Hello, and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we take a look at the biggest new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week: Spider-Man: Brand New Day does whatever a Spider-Man film can…
Usual disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, I haven’t seen these movies yet so all of my opinions are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
This is the fourth Spider-Man film officially in the MCU, the first not to feature Home in the title, and the last MCU film before December’s big Doomsday team-up (which Spidey so far appears to be conspicuously absent from). Directed by Shang-Chi’s Destin Daniel Cretton, taking over from Jon Watts, this takes up the story where No Way Home ended. Thanks to a multiverse-saving spell from Doctor Strange, the world has lost all memory of Peter Parker (Tom Holland), including his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon). Despite his loneliness, Spidey has diligently been keeping his beloved New York safe from various street-level threats. But when his powers start mutating, he seeks help from fellow Avenger Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). Meanwhile, a mysterious new threat is rising.
Who or what exactly that threat is has been kept impressively under-wraps in the marketing. There have been hints in the trailers of some kind of psychic presence jumping between hosts, and various rumours about what that might mean. It may or may not be connected to the new cast addition of Stranger Things’s Sadie Sink, whose character has similarly been kept secret (at the time of writing she’s not even named on IMDB). There are several other new cast members to look forward to, including Severance’s Tramell Tillman, Naomi Watts and Keith David. Plus we get plenty of new and familiar faces from Spider-Man’s rogues gallery – Michael Mando returns after his brief cameo at the end of Homecoming as Mac “Scorpion” Gargan, Marvin Jones III gives albino gangster Tombstone his big screen live action debut, there are fights with assassins from The Hand, and Jon Bernthal reprises his role from various small screen outings as anti-hero the Punisher.
Spider-Man’s mutating powers (a metaphor for puberty) were a major plot arc in Spider-Man: The Animated Series which resulted in Peter becoming the monstrous Man-Spider. I would be surprised if this one goes quite that far, but it certainly hints at something along those lines with Banner’s comment that the mutation could be enormously dangerous. There is at least some scope for mild body horror as Holland’s Peter develops natural webbing glands in his wrists – something he and Andrew Garfield were horrified by when discovering that was Tobey Maguire’s power in No Way Home. If that all sounds a bit surreal and sci-fi, the Peter Parker elements of the plot – dealing with his loneliness and trying to find a way back into Ned and MJ’s lives – will help keep it grounded and relatable.
What’s most exciting about this film is that, despite a strong marketing campaign, there are still plenty of unanswered questions about where this might go. Will Spidey’s mutations make him stronger or a monster? Will Peter reconcile with MJ and Ned? Who is the film’s big bad? And just how will this connect with the wider MCU? As previously mentioned, there’s been no sign yet that Spidey is due to appear in Doomsday – nor for that matter are the Incredible Hulk or Doctor Strange, who will have had major parts in this film and the events leading up to it. Is this a hint that something cataclysmic will happen here? Long-time MCU fans will know not to leave the cinema until the credits have finished rolling – the Spider-Man films have had some of Marvel’s best post-credit scenes, and with the first team-up movie in seven years to tee up, this will likely be no exception. I’m also looking forward to seeing what Destin Daniel Cretton brings to the fight scenes, after Shang-Chi’s martial arts were one of the highlights of the MCU’s Phase Four.
There have been very positive reviews for this so far – I’m trying to avoid reading too many for fear of spoilers, but at the time of writing it has an impressive 91% on Rotten Tomatoes (consistent with the other Tom Holland Spidey films, which have ranged from 91-93%). There seems to be a lot of praise for Tom Holland in particular, who captures both Spider-Man’s energy and Peter Parker’s angst, which makes sense – if you include the various team-up films I make this his seventh big screen appearance as the web-slinger, so he should be pretty comfortable in the spandex by now.
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day on IMDB
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day on Rotten Tomatoes
Ish
Ish follows the eponymous kid (Farhan Hasnat) and his best friend Maram (Yahya Kitana) growing up in a poor suburban street in Luton. But when Ish abandons Maram to a police stop-and-search, their friendship is tested to breaking point and their innocence is forever lost.
Directed by artist/ musician Imran Perretta in his feature film debut, this is shot entirely in black and white and looks like a tragic coming of age story about the escalating impact of racism and violence on young people. The start of the trailer makes it abundantly clear that these are two normal, perfectly friendly kids right up until they are picked on by the police for no reason besides their race. As Ish feels more and more shut out by his community and loved ones for his spur-of-the-moment act of self-preservation, he starts to act out, gradually becoming the sort of person that the police assumed he and Maram to be.
The reviews have all been very positive, drawing comparisons to the likes of Ken Loach and heaping praise on the young leads. If you like your films to be more grounded and gritty, and you can find a screen that isn’t showing Spider-Man or the Odyssey, this looks well worth seeking out.
- Ish on IMDB
- Ish on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Swing round to Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
Trailer of the Week
Based on the young adult book series by Tomi Adeyemi and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, Children of Blood and Bone is set in the fictional African country of Orïsha, where magic used to exist among a people called the divîners before the evil King Saran (Chiwetel Ejiofor) brought magic to an end. But when a divîner named Zélie (Thuso Mbedu) finds a way to awaken her powers, she embarks on a quest to bring down Saran’s regime. The trailer is set to Beyonce chanting ‘big energy’ and that’s certainly what it brings – this looks like a proper fantasy epic, full of battles and swordfights and stunning African landscapes. It also features an incredible cast – as well as Ejiofor and Mbedu (best known for playing the lead role in Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King), it also includes Idris Elba, Tosin Cole, Cynthia Erivo, Viola Davis, Regina King, Amandla Stenberg, Damson Idris and Lashana Lynch. As a colourful fusion of fantasy tropes with African culture and mythology there are some definite Black Panther vibes to the look of the film (this is a good thing), but it still feels like an exciting and original concept executed with style and, yes, big energy. Plus, regular readers will know I’m a sucker for a fantasy film with exotic animals as cavalry, and this has people riding big ol’ sabre-toothed leopard creatures, so I’m already sold. Children of Blood and Bone hits UK cinemas in January 2027.
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