Click here for the flashback interview with Destin Daniel Cretton for SHORT TERM 12.
When we last saw Peter Parker, aka Spiderman, in SPIDERMAN: NO WAY HOME he was being selfless. In SPIDERMAN: NEW BEGINNINGS, he is living with that choice, which was to keep safe have the love of his life, MJ (Zendaya) and nerdy best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) by having them forget they ever knew him. He does, however, keep tabs on them via social media. This being a superhero action/adventure flick, there is, of course, more than psychological trauma. There is a supervillain who can possess people, a physical price to pay for that psychological trauma, and frenemy Frank Castle, aka The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), all wrapped up in a whiz bang of a story that is tender, fast-moving, and always loads of fun.
As for Peter, he has faithfully devoted his life to fighting crime and gaining favor with NYPD Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) while never letting anyone get close. Nestled in a musty garret with only his AI pal, E.V. (voiced by Naomi Watts), for company, he brushes off Det. DeWolff’s worries about the beating his body is taking, regularly takes flowers to his beloved Aunt May’s grave, and pines for MJ. He’s also dealing with recurring headaches that are getting progressively worse. It all comes to a, ahem, head when he randomly runs into MJ and Ned after their graduation from MIT. The supervillain threatens MJ after Spidey gets in the way by coming to the aid of the Department of Damage Control when a runaway armored truck loaded with explosives makes an unauthorized entry. The Department of Damage Control, run by the smoothly managerial
William ‘Bill’ Metzger (Tramell Tillman), has something buried in its monolith of classified information that is, of course, the key to all the swirling events to be found on this installment. Think MacGuffin with the usual body count.
We set the mood perfectly with an opening montage of Spiderman wisecracking his way through keeping the peace, including battles with Scorpion (Michael Mando) and Tombstone (Marvin Jones III). That’s just the warm-up as we return to the present and Spidey taking on that speeding armored car and Frank surprising him mid-chase with unwarranted firepower. There is badinage, there is arguing, and at one point there is a very startled pigeon. I love that touch and, yes, Spidey saves the bird from any injury before sending it on its way.
For all of Holland’s emotionally resonant yearning for MJ (the look on his face as Peter registers that selectively amnesiac MJ has a boyfriend will tear your heart out) and his winning way with a quip or a startled pigeon, it’s Bernthal who almost steals the show with his good-hearted bluster and more than a hint of danger. Bernthal doesn’t walk, he stalks. He fills the screen with more than muscles. It’s a looming presence of unresolved issues and the palpably burning need to take matters into his own lethally pugnacious hands. There is righteous anger and sly wit and a high fade haircut that could reduce a powerful supervillain to putty if it wanted to.
There’s plenty of web-slinging, including a modification that makes Peter gag out the word hideous as his spider DNA goes out of control, and plenty of philosophizing about what makes even someone with spider DNA special and uniquely human. There’s even Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) in flashback.
SPIDERMAN: BRAND NEW DAY casts familiar characters in situations that are more than merely novel. They are an exploration of some surprisingly complicated moral quandaries presented with a deep respect for humanity and a welcome light touch. Using the metaphor of potatoes is sublime. And, fear not, the extended Marvel universe with members of the Justice League discovered in odd and oddly efficacious office space in a public bath as well as a ersatz Ivy League university. Best of all, it all integrates into a solid entertainment that is more than the sum of its, further ahem, amazing parts.
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