. Peter lost the two great loves of his life – his best friend Ned and his girlfriend MJ. How can he get them back? Marvel decides that the most family friendly hero needs help from the most R-rated hero. Enter the Punisher.
There is a slightly convoluted plot about a mysterious villain who can enter people’s minds and get them to do his will. But for what reason? Why is the Damage Control department constantly under attack? And will Ned and MJ get back their missing memory? What does The Bear and Severance, two of the best series in recent years, have to do with Spider-man?
Also read: Spider-Man Brand New Day Movie Review: A Spidey story that’s all heart and soul
The movie never really gets going. It tries to be too many things at once. Add in unnecessary cameos, you get that unmistakable taste of something manufactured. There is a surprise introduction of a character who has been the subject of intense fan speculation. There is a plotline that could go to very interesting places. And it has gone before with a different director, albeit a terrible person. The present world scenario could have been really mirrored, the way Christopher Nolan did with Odyssey. But between fan service and the next Avengers movies, we get a half-baked cake that doesn’t get better despite the glossy icing.
Tom Holland in Spider-Man Brand New Day
Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon have incredible chemistry. When your storyline involves removing that altogether, then you risk alienating the people who were attracted to these movies for precisely this reason. Holland is great, but he does not do anything that he has not done before in the ‘Home’ trilogy. By keeping him for another trilogy, Sony and Marvel risk the franchise becoming like an episodic series. Instead of running up the hills, they opt for gently coasting on familiar terrain.
Towards the end of the Ferrari ride, you do come across some good roads, and you are able to speed. You look stylish, you are sure. But the light starts fading. When you hand the keys back, they tell you that you can come back the next day for another drive. You are thrilled and try to recall the best parts of the drive. Nothing comes to mind. How can you forget a drive in a Ferrari?
