Spider-Man: Brand New Day and What’s Making Us Happy
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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When we last saw Peter Parker, he'd lost everything. His family, his friends, and the whole world's awareness that he was, in fact, Spider-Man. Now, in Spider-Man Brand New Day, his beloved city is again in danger. And with nowhere to turn, he has to figure out a way to help.
Tom Holland and Zendaya are back as Peter and MJ, but there are some new faces, too. Or at least some faces that are new to Peter's world. I'm Glenn Weldon.
And I'm Linda Holmes. And joining us today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour... is our co-host, Stephen Thompson. Hello, Stephen.
Hello, buddy.
It's so good to see you. I will offer a little peek behind the curtain that we usually record at home, but for reasons we are in historic Studio 44 together on Tuesday morning, where we used to record this show for a long time. So if you sense that we're all gazing lovingly at each other, that is why. All right. So Spider-Man Brand New Day is the follow up to 2021's Spider-Man No Way Home. That was the multiverse story where several different Spider-Men came together to fight a large cast of villains. And where at the end, Dr. Strange fixed an impending catastrophe by wiping out not only everyone's memory that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, but everyone's memory of ever having known Peter. Now, Peter, played by Tom Holland, has been a recluse for several years, tackling low-level crime very effectively, but without the company of his beloved MJ, played by Zendaya, or his friend Ned, played by Jacob Batalon.
What setup and context do the hosts give for Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
Oddly enough, the only friend he hangs out with seems to be Frank Castle, a.k.a. the Punisher, played by Jon Bernthal, who knows him only as Spider-Man. In Brand New Day, two things are happening. One is that a mysterious force is repeatedly attacking the Department of Damage Control. But also, Peter seems to be undergoing some changes he doesn't understand that are interfering with his web shooters and giving him terrible headaches. Spider puberty. He'll have to fight the enemy, fix his own spider body, and maybe possibly find his way back to MJ and Ned. Spider-Man Brand New Day is in theaters now. Stephen Thompson, I'm going to start with you. I know you were a very big fan of some of the previous movies in this standalone Spider-Man series.
How did you feel about this one?
Yeah, as you said, I really, really love these Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, in part because there is a lightness to them. Not only does Tom Holland bring this kind of impish, kind of boyish quality to it, but the way the action moves, it moves with a lightness. Like the battle sequences play out almost like dance routines. And that feels very different from a lot of the more leaden superhero action that we've grown accustomed to in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And so I tend to really love these movies in part because they have jokes and in part because they just have a buoyancy to them that is missing from so many others. This film, I think, is a very effective film in this series. I think it's well-made.
I think the action sequences work really well. But there is a portentousness to it and a dourness to it that, for me, I found a little disappointing. I wanted more light. One thing this film really made me realize is how important the relationship between Peter Parker and Ned is, in part because... They're buddies. There's this buddy quality to the other films that this film does not have as much. And so also this is a bridge sequel. This is the fourth of these films, not counting Spider-Man's appearances in other movies. And it's clearly trying to get us not so much from like point C to point D, but from point C back to a new point A. And so it feels like it's trying to do a lot of plot business that is getting in the way of hijinks.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:56
2
What setup and context do the hosts give for Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
1:56–5:46
3
How does Brand New Day follow up the events of No Way Home and reset Peter Parker?
5:46–9:15
4
What plotlines and new characters drive the central conflict in Brand New Day?
9:15–12:31
5
How do the hosts evaluate the movie's darker, more grounded tone versus series lightness?
12:31–25:39