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After watching Spider-Man: Brand New Day with my adult children, I was caught off guard by a shared opinion: the movie was good, but it just didn’t quite click.
That caught my attention.
Because apparently it clicked for someone. The movie has an outside chance of becoming a billion-dollar domestic blockbuster and a two billion dollar movie world wide, so clearly there are plenty of people for whom it worked.
But then I started hearing the same phrase from other people who saw it during the second weekend:
“It was good, but it didn’t quite click.”
At first, I dismissed it as one of those vague reactions people have when they enjoyed a movie without necessarily loving it. But as I talked to more people, the phrase kept coming up.
Some wanted more from Bruce Banner and the Hulk. Others were disappointed that the movie seemed to revisit story arcs and themes we’ve already seen from Marvel.
The more I thought about it, the more I began to agree with them.
Something wasn’t quite clicking.
And after thinking about the movie critically for a few hours, I had a strange thought:
What if Marvel cast the wrong Spider-Man?
Not that Tom Holland is a bad Spider-Man. Far from it. He’s been terrific in the role.
But what if Brand New Day would have worked better with Andrew Garfield?
I’m Not Saying Garfield Should Have Simply Replaced Holland
Obviously, you couldn’t take the exact same movie and simply substitute Andrew Garfield for Tom Holland.
Garfield’s Peter Parker would have changed the movie.
And that’s precisely my point.
The appeal of Brand New Day is that Marvel appears to want to take Spider-Man back toward a more street-level story. After the increasingly cosmic and multiverse-driven Marvel movies—and, yes, after the rather unfortunate experiences of Morbius and Madame Web—I completely understand why fans want that.
I want that too.
But there is a problem.
Tom Holland still feels like “the kid.”
That’s not necessarily a criticism of Holland. It’s one of the things that made him so good as Peter Parker in the first place.
His Spider-Man has always had an energetic, youthful quality. He’s funny. He’s enthusiastic. He’s comfortable around other heroes. He has that slightly awkward quality that makes Peter Parker feel like a teenager who somehow wandered into the Avengers.
But Brand New Day wants something different.
It wants a Spider-Man who has been through the grinder.
A Spider-Man who is alone.
A Spider-Man who has lost people.
A Spider-Man who has grown up.
And that’s where Andrew Garfield suddenly makes a lot of sense.
Garfield’s Spider-Man Already Knows What Loneliness Feels Like
Garfield’s Peter Parker came with a different emotional weight.
His Spider-Man was already somewhat isolated. He carried loss differently. There was a melancholy underneath the jokes.
His Peter didn’t feel like the kid who had just discovered he was Spider-Man.
He felt like someone who had already discovered what being Spider-Man was going to cost him.
That makes the idea of a street-level, lonely, post-trauma Spider-Man much more natural for Garfield.
Again, I’m not saying Garfield would automatically make Brand New Day better.
I’m saying that the character the movie seems to want may be closer to the character Garfield naturally plays.
And that distinction matters.
But Then We Have to Ask the Reverse Question
If Andrew Garfield might be better suited to the Spider-Man Marvel appears to want now, then what kind of Spider-Man movie would have been perfect for Tom Holland?
And that’s when I started laughing.
Because the answer seems almost painfully obvious.
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
Give Tom Holland his own version of the 1970s/1980s animated concept.
Peter Parker.
Firestar.
Iceman.
A little lighter.
A little more fun.
A young Peter surrounded by friends and superheroes, with plenty of banter, ridiculous villains, and the sort of energetic ensemble that Holland does extremely well.
That feels like Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
And, importantly:
No Punisher.
I’m only half joking.
Holland’s Spider-Man has spent years being the young guy in the room. He works exceptionally well when he’s bouncing off other characters. His chemistry with other superheroes and his ability to play Peter’s enthusiasm are some of his greatest strengths.
Why fight that?
Maybe the Problem Isn’t Tom Holland
This is where my thinking has ended up.
I don’t think the problem with Brand New Day is that Tom Holland suddenly became a bad Spider-Man.
I think Marvel may have run into a casting problem of its own making.
They spent years establishing Holland as their young Spider-Man.
Then they decided they wanted to tell a story about a more mature, isolated, street-level Spider-Man.
Those are not necessarily the same character.
You can age Peter Parker in the script.
You can give him four years of solitude.
You can take away the Avengers and the multiverse.
You can make him more experienced and more independent.
But the audience still sees Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
And maybe that’s why some people walk out saying:
“It was good. It just didn’t click.”
Perhaps they aren’t rejecting the story.
Perhaps they’re sensing a mismatch between the story Marvel wants to tell and the version of Peter Parker they’ve spent years watching Holland play.
And That’s the Funny Part
If Marvel had asked me beforehand what kind of Spider-Man movie Tom Holland should make, I probably would have said something like:
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
And if they asked me what kind of Spider-Man movie Andrew Garfield should make?
I’d probably say:
Give him the lonely guy wandering through New York at 2 a.m., trying to figure out what the hell he’s doing with his life.
No Avengers.
No multiverse.
No giant cosmic stakes.
Just Spider-Man.
And suddenly the casting makes sense.
Maybe Brand New Day isn’t a bad Spider-Man movie.
Maybe it’s simply a good Spider-Man movie built around a version of Peter Parker that isn’t quite the Peter Parker Tom Holland was best suited to play.
And maybe that’s why, after all the explosions, jokes, cameos, and superhero spectacle, the simplest review from my daughter and several other people may actually be the most revealing:
“It was good. It just didn’t quite click.”