Alice H (Year 11)

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! 

August 1. The day I finally saw Spiderman Brand New Day. The day I counted down towards. Now this may sound dramatic to you, but to me this was serious. I had waited a long five years for this film and I booked my tickets as soon as I could. As a marvel fanatic who by this point had watched the trailer a minimum of 10 times, my head was spinning with theories, it had consumed my feed. Who is Sadie Sink? Does MJ die? Who is the villain going to be? It was everything I saw. I even had to go so far as to delete my Instagram on Thursday morning, when the film was released. And yes, this was necessary. I knew that there was no way that I could possibly open the app without immediately being bombarded with spoilers that I did not want to see. So, I did what I had to do. And then finally, the day arrived.  

Brand New Day was everything I wanted and more. Upon discussion with almost every person I know, there is a general consensus (minus the few odd outliers) that this was a fantastic movie. The plot, the pacing, the emotions, everything was perfectly lined up. Each of the characters bounced off each other perfectly, and I adored the addition of Jon Bernthal into the Spiderman films. His role as Punisher is not new, however I personally had not seen the character before, but this encouraged me to go watch his own series that was released in 2017. 

Peter’s new mutation arc was a very interesting turn for the character which I was not expecting before the trailer release. I think it’s an engaging idea that could end up taking many routes for Spiderman, whether good or bad. Seeing another, darker side of Peter in this film was enthralling but also kind of scary, leading to the development of his inhibitor technology. It goes without saying that this technology may have massive, unintended repercussions for the rest of the MCU, and I look forward to seeing them. 

I feel compelled to add that all my theories were completely correct, with Sadie as Jean Grey, the supposed ‘villain’ of the film, though not truly in my eyes. Her performance had just the right amount of emotions as well as some cool moments from her. The exploration into Jean’s motivations and past gave the character the depth it needed and made the movie that much more compelling. I’m excited to see where Marvel decides to take this new character in future projects and how her bond with Peter will be further delved into.  

Now personally, I think this newfound relationship between Jean and Peter is more of a sibling dynamic, however I have seen no shortage of people online shipping them romantically. However, I am an MJ girl until I die. And while this film didn’t quite give me the dramatic, memory unlocked moment I really wanted, there was no shortage of emotions from Zendaya. Her flip from MJ to Jean after the fake kiss scene was incredible and left my entire theatre gasping. From that to the traumatic “I don’t love you” incident left me absolutely speechless and heartbroken. But, nevertheless, I still maintain hope that all will work out in the future films. The final scene with Peter and Ned only fuelled that belief. After all, nothing bad ever happens in Marvel…right? 

To wrap up this was a phenomenal film that flawlessly followed on from No Way Home and I can’t wait to see what Marvel comes up with next. Only thing to do now is watch every Marvel project ever in preparation for Doomsday on December 17, can’t be that hard.