In a Marvel world full of multiverses and cameos, it’s refreshing to return to a superhero movie with smaller stakes.

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is the 38th installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the fourth film of the Tom Holland Spider-Man series. In the film, Peter Parker (Holland) continues to fight crime in New York City despite everyone in the world magically forgetting who he is following the events of “No Way Home.” When a powerful new enemy emerges, Peter must balance saving the city and trying to have a normal life. Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, and Mark Ruffalo also star, while Destin Daniel Cretton takes over directing duties from Jon Watts.

I really enjoy pretty much any Spider-Man film, and think Tom Holland is a great portrayal of the hero. His Spider-Man films all rank among the better installments of the MCU, and this latest variation was anticipated after 2021’s “No Way Home” ended on a cliffhanger. And while no one expected this to be as fun or cinematically significant as its predecessor, and a lingering sense of Marvel fatigue still plagues the franchise, a welcome return to Spidey fighting of-this-world bad guys, and one of Holland’s best performances to-date, make this a fun superhero romp.

Tom Holland has gotten some flack for his acting outside the MCU (even his work in “The Odyssey” was met with lukewarm reviews), his portrayal of Peter Parker has always been praised. Here, Peter has been forced to live life alone, with his friends and girlfriend not remembering who he is due to Doctor Strange’s spell and his family all dead, and on top of that has his spider powers mutating. The plot is pretty similar to Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2” in that it sees Peter struggling to balance his work and superhero lives (there’s even a plot point involving a computer chip being implanted on a character’s neck to control their abilities like Doc Ock), but Holland is able to give a pretty soulful performance. His moments with Zendaya and Jacob Batalon are tender and sweet, and although it’s getting a little hard to buy these 30-year-olds with face eye-lifts and hair transplants as in their early-20s, the trio’s chemistry remain a highlight of the series.

Taking over directing duties from Jon Watts, who helmed the first three films, Destin Daniel Cretton (who previously directed Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”) is able to give the film a shot in the arm and take it in a new direction. I never had issues with the way Watts shot the previous entries (they’re no better or worse directed than your standard Marvel fare), but Cretton seems much more interested in Spider-Man’s psychology and interactions with the NYPD, and it shows us a side of the hero we haven’t seen since the Andrew Garfield era. There are still some issues with the action that plague modern blockbuster films (while some NYC sets look legit, other parts are flat and grey-washed), and unfortunately by the third act the villain’s plot is largely deemed irrelevant so the wheels are just spinning at the point.

I have given the post-“Endgame” MCU a longer leash than most people, I think that we have gotten several good projects in a post-COVID world (“Multiverse of Madness” and “Wakanada Forever,” to name two). So it’s interesting that while watching most of “Brand New Day” I felt a lingering sense of “who really cares?” surrounding the film. That is not to say that the film is bad, it is better than “Quantumania,” “Eternals,” and especially “Love & Thunder,” but it did not get me excited for the impending “Avengers: Doomsday” or make me feel like the film we got was worth the five year wait. This may just be a me problem, but when the credits rolled I just found myself thinking, “cool…now what?”

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” continues Tom Holland’s streak of having the most consistent sub-series of the MCU, and is an appreciated return to practical costumes and grounded bad guys after several flirts with the multiverse and CGI nano-suits. There are plenty of flaws and isms to be found, but you can tell there was passion behind making this by all involved and the end result is a crowd-pleasing superhero romp that may not define the genre or extend the life of the MCU’s relevancy, but offers in-the-moment entertainment from a dedicated cast.

Critics Rating: 7/10