2026 has definitely been a year for the books when it comes to movie releases. From huge indie successes like Backrooms and Obsession, to instant classics like The Odyssey and Project Hail Mary, to must-see family films with Mario Galaxy and Toy Story 5, movie theaters have been consistently filled with fans from all genres and walks of life.
However, the department that has been thoroughly lacking, not only this year, but the last three years, has been superhero movies. Once in a while we get hits like Superman (2025), but worldwide events like the release of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) have slowly become a distant memory.
But with the release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026), director Destin Daniel Cretton proves that both diehard fans and the general audience aren’t tired of superhero movies; we’ve just been waiting for something good.
Instantly, the new direction when it comes to lighting and cinematography is night and day compared to the direction from former MCU Spider-Man director Jon Watts. To be clear, I think the old, “Netflix” style lighting, as some call it, was great in the initial trilogy. It fit the coming-of-age stories very well. But Peter Parker is of college-graduate age now, so the more mature direction fills in what parts of his story have been missing. Shots are dynamic with carefully selected color palettes to convey particular moods within each scene. Finally, it feels as though an MCU Spider-Man movie is trying to tell a story with its visuals. And it isn’t afraid to be ugly when needed. The sweat is nasty, the blood is red, and the environment feels so lived in.
The lived-in world is also due in major part to what Cretton chooses to include. Certain villains are included, but don’t necessarily play huge roles in moving the plot forward. Cretton isn’t afraid to show what Peter has been doing in the four-year time jump since the last film, and it definitely pays off. Similarly, the movie also includes appearances from other Marvel heroes and characters in a way that both the large team-up projects and solo films fail to do. They show up, and they’re not shoehorned in cameos, but they also aren’t main characters (apart from two important players). They just convey the realistic idea that, yes, these heroes may be off doing other things, but it’s not like they don’t exist at all. These heroes know each other and can help each other, even if it’s not their movie. It is in this inclusion of external characters that makes Spider-Man: Brand New Day feel like the most lived-in, immersive, and comic book-y movie the MCU has released, and finally uses Spider-Man in the MCU to its full potential. So much so that watching back previous solo flicks feels emptier, and large team-up events feel way too jam-packed. Moving forward, the way side characters are used here should be the standard for an MCU solo flick.
Another standout aspect of this movie is the performances. Tom Holland and Zendaya make an amazing transition into the new direction this film takes, providing some of their most realistic, intricate, and gut-wrenching performances in the franchise, and Jon Bernthal strikes the perfect balance of humor and banter with Spider-Man while still letting the trauma and sadness that fans know exist from his previous appearances shine through. Unfortunately, Jacob Batalon does linger on to the Disney-channelisms and cartoonish acting that worked a lot better in the more happy-go-lucky Watts films. Sadie Sink’s performance as her secret character, however, is definitely the best performance in the movie. The hurt and pain her character goes through, both manifesting as cynical malevolence and broken monologues, will give even audiences who don’t know her character chills.
Through all these amazing things, the best parts of this movie are clearly its themes and story. It opens with a broken, emotionally defeated Spider-Man. After the events of No Way Home, both the world and Spider-Man himself have forgotten Peter Parker. Spider-Man struggles to live without a life outside of the mask, manifesting this challenge as forced physical change. As the story progresses, his Spider DNA and the people around him continually force him to acknowledge that he cannot live without the identity of Peter Parker much longer.
Skipping over major spoilers, this is the first Spider-Man movie to not end in a “final swing”, or some sort of action montage of Spider-Man in his suit, because Peter is finally learning to let go of the mask for once in his hero career. That, and themes of growth, change, and loss of identity are necessary sparks of optimism that this movie invigorates in me, and that the world desperately needs. Peter is not portrayed as perfect, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day reminds us that Peter isn’t a hero because he’s perfect. He is a hero because even when he forgets himself—even when everyone he loves forgets him too—he has the strength and courage to find himself again. And if Peter Parker can do it after everything he’s been through, we in the real world, whether we’ve been through extreme loss, heartbreak, or have simply fallen short of our own expectations of ourselves, can eventually pick ourselves back up again too.
Verdict: 5/5 – Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the best live-action Spider-Man movie.
