Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

Rating: 3.0★

Watched: 2026-08-01

Brand New Day successfully refreshes Spider-Man by giving us a great depiction of NYC, one of the more interesting MCU villains, and showing off an internal wisdom in Parker that hasn’t felt believable in the last 3 entries. 

Sadie Sink is a fantastic first mutant for the universe, the foundations for how the world will react to mutants was telegraphed clearly. At times, all of the universe webbing can feel tedious, but we’ve been through 25 years of Spider-Cinema and this was our first time having Punisher, Hulk, and mutants sharing the screen, which feels like an accomplishment.

The movie is often way too expository and the ending feels quite abrupt. There are few moments that feel like superhero filler, but it still can’t shake the feeling that this cinematic universe may be in a sensitive state, near implosion. It is treated as an epilogue to its predecessor, and a prequel to Avengers and X-Men, which unfortunately leaves it little room for its own narrative identity.