Spider-Man Brand New Day Review: Tom Holland’s Best Spidey Performance So Far

With great power comes great responsibility, and Tom Holland embodies both when he is on and off the mask.

Disclaimer: As this is a review of the movie, spoilers are unavoidable, so be sure to read at your own discretion!

A Continuation of a More Mature Side of Spider-Man

Growing up, I’ve always thought of Spider-Man as a quirky and a little goofy superhero. It’s very charming, and I also figured that it is one of the reasons why he is so well-received in Malaysia.

We’ve all seen Raimi’s Spider-Man and how the trilogy can be a meme compilation by itself. I personally love this, and for a time, I thought it’d carry over to the new iterations of the Spider-Man franchise.

However, ever since the death of Aunt May in Spider-Man: No Way Home back in 2021, Holland’s Spider-Man entered a phase, a phase where he experienced actual loss – this is also not forgetting the major emotional loss he suffered from the death of Iron Man in Endgame.

In Brand New Day, they followed up loss with loneliness and isolation. The backdrop for this was set during No Way Home, where he had to wipe out everyone’s memories of him. Brand New Day explores this idea of character storytelling in a pretty riveting way – largely because Tom Holland is such a phenomenal actor.

It’s way darker, and the sense that he has to navigate early adulthood without his usual pillars of support is interesting to see, and is also why it makes Spider-Man one of the most human superheroes in the MCU.

Spider-Man Brand New Day Proves Tom Holland is Perhaps The Best Spider-Man on an Emotional Level

We all knew Holland is great as Spider-Man from previous MCU movies, but Brand New Day really accentuates his range.

Coming off both The Odyssey and Brand New Day in such a short span of time, it is hard not to compare Holland’s performance in both. Personally, I feel he is destined for the Spidey role and less so as the medieval understudy of a Greek epic.

Maguire, Garfield, and Holland himself all played the goofy and dorky side of Spider-Man exceptionally. However, I only managed to see the complexities of Spidey truly take flight with Tom Holland. Of course, it could be the writers making his character much more layered, but you’d still need Holland to carry it.

To carry the consequence of being foreign to all he loves is hard to pull off on an acting technical level. That said, every encounter with MJ, Ned, and even former MCU teammates like the Hulk was delivered flawlessly.

The microexpressions that carry the heaviest of pain were played brilliantly. I knew Holland was a good actor, but I didn’t know he was THIS good.

A Nice Love Letter to Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy

I MIGHT be reaching, but I do find a lot of moments in the film that pay homage to the classic Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, especially Spider-Man 2.

The obvious instance would be the organic web-shooting abilities. This was only unique to Maguire’s Spider-Man but now has made its way to Holland’s at the expense of his hormonal change.

The physical and emotional effects of the arachnid DNA were extremely fleshed out in Raimi films but less so in Garfield and Holland’s Spider-Man. In Brand New Day, this facet of the Spider-Man experience is explored more deeply.

Plus, I noticed that the limiter designed to suppress the overgrowth of Spider-Man’s strength is very similar to the chip used to control the tentacles of Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2. Then again, I might be geeking out, as it really did throw me back a little to memory lane.

The Punisher Acts as a Great Balance

A mashup/crossover is not something new in modern superhero movies. Sometimes they don’t hit the mark, but Jon Bernthal and Tom Holland have such amazing chemistry that it made the relationship between The Punisher and Spider-Man so enjoyable. It’s almost like they’re brothers rather than colleagues.

Plot-wise, Bernthal’s character may not play that significant a role, but it does what it was assigned to do- serious comic relief. It’s fun, and we love how Marvel still has that lightheartedness in their movies despite some of the central themes of their movies being darker than usual.

Bernthal’s dialogue was hilariously funny, and his delivery of them were great. The crowd giggled a lot with his interactions with Spider-Man, especially during the second half of the film. I really hope to see more of him in the upcoming MCU movies!

Final Thoughts

All in all, Spider-Man Brand New Day is a very decent movie. It may seem formulaic in story, but ultimately, it delivered what it was trying to deliver: an evolution of Holland’s Spider-Man on a personal level.

DID YOU KNOW: TGV Cinemas HERO-CON for 2026 is Spider-Man Themed

To celebrate the release of Spider-Man Brand New Day, TGV Cinemas’ annual HERO-CON event is themed after the movie!

It was an extremely fun superhero experience where fans could finally be the hero they want to be! Spidey activities, superhero booths, and celebrity meetups.