The Best Spider-Man in 22 Years?
Last Friday, July 31, Spider-Man: Brand New Day swung into theaters carrying the question this magazine asked seven days ago: is Marvel actually back? Here is the answer in numbers. A 90 percent Tomatometer. A 98 percent Popcornmeter. A 169 million dollar worldwide gross straight out of the gate. And here is the answer in words, the same words, over and over, from critics who agree on almost nothing else: the best Spider-Man movie since Spider-Man 2. Which leaves exactly one argument worth having this week. Since? Or better than?
The praise is unusually specific. Tom Holland delivers what one critic called his most grounded and emotionally resonant Peter Parker. Destin Daniel Cretton, who already gave Marvel its most physical action in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, shoots this one lean and street-level, and Alexander Zalben called the result the most purely Spider-Man movie since Raimi's sequel. Jon Bernthal's Punisher shares scenes with Peter that TheWrap flatly labeled comedy gold. Sadie Sink has reviewers doing something rare: raving about her casting while refusing to say who she plays. And Zendaya's MJ, her memory of Peter erased, gives the film its ache. This is the anonymous, struggling, nobody-knows-his-name Spider-Man that fans have been requesting since 2021, and it works.
So does it take the crown? Read the raves closely and they answer for you. Best since Raimi. Closest the MCU has come to capturing Raimi's heart and spirit. The comparison is the compliment, and the comparison has a ceiling built in. The flaws critics named are real, too: a runtime Variety reckoned was half an hour too long, another reviewer calling the film overstuffed, and TheWrap noting that on the car ride home you realize the villain's plan makes no sense. Nobody has ever said that about the train sequence in Spider-Man 2, a film that turned a man with metal arms into the genre's best tragedy and made giving up the suit feel bigger than any punch. The verdict: the crown stays in 2004. But Spider-Man: Brand New Day lands at number two on our all-time list, above the multiverse spectacle and the animated masterpiece, and second place in this particular fight is the loudest thing Marvel has said in years.
So yes, the answer to last week's question is yes. Your move this week is a double feature: see Spider-Man: Brand New Day on the biggest screen near you, then go home and put on Spider-Man 2. Decide for yourself whether we got the order right.
