Spider-Man: brand new misconception
(This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.)
Nearly every review I’ve seen about the new Spider-Man movie mentions the Tom Holland toes scene. I watched Marvel’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day in theaters, and it's one of the most beautiful and emotional movies I’ve seen in a while. I thought that the movie made a lot of sense, as it explored the reality of what it means to be Spider-Man and how lonely Peter Parker was. I enjoyed the fact there was less action and more emotion.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day became the highest-grossing domestic release, taking the Star Wars: The Force Awakens blockbuster title with a record $936.8 million and it was the biggest opening weekend. It even broke Avengers: Endgame’s record from June, 2019. This movie explores themes of loneliness, leaning away from the action-packed fight scenes and more into the quiet vulnerability of how it feels to be a superhero.
After the events of Spider Man: No Way Home, MJ loses all memory of Peter and they don’t speak for many years. Fans expected a passionate, deep reconciliation of the pair and were disappointed when Marvel didn’t deliver. MJ rejects Peter, despite their past romance, and he still takes her home safe and sound. As much as I was rooting for the two of them, I understood why MJ rejected Peter, despite the fact that he was still in love with her. She didn’t even remember him; how was she expected to have feelings for him? However, many people were upset at the lack of connection between them. Many reviews I’ve seen from the movie claim that if they were Peter, they would have left MJ to get home by herself, which is relatively messed up.
Another beautiful plotline of the movie was Jean Grey trying to find her sister. She possesses the minds of the elite to find out what “V-MAX” is. Only when she gets captured does she make the chilling discovery that "V-MAX” was simply the logo for an air vent, the last thing her sister saw before being murdered. It was such a simple reveal, and it was so heartbreaking. Many fans wanted “V-MAX” to be a big key that could destroy the whole world, but in a way, it did destroy someone’s world. The fact that Jean was supposed to suffer the same fate as her sister, was the point of such a reveal. It's bone chilling in a very straightforward way. Not every scene has to be full of action in order for it to be impactful.
Even the way Peter takes down Jean is another contrast to typical superhero movies. Rather than leaving Jean in the lab to be experimented on, Peter goes back to save her. Even when Jean was angry and lost her resolve, Spider-Man rescues her as Peter and has a heart to heart with her. This vulnerability helped Jean feel human again, and eventually, she let go of everyone. I thought it was the perfect way for a villain to step down from being a villain. Many people were rooting for Jean to be beat down by Spider-Man, even though she wasn't coming from a place of malice. Jean was abused and isolated her whole life because of what happened to her sister, so it makes sense that she’d stop fighting when she finds a genuine connection.
In the end, people are allowed to have their own opinions of the movie, and not everyone will understand the emotional aspect. After all, Spider-Man is a pivot from Marvel's thrilling, eventful superhero movies. But when people cling to the nostalgia of old-fashioned superhero movies, they lose out on how these heroes must feel when they’re not in their alter ego. They become the very reason why these heroes would be isolated in real life.
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