Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters Friday with critics giving Marvel's latest superhero film overwhelmingly positive reviews.
Kalshi traders forecast that the film’s Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer will finish at 90.5% by Monday, Aug. 3. The film currently holds a 91% Tomatometer score.
The market had implied a score above 92% in the hours before Tuesday's review embargo lifted.
The good reviews
Positive reviews have poured in since Tuesday’s embargo lifted.
Time Magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek wrote that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is full of surprises, from the moving storyline to the “surprise character” that appears on screen. The film features Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher, and Michael Mando as Mac Gargan/Scorpion.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day is proof that you can at least try to build a better Marvel movie – even with its flaws, this one is superior to most,” Zacharek wrote. “That’s partly thanks to [Tom] Holland, a smart, sensitive actor who, inside a stretchy suit or not, takes his character’s emotional travails just seriously enough.”
Alissa Wilkinson of the New York Times praised the story’s grown-up tone, which explores themes of loss, responsibility, and the fear of losing control of one’s life. She singled out Holland’s ability to carry the film and tap into the character’s emotional core.
“Nothing can erase the enjoyment of witnessing Holland’s performance, which remains winsome and wonderfully kinetic even if you know that’s got to be a computer-generated Spidey a lot of the time,” Wilkinson observed. “And he’s grown up onscreen, his audience has grown up with him.”
The AV Club’s Jesse Hassenger argued that Spider-Man: Brand New Day makes effective use of the wider Marvel universe, folding in supporting characters as the story unfolds.
“Just as No Way Home got some unexpected juice from the fan-service move of bringing in Spider-Men from other universes, this one does surprisingly well with what more casual viewers of the [Marvel Cinematic Universe] have come to dread: Pulling in multiple characters from other Marvel properties to bounce off of each other,” Hassenger wrote.
The bad reviews
However, not every critic matched the Tomatometer’s enthusiasm.
Rolling Stone’s David Fear delivered a scathing review headlined, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the same old MCU B.S.” Fear writes that the CGI feels both overpriced and cheap-looking, and argues the film coasts on Holland and Zendaya’s charm without offering anything new.
“The big twist cynically reeks of not just of fan service but of blatant stage-setting, as if this is [sic] whole Spidey adventure is merely a time-filler in between nerdbait nuggets and bigger, more star-studded cross-franchise endeavors,” Fear wrote. “The present is 100-percent prologue here. The requisite post-credits tag could not feel more gratuitous or useless.”
Kristy Puchko of Mashable argued the film rehashes plot points from other superhero movies inside and outside the MCU.
“Despite its optimistic title, Brand New Day is a recurring bummer,” Puchko countered. “Peter is thrust into the brooding sad sack role that we’ve seen in heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, Superman, and Batman. Weary is the head that wears the Spidey mask and all that.”
The takeaway:
Kalshi markets now predict:
Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Rotten Tomatoes score: 90.5%
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