Following on from the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), where Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) cast a spell on the whole world so that no one remembered that Peter Parker is Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Spider-Man: Brand New Day finds Peter Parker in a dark place. Now living a solitary life fighting mundane crime in New York City, he fills his spare time working out ways that he can again cross paths with his lost love MJ (Zendaya).

After a new villain appears who can possess the minds of individuals, but crucially not Spider-Mans, he is tasked by Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman), the head of a shady Government organization called the department of Damage Control, to track down and capture the evil entity. And as if catching bad guys wasn’t enough Peter Parker has to battle the physical and mental changes that are happening to his body.

I’m sure the producers will want to push Spider-Man: Brand New Day as an all-action movie, but what it is, is essentially a love story, and a very good one at that. Whilst Tom Holland is terrific as usual it’s Zendaya who holds the whole thing together. Giving possibly her best screen performance to date she adds a heart to the whole story. Mesmerising in just about every scene she’s in it’s not hard to see why Peter Parker is so much in love with her.

Super-hero films have taken a bit of a bashing recently but Spider-Man: Brand New Day thankfully bucks that trend and is possibly the best super-hero film since Avengers: Endgame.

Highly recommended.