‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Review: Tom Holland Returns in a ‘Mature’ but Arduous Adventure That for All Its Good Action Is Trying Too Hard

Tom Holland returns as Spider-Man in Brand New Day, a film that Variety describes as ambitious but exhausting. The story crafts a hero with real inner turmoil beneath a wholesome exterior and a villain who rises above cartoon simplicity. The action sequences work, and per Variety, the film mercifully avoids the CGI excess that plagues many superhero tentpoles. Yet the picture struggles under its own weight: it runs half an hour too long, plays episodic and overloaded, and buries emotional depth beneath layers of heavy-handed self-seriousness. It's a film that resists superhero fatigue, though perhaps not convincingly enough.

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