Spider-Man: Brand New Day (M) – 145 minutes

Spider-Man is my favourite superhero.

Having said that, Brand New Day really tested my patience.

I felt every bit of its extended running time, and it is too convoluted for its own good.

Further, time and again, it trawls back through previous instalments of the franchise.

The subject matter is mind control. 

Spider-Man (Tom Holland) has all but single handedly been protecting New York City. So much so that major crime in all five boroughs is down.

But Spidey’s real self, Peter Parker, is lonely, having wiped the memory of his one true love, MJ (Zendaya), and his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon).

He has done so to protect them from harm, but is missing them, along with his beloved aunt May (Marisa Tomei).

Spider-Man’s law enforcement contact, Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colon-Zayas), can see that he is doing it tough and says as much.

And then a new threat, the most nefarious yet, arises.

It starts with an armed tank rampaging through New York that Spider-Man can’t seem to stop in its tracks. 

The driver of the vehicle appears to have been telepathically possessed.

Behind the rampage is an attempt to free criminal mastermind Scorpion (Michael Mando), who Spidey put away in the film Spider-Man: Homecoming.

But in truth there is far more to it and that relates to the Department of Damage Control, run by Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman).

Spider-Man calls upon two members of the Avengers, Yelena Belova/aka Black Widow (Florence Pugh) and Bruce Banner/aka The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) for insights.

Also on the case is Spidey adversary, vigilante Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal).

All this toing and froing leads to mind manipulator extraordinaire Jean Grey (Sadie Sink), who has an axe to grind with the Department of Damage Control. 

See what I mean. Confusing. More and more plotting isn’t necessarily a good thing. And all this while Spider-Man is having constant flashbacks.

The whole enchilada started to wear thin.

At its most basic, Spider-Man: Brand New Day needed tightening.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with most of the performances.

Tom Holland is virtually asked to run rings around his character and he does the best he can with the material with which he has to work.

It is the seventh time Holland has donned the tights, the eighth if you count a brief, uncredited cameo in one of the four crossover titles.

Zendaya displays smarts and emotional intelligence as MJ.

Jacob Batalon is an enthusiast as Ned.

Michael Mando stings as Scorpion, while Jon Bernthal is full of bluster as the vigilante.

Still, I can’t say I was all too convinced by Tramell Tillman as the director of the Department of Damage Control.

Of course, Spider-Man continues to swing between buildings and the action sequences are well realised.

But, frankly, there was nothing here that got me terribly excited, like I had been with earlier Spider-Man movies. 

It felt like the filmmakers, writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and director Destin Daniel Cretton were trying too hard to impress.

Rated M, Spider-Man: Brand New Day scores a 6½ out of 10.