Film Review : "Spider-Man Brand New Day"

 

This was a very well-done and entertaining movie. It was successful in many ways. What it got right were sequences of Spider-Man swinging through the city that did not make you feel dizzy. The Hulk looked great, and the fight with Spider-Man was pretty true to the comic books. The movie flowed well, and Holland was sunk into his role as Peter Parker. I could even live with the Punisher being a little soft as long as he wore the skull. But while the tone worked in that it threw alot of things at you in a fast-moving format that did not drag much like a comic book. It was the overall story that was a mess. With the elephant in the room being the lack of a true Spider-Man villain, aside from the brief interactions with Scorpion. 

Spider-Man has one of the strongest rogue galleries in comic books, so to recycle Damage Control andd make them more nefarious, they are in the comics, there are plenty of villains that could have spearheaded this, Mr.Negative being the first that comes to mind. Sure, we have already seen Kingpin, Dr. Octopus, Shocker, the Green Goblin, Venom, Kraven the Hunter, Sand-man, Electro, and the Vulture. But that still leaves Black Cat, Silvermane, Hammerhead, Puma, Silver Sable, the Jackal, the Enforcers, Gargoyle, and Speed-Demon, and Morlun, just to name a few; some of them could have also taken on the type of role Damage Control played.

Jean Grey really had no reasong to debut in a Spider-Man film; the two have almsot zero history together, Deadpool would have made more sense, as he is at least in the X-Universe. If you really feel the need to introduce mutants via Spider-Man, then Iceman and Firestar would have been the obvious choice . Sure, he interacts with the X-men nad has even taught at the school, but this was not used in that context, and it seemed a reach the way she used her powers. These are glaring missteps that marred the film if you are a comic book fan. I can say it's better than the last movie, but that is not saying a ton, However it worked more within the realm of the comics than this one.