NEW YORK (OSV News) — Peter Parker and his titular alter ego (Tom Holland) face challenges both emotional and physical in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” (Sony), an engaging extension of the long-lived franchise. While the film’s underlying values are sound, however, an excess of vulgar dialogue makes it questionable fare even for older teens.
As viewers of the previous live-action installment, 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” will recall, circumstances have forced Peter to cause everyone around him to forget that they ever knew him. Thus, as this chapter opens, he’s living in lonely isolation from his true love, MJ (Zendaya) and his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon).
Peter also begins to experience mysterious medical problems related to his hybrid nature as part human, part arachnid. These come at a bad time since, having brought down a host of ordinary criminals, he faces an unknown opponent who has the ability to inhabit other people’s bodies.
Predictably slick action set pieces are paced by poignant moments in director Destin Daniel Cretton’s Marvel Comics-based adventure which carries lessons about the importance of empathy and the futility of vengeance. Those positive values are somewhat offset, though, by the salty vocabulary in returning screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers’ script.
Many of these wayward words are put into the mouth of Frank Castle, aka The Punisher (Jon Bernthal). Having lost his loved ones in a tragic way only hinted at in the screenplay, Frank has tangled with Peter in the past but now becomes his off-and-on ally.
Intended as a foil to Peter’s ever-polite and sensitive persona, Frank is a down-and-dirty fighter much given to referencing excrement. His actions are sometimes as willfully wrongheaded as his speech. So, like the enigmatic adversary Peter and he eventually go up against — and, indeed, like Peter himself — Frank has some hardwon life lessons to acquire amid the dustups.
The film contains much stylized violence with little gore, several instances each of profanity and milder swearing, brief sexual humor, considerable crude talk and a couple of crass terms. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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