Every week on Cinebuds sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors, Kristopher Pollard from Milwaukee Film and Radio Milwaukee’s Dori Zori review movies, tell you which ones are showing in our city and talk with the people who help bring them to the big screen.
When your last installment pulled in three separate Spider-Men (Spider-Mans?) and five different villains from across seven previous movies — plus a Sorcerer Supreme and the near-collapse of the universe itself — it’s almost impossible for a franchise to get even bigger.
So the minds behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day did something that’s simply unheard of in the realm of superhero movies: They got small.
OK, we admit that’s a relative comparison. This episode still focuses on a film that contains the return of a fully hulked-out Hulk, a slightly toned down Punisher and at least brief appearances from several classic Spider-Man villains (plus one main antagonist who will go unnamed for spoilery reasons).
But in this era of neverending escalation and audiences whose interest lowers as the stakes supposedly get higher, it was still refreshing to watch someone pull on a mask and have the struggle you care most about happen internally.
That’s arguably the driving force behind the droves of people who have already seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day — more than $2 billion worth worldwide as of this writing — and one of the major reasons our hosts gave it a rare 10-star rating (rare because we don’t actually rate movies on a scale).
This was a legitimate tear-jerker, whether you spilled them over Peter’s painful isolation or his quietly desperate pining for friends who had long since moved on or the brief appearance of the consistently wonderful Marisa Tomei or the other thing we will not spoil here. That emotional depth balanced the energy and fun we’ve come to expect from New York’s favorite web-slinger, making us believe these superheroes (and their genre) just might have some life left in them.
