SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY
A heartfelt, thrilling Spider-Man — and nearly 40 needless profanities.
Should You Watch It?
Here is the decision. SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY is a terrific, heartfelt action adventure — exciting action scenes, real character development, compelling performances, and many touching moments. Better still, its surprise is a moral one: Peter Parker becomes a Christ figure, risking his own life to save another human being's, and urging a villain to turn away from vengeance.
Then there is the language. Nearly 40 gratuitous obscenities and profanities run through the movie, including one strong profanity using the name of Jesus Christ and six GD profanities (mostly from the Punisher). That is not background noise in a film like this; foul language interrupts the flow of dialogue and action, and it is the reason a four-star movie carries extreme caution.
So: if you are an adult who can hear that without harm to your conscience, this is a trip worth making. If you are choosing for children or younger teens, choose something else. The heart of this movie would be worth their time. Its mouth is not.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESPeter Parker regrets what he asked for. A sorcerer's spell erased him from the memory of everyone who loved him — MJ, his best friend Ned, all of them — and now Peter is alone, mourning his Aunt May, and burying himself in superhero work.
The police detective working with him warns that this will not end well. He waves her off.
Then a tank comes rolling down a New York street, terrifying everyone in its path. Peter suits up. What he finds is a villain who does not need a body at all.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars, and they are earned in the ordinary ways: exciting action scenes, great character development, compelling performances, and many touching moments. This is a fun movie that also has something to say, and the two never fight each other.
The action delivers. One long set piece turns a tank loose in the streets of New York with people to save, gunfire, and an enemy Spider-Man cannot see. Later, the Hulk goes rogue and the scale only grows.
It also makes room for grief — Peter is mourning his aunt and living among friends who no longer remember him — and the movie earns real feeling from it.
The one thing working against it is the script's mouth. Foul language interrupts the flow of dialogue and action, and in an action movie that flow is most of the pleasure. Nearly 40 interruptions in 145 minutes is a lot.
The Worldview
BRAND NEW DAY has a strong Christian and moral worldview with patriotic elements, and its central move is bolder than most superhero movies attempt: it makes Peter Parker a Christ figure.
The logic is on screen. Jesus is both fully human and fully divine; Peter is both an Everyman and an extraordinary hero, loved for being both at once. When he names himself as Peter Parker and as Spider-Man, he uses both halves to save the day — and risks his life to save another human being's. That is a lot of theology for a summer blockbuster, carried without preaching.
What it exalts elsewhere is consistent. The hero urges a villain to turn from vengeance. He tries to mentor another vigilante. He exposes a government agency that has overstepped its authority. Revenge is rebuked rather than cheered.
The film also carries forward the spell the hero once asked a sorcerer to cast, the one that erased him from everyone's memory. He opens the movie regretting it — magic here is a wound, not a solution.
Where it costs you is the mouth. A movie that works this hard to make its hero a picture of Christ should not spend His name as a curse — and it does, once directly, plus six GD profanities. The third commandment is not a technicality.
"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). This film reaches for that shape.
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
CONTENT: (CC, BB, PP, ACAC, O, LLL, VV, N, A, M):
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong Christian, moral worldview with strong American, patriotic elements where hero is a Christ figure who risks his very life to save the life of another human being, urges a villain to change his evil direction of vengeance and do the right thing, tries to mentor another vigilante, and exposes a big governmental agency that’s overstepped his authority, plus there’s a reference to the “spell” that the hero asked a sorcerer perform in the previous Spider-Man movie to make the world forget about Peter Parker, including the girl he loves and his best friend, to protect the girl and his friend
Foul Language
At least 22 obscenities (including multiple “s” and “h” words and some “d” and “a” words), one strong profanity using the name of Jesus Christ, six GD profanities, and nine light profanities
Violence
Lots of strong and light action violence shows Spider-Man during one long action sequence battling a tank being controlled by an unknown villain who can possess the mind of an individual person male or female to do his or her bidding, there’s gunfire from the tank, and the people controlled by the villain (the villain can jump quickly from person to person, but villain’s superpowers are limited by range), Spider-Man fights some of the people being controlled, police and other government authorities fire weapons at some of the people controlled, the tank runs into vehicles, and Spider-Man saves some people in the tank’s path, Spider-Man tries to use his webs to restrain the tank, but tank crashes into a government building, Spider-Man’s body is undergoing some changes where his own wrists and body are growing the ability to sling super-strong spider webs, and the changes him cause the webs and his body to wreck things and trap innocent people, Spider-Man’s body changes cause him to hurt a police woman and the detective working with him orders him to stand down until he can fix the problem, the villain starts controlling The Hulk who then goes rogue and starts to attack other people and fight Spider-Man and smash a building, Spider-Man is frequently slammed into other objects such as a vehicle, and the villain eventually threatens the whole city
Sex
No sex
Nudity
Upper male nudity in two scenes when the titular hero has his shirt off, and it’s implied that a woman in an indoor pool is totally naked, but nothing explicit is shown
Alcohol Use
Two men drink beer, one man has a drink in one or two other scenes and hero visits a party at the apartment of two old friends who don’t remember him because he had a sorcerer cast a spell in the last movie to make everyone forget him
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drug abuse;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Kidnapping becomes a major part of one subplot, and a character is out for revenge, but it’s rebuked.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The movie's biggest surprise is that its hero lays down his safety for someone else. Where does that instinct come from, and what does the real thing look like?
John 15:13 · Philippians 2:5–8Peter urges a villain to turn away from vengeance. Why does Scripture insist that revenge belongs to God and not to us — and how hard is that to believe when you have been wronged? | Romans 12:19 · Matthew 5:43–45Peter is lonely: grieving his aunt, unknown to his closest friends, working himself into the ground. What does God do with people in that condition, and what does He ask of the people around them? | Psalm 68:6 · Galatians 6:2A movie about a Christ figure uses Christ's name as a curse. Why does the third commandment single out that particular word, and what does our casual use of it reveal? | Exodus 20:7 · Matthew 12:36–37The Final Word
Marvel has made something with a soul in it: a hero who risks his life for someone else, tells his enemy to stop, and means it. It also let nearly 40 needless obscenities and profanities into a movie that did not need one of them. Grown-ups who want it should go; children should not. Our answer stands: worth the trip — adults only. For family movie night instead, start with our family-friendly picks.
