Peter-Parker, obsessively fighting crime and leading an unhappy life due to the effects of the last Spider-Man film, encounters an opponent who can “jump bodies” and is trying to break into Damage Control. He’s also finding his spider powers growing in dangerous ways. He must protect MJ and Ned, while running into The Punisher and Hulk, before finally working out who the bad guys are.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has three intertwined stories.
1: Deal with a new threat and the obviously evil Damage Control.
2: Deal with his Spider-puberty.
3: Deal with MJ not knowing him.
And all three of these don’t work. For the first two, the problem isn’t just that Peter is excessively naive (a trait that was OK when he was a teen, but is annoying in a grown-ass man), but that we know exactly what is going on. It’s obvious from the start that Damage Control is that bad guys. Their leader might as well be twirling a mustache and ending each sentence with a mad scientist laugh. And it’s equally obvious Peter is meant to embrace his changing body. But the movie takes two full hours for him to catch up. It’s just him making what are clearly the wrong moves over and over for an excessive length of time. We’re just waiting for him to know what we know, which is both dull and irritating. When he finally figures it out, there’s not enough time left for a proper ending. They just hand-wave what happens to Damage Control, the telepath, and Peter.
I’m being vague about who the opponent is, though I suspect you know even if you haven’t seen the movie. Their identity just rams home that plot #1 doesn’t matter; it’s only there to prepare for a future movie. This is the worst kind of franchise management (that doesn’t involve The Rock).
As for the 3rd story, it isn’t finished. The MCU has generally been smart with making the movies mostly self contained. You get answers. You get character development. But except for a super-magic handshake (don’t ask), we’re left in the middle of things. I want my movies to end, not bleed into the next one.
The rest of the film is cameos. They are all OK, but The Hulk is clearly tossed in just to have a Spider-Man/Hulk fight. Any other MCU character would have worked as well, or better yet, have none at all. As for The Punisher, he’s fine, but every story-beat connected to him is stupid on multiple levels. He’s just a guy, so he is not someone that can protect anyone, nor should he be involved in fights not only far beyond his capacities, but ones where he is clearly going to be a determent (any description of this film is going to use the words “clearly” and “obviously” a lot). If they needed another MCU character for the story (they really didn’t), then Daredevil would have worked so much better.
Brand New Day is fan service and setup for future movies, with an unlikably dim-witted main character doing nothing that matters for most of the runtime, while the only somewhat engaging storyline is left dangling.