Hulk-sized SPOILERS ahead!!!!
After my marathon watch of all the Spiderman movies, I finally saw Brand New Day, and it was definitely a fun afternoon at the movie theater. Marvel delivered on all its promises: action, heart (and heartbreak), familiar faces, cameos, and some surprises. There’s no denying it’s awesome, but I do feel it tried to stuff a bit too much into it.
It begins with Peter doing what he does best, which is help the police of New York City deal with the bad guys, and communicating with the Chief of Police in a relationship that’s clearly been built over time. He’s always working as Spidey, in order to deal with the fact that MJ and Ned are gone to MIT in Boston. He keeps track of them on their Youtube vlog during their entire four years there. In the meantime, we see him go up against a baddie named Scorpion, and has already dealt with some cool-looking exotic baddies called The Hand. He also has a run-in with “Frank” aka The Punisher, who he’s also dealt with before, and they just seem to irritate each other and get in each other’s way. I haven’t watched any Punisher movies or shows, so I know very little about him except that he lost his family and probably went vigilante to avenge them or something. Anyway, a lot happens in the first half hour and it’s a bit dizzying.
ALSO, there’s some strange new threat that’s invisible, can get into other people’s bodies, and is going after some mysterious thing held in some corporate compound or other; Peter realizes that his body is changing in weird ways, that his spider DNA is ramping up and he doesn’t necessarily like it; AND he finds out MJ has a boyfriend. Wow.
Peter goes to Bruce Banner for help with his changing DNA problem (brought on by stress), who is teaching physics at a University. After talking to him, he comes up with an idea for an “inhibitor chip” (that sounds familiar, lol) to keep the increased sensitivities at bay. Of course, we see the Hulk later in humungous fighting mode.
So I’ll get right to the big secret: the invisible threat is Jean Gray (from X-Men), just a teenage girl here, who is looking for her sister, Sara. They both have the same abilities, and Sara was kidnapped for “research,” of course. Jean is just trying to find her. Peter unwittingly delivers her to these guys, then finds out the truth and feels bad. In the meantime, Jean used MJ to get to Peter, putting her life in danger, and so Peter brings her to Frank and asks him to keep her safe. When Peter leaves to go find Jean, he accidentally leaves behind that letter he wrote years ago to MJ but never gave her, explaining who he was. Of course, she reads it. But she doesn’t remember him, not even a little bit, and it’s heartbreaking.
Anyway, Peter goes to help Jean, but he has to unleash his new, improved Spidey powers to get past the baddies and convince her to stop hurting people. In other words, he has to grow, and so does she. They both have to get past their losses and their fears. Unfortunately, Frank has showed up determined to kill Jean, but when he shoots, it’s Peter he hits, who saves Jean’s life. Jean keeps him alive with her power as he’s brought to the hospital. He makes it through and realizes the people of the city love him, as there’s a crowd of well-wishers outside the hospital. It makes him feel a bit better, as he realizes he has to let MJ go. She’s still nice to him, though, and they hang out with Ned (only as Spidey). One day, Peter sees him in the cofee shop and introduces himself and starts their special handshake, and Ned remembers. The handshake, AND Peter. So Ned remembers him from a handshake, but MJ doesn’t remember him after reading that deeply personal letter? Come on, man! I’m hoping maybe, somehow, they can start over and be together again someday.
All in all, it was a great movie, but like I said, there was a lot to take in and keep track of, and I feel like it could have been streamlined just a little bit. I think it’s starting to prepare us for Doomsday–we see Yelena Belova from Thunderbolts, who helps Peter with some intel, and the “New Avengers” are going to be in that film (and I adored these guys, so I’m happy about that); as well as the X-Men, so I’m expecting Jean maybe to come back? And the Fantastic Four, and Thor, and Loki, and somehow, Steve Rogers….pretty much every character Marvel has ever created, it seems, lol. I have mixed feelings about that, like it’s going to spread the movie very, very thin, but that’s for another post.
So have you seen Brand New Day? If so, what did you think? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!
Star Wars and Other Obsessions 