Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

31/07/26

Cineworld, Edinburgh

The Odyssey may have stopped a lot of cinematic vessels from making it safely to shore, but Ol’ Webhead is back in town and nothing is big enough to halt the new Spider-Man from having his er… Brand New Day – even if, instead of IMAX, he’s had to settle for Screen X and 4D Real 3D. Me, I’m happy to watch it on a standard screen. There are a whole lot of Marvel products that I have enjoyed in the cinema, but Spidey is the only one I keep coming back for – and I’m really not alone. At the showing I attend there’s a veritable crowd of cinema-goers eagerly awaiting their next fix.

As a teenager in the 1960s, I adored the comics of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko – and, in 2002, I went along to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man at my local multiplex and fell in love with the character (as portrayed by Tobey Maguire) all over again. And through all the following iterations, I’ve returned for another helping, always finding new things to enjoy. Andrew Garfield? Yeah, okay, his two films were darker than what had gone before, but still perfectly watchable. And then, in 2016’s Homecoming, Tom Holland stepped confidently into the role, shepherding the series fully into the MCU and I was hooked once more. Lest we forget, somewhere in the midst of all this, there were two Spiderverse animations that were nothing short of masterpieces, but which existed alongside Holland’s films without causing a ripple. We were told that Holland’s contributions would be limited to a trilogy – but No Way Home left the story on such a cliffhanger it was clear there would have to be more.

Brand New Day finds Spidey in uncertain territory. Yes, he’s now been accepted as New York City’s friendly neighbourhood superhero and, between him and Detective Jean De Wolff (Liza Colón-Zayas), the city streets are being systematically scoured of criminals. But, as chronicled in No Way Home, a pesky mind-wipe by Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has added a new complication. Both Peter’s girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya), and his best buddy, Ned (Jacob Lees), have completely forgotten he even exists. He feels totally alone – and to make things worse, he’s also going through a major change in his DNA, the arachnid side of his personality growing in power and threatening to completely overcome him. And that web fluid he used to shoot from specially designed gadgets? It’s now squirting directly from his wrists – sometimes at very inopportune moments!

What’s more, a new threat is beginning to assert its influence on New York City – an invisible being that is able to leap from one unsuspecting victim to another in order to achieve its mysterious goals…

There is so much packed into this film that, even with a running time of 2 hours and 25 minutes, it seems to positively race by. (Some may argue that it could be cut back to two hours, but I would not want to be the one to decide which scenes should be considered expendable.) The characterisations of the key players have never been so astutely drawn. Nor has there been such emotional depth: there’s a real tone of sadness and regret in the early scenes, as Peter observes his former friends from a distance, as he suffers in silence.

Though several key MCU characters are afforded obligatory guest appearances – Florence Pugh’s Black Widow, Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner – none of them is allowed to overstay their welcome. Indeed, John Bernthal’s Frank Castle makes a particularly welcome addition to the story, forming an unlikely alliance with Peter, as the two former adversaries join forces to take on the aforementioned mysterious presence (I won’t reveal who or what this is, but it’s well worth the wait to find out).

Of course, there must also be action set-pieces in a film like this. New director Destin Daniel Cretton and cinematographer Brett Pawlak do not disappoint, amping up the visual flourishes with absolute control and ensuring that every single shot looks ravishing. The way the journey of the invisible ‘presence’ is shown is breathtaking, achieved simply with perfectly-timed choreography (you’ll need to see it for that line to make sense). Furthermore, an extended battle between Spidey and a whole team of red-garbed, sword-wielding martial artists is frankly jaw-dropping, one of the most accomplished special effects sequences I’ve ever seen.

What else can I tell you? Brand New Day somehow manages to locate the teenage kid lurking deep within me and offer him things that he still – after all these years – finds genuinely enthralling. Those who insist on stubbornly remaining in their seats for the inevitable post-credit sequence should be warned that this time out it simply amounts to a brief video game image and a promise that ‘Spider-Man will return.’

Don’t know about you, but I’m already looking forward to it.

4.7 stars

Philip Caveney

Uncharted

20/02/22

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Has there ever been a truly satisfying movie adapted from a video game? Not that I’ve seen.

It’s a conundrum when you consider that most games are cinematic in their scope and yet, time and again, they somehow fail to make the transition. Uncharted has been wallowing in production-hell for a very long time. Indeed, the original plan was to have Mark Wahlberg play young adventurer Nathan Drake, but time has moved on, and he has to be content with playing the father-figure, Sully, to Tom Holland’s Nathan.

Holland, fresh from box-office-conquering success in Spider-Man: No Way Home, could probably have chosen pretty much anything for his next project, so it’s interesting that he’s gone for this. He’s a self-professed gaming fan, so perhaps that’s what lured him. I should perhaps state at this point that I have never played the Uncharted game – in fact, apart from a few goes at Tomb Raider way back in the day, I have never felt the need to scratch the gaming itch.

Uncharted is a fun project, which makes no secret of the fact that it’s highly derivative, borrowing heavily from films that have gone before it: a splash of Oceans 11, a measure of National Treasure and a great big dollop of Indiana Jones. Indeed, the script, put together by no less than five screenwriters, openly references the latter movie several times, just in case we’ve missed the allusion.

When we first meet Nathan, he’s hanging grimly onto a shipping container trailing out of the back of a transport plane (as you do), a sequence lifted directly from the Playstation game that inspired the film. It’s pretty full on for an introduction, but happily the story then skips back to young Nathan’s life in an orphanage and his hero worship of his younger brother, Sam (Rudy Pankow). Sam is obsessed with the idea of finding treasure – specifically the lost gold of Spanish explorer, Ferdinand Magellan. But after breaking too many rules, he’s obliged to skip town and, after that, Nathan only hears from him occasionally, via a series of mysterious postcards from all around the world.

Back in the present day, Nathan is approached by Sully, who’s looking for somebody to help him find a lost treasure and, of course, it turns out to be the same one that Sam was looking for all those years ago. Sully also mentions that he knows Sam, so Nathan dutifully enlists with him. What follows is an elaborately plotted heist-treasure-hunt-action-spectacular. Thrown into the mix are Antonio Banderas as the ruthless Santiago Moncada, a man whose family history makes him believe the treasure rightfully belongs to him, his vicious hench-woman, Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), who is very handy with a blade, and another treasure seeker, Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali), who might be trustworthy, but probably isn’t.

The action set pieces are nicely done, though the film’s 12A certificate sometimes jars with the onscreen violence. Vicious punches leave not a hint of a bruise and there’s what must qualify as the least bloody throat cutting-scene I’ve ever witnessed on the big screen. It just feels odd. But I enjoy the banter between Nathan and Sully, and a climactic sequence featuring helicopters and Spanish galleons is definitely a highlight.

All in all, this is a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, but there’s nothing in Uncharted that will linger long in the memory. Fans of the game will doubtless complain that this doesn’t stick closely enough to the source material, while for me, the inevitable post-credit sequence which teases a second instalment, doesn’t feel in the least bit tempting.

3.4 stars

Philip Caveney

Spider-Man: No Way Home

17/12/21

Cineworld, Edinburgh

I’ve seen most of the superhero movies and the one franchise I consistently enjoy is Spider-Man. I suppose it makes perfect sense. I was a big fan of the comic books back in the day and the films – all three of the major strands – have always had that lightness of touch that somehow steps aside from the pomposity of so many Marvel projects. Played mostly for laughs, the ‘Spidys’ have a levity about them, as their young protagonist goes about his heroic duties, whilst trying to woo his girlfriend and ensure that he gets a proper education.

I was somewhat apprehensive when I picked up on the various rumblings about the Multiverse (inevitable, I suppose, after the success of Lord and Miller’s wonderful Into the Spider-Verse) and also, the heavily-trumpeted presence of a certain Doctor Strange, but, as it turns out, I needn’t have worried. While this is undoubtedly the most complex Spider-Film to date, the sparky script by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers manages to keep things moving briskly along. Every time a scene threatens to become too portentous, they throw in a snarky comment or a bit of tomfoolery and everything blurs back into motion. The two hour running time is never allowed to drag.

No Way Home picks up at the cliff-hanging moment where Far From Home left off – with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) being publicly outed. The ensuing fallout from that event kickstarts the new film straight into action and it barely stops to take a breath. It all feels horribly real as Peter, Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) are trolled, mocked and despised by the right-wing buffoons who have been listening to shock-jock, J. Jonah Jameson (JK Simmons). It’s weirdly prescient.

Feeling cornered and understandably worried about those he loves, Peter has what he thinks is a brilliant idea. He approaches his old pal Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and asks him to reverse time (as you do) so everyone will forget that he’s actually our favourite neighbourhood web-slinger.

Needless to say it’s a very bad idea.

Strange’s celestial tinkering accidentally opens a breach in the Multiverse and, almost before Peter knows what happening, he’s being pursued by adversaries from across time – they include Doc Octopus (Alfred Molina), the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and many, many others, most of whom are astonished to find that Peter doesn’t look anything like the man they remember, but are perfectly happy to try and kill him anyway. Luckily, he doesn’t have to fight them off single-handedly, because he’s offered help from an unexpected quarter…

As is so often the case with these movies, there’s an extended super-powered punch-up at the conclusion, but even this is saved from becoming tedious by liberal deployment of the aforementioned witty dialogue – and there’s a surprisingly poignant coda to the film, which ties all the multifarious strands neatly together. Holland has hinted that this may be as far as his involvement will go and I have to say, if he does choose to step away, he’ll be leaving a very accomplished trilogy to remember him by.

Mind you, it’s clear that this won’t be the end. A post-credits teaser dangles the dubious prospect of a Spawn/Spider-Man mash up, which really isn’t something I relish, but Sony are bound to want to involve their other big-selling franchise at some point, so we’ll see what happens on that score.

Those who are willing to stay in their seats till the credits stop rolling will be rewarded with a trailer for the upcoming Dr Strange movie, which looks… strange, to say the very least.

But meanwhile, No Way Home is well worth your attention. Even unapologetic spandex-haters should give this one the benefit of the doubt. Because, you know what? It rocks.

4.6 stars

Philip Caveney