Monthly Archives: August 2026

Film Exhibit Reviews

D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event 2026 – Film Exhibition Report

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In my very first year of writing this blog, I made my first ever trip to what was then called the D23 Expo.  This bi-annual 3 day event held in Anaheim, California right across the street from Disneyland was a very different animal back in 2013.  While still pretty impressive in it’s early days, the event has grown exponentially every time it returns, to the point where the Anaheim Convention Center alone can’t contain all of it.  At the last one held in 2024, Disney moved their biggest presentations down the road a couple miles to the Honda Center, which greatly expanded how Disney was able to put on this convention.  D23 now covers ever inch of space of the Convention Center, and yet it also manages to extend out beyond those halls.  This year now marks my 7th trip to D23, which is certainly a lot more than I ever thought I would be able to do in my lifetime.  At this point, I have become a pro at planning my days out at the convention, but at the same time, there still has to be a certain amount of luck to get into the most exclusive parts of the experience itself.  If you read my blog post 2 years ago covering D23 2024, you’ll know that I didn’t manage to get into 2 of the night time shows at the Honda Center; which were the Film and Television Presentation and the Parks and Experiences Presentation.  I was only able to snag a ticket to the Disney Legends Ceremony, due to it being the last one left that hadn’t sold out.  The ticketing queue system they use for selling passes to D23 can be a bit of a lottery for most people, as it randomly places you in line, and in 2024 I had a very high number in the queue.  Thankfully, this year was very different, as I managed to get a Honda Center ticket for every day of the convention, along with 3 full days on the Convention floor.  While I was still able to enjoy myself two years ago, this was going to feel like a more complete year as I knew going in that I had a place secured in all the big shows that I wanted to see.  It’s been two years of eager anticipation leading up to these three big days, and I have a lot to cover about all the sights and sounds that I took in.

But before I go into each individual day, I do want to note one thing that definitely was different about this convention which is just how much it is expanding out beyond the event itself.  Despite officially being a three day event on the Convention floor, it almost seems like Disney is making the whole week leading into the convention an event into itself.  They held a smaller event at the Packing District Center in Downtown Anaheim earlier in the week, and on the Wednesday before, Disney also held D23 Night at Angels Stadium, where D23 members who attended were given special Mickey Mouse bobble-head figures in an Angels uniform.  But the biggest pre-game event leading into D23 was what they called D23 Day at Disneyland.  It figures that the heart of the Anaheim resort area and on of the most important pieces of the Disney company would play host to something on the eve of the convention.  They held D23 Day in the park back in 2024, but this year it felt like they were making it much more of a big deal.  This year’s D23 Day in a way has become a fourth day of the event as a whole, making it more essential to the whole experience.  The only difference is you don’t have to have bought a pass to the convention to experience it.  D23 Day offered special treats throughout the day to anyone who was visiting the park, including the casual guests there just on vacation, and even those who were attending neither the convention or visiting the park could still take part in free activities available in the Downtown Disney shopping district by the hotels.  Apart from exclusive merchandise that was for sale (which all sold out fast by the way), the day also offered special events to guests at the park.  One was what they called a Legends Cavalcade, which was a mini parade through the park featuring past inductees in the Disney Legends hall of fame, as well as a couple of this year’s new honorees.  But what proved to be one of the biggest additions to this year’s D23 Day was a special nighttime concert celebrating the Disney Princesses, with all of the actresses who played the roles all appearing on stage.  The event was free to those attending D23, but due to limited space, they could only limit who could see it those who entered in the virtual queue (which by the way was filled up in seconds).  I lucked out and got a spot at the late showing, but even by securing that, it didn’t mean I had the best view of the show.  I collected my wrist band for the event mid day and lined up before showtime and ended up at a far distant angle from the main stage.  But I got to see the concert performed live, which itself was a rare privilege, and it’s a big sign that they are taking D23 Day at Disneyland more seriously.  But, it’s time to talk about the main event itself, so here is my day by day overview of what I saw.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2026

Because of the move to the Honda Center for the big presentations, there is less worry about getting up extra early for the convention.  Gone are the days of those pre-dawn rushes to get the best spot in line in order to hopefully get the best place in line for the shows.  Also gone are the all-nighters in the Convention Center basement.  This changed mainly for safety reasons, and also probably because of new health guidelines post-Covid.  But, even still with the main gates opening up at the break of dawn at 6:30am, there are still a remarkable amount of early risers that have made it into the holding area of the convention center.  They lined all of us up and lead us into a below grade show floor in the north wing of the Convention Center.  It was a large space, but even still it filled up with people well before opening.  Once the convention floor was open for business they led us all line by line into the convention floor.  From what I heard, a miscommunication with the staff led to a near stampede as suddenly every line moved towards the door at once.  This apparently happened mere moments after my group was brought in, so I didn’t witness it myself, but I did see videos of it.  I’ll have more to say about the state of the crowd control later, but first, let’s get into the first sights of the day.  They led us into Hall A first, which is on the northernmost end of the convention floor.  Here, the most dominant presence was an installation promoting Disney+ and Hulu, the two streaming platforms owned by the company. At the event in 2024, Disney’s streaming and broadcast channels had a large footprint throughout the Convention floor.  Here they were limited to Hall A and were promoting more of the individual programming rather than the channels themselves.  What this installation offered guests was a bit of a scavenger hunt like activity.  There were photo opportunities set up for multiple shows on the Disney platforms, including The Simpsons, American Horror Story, and Scrubs to name a few.  Some even offered elaborate interactive experiences, like getting a dynamic red carpet video at the Grammys booth.  And after getting your picture taken, one of the booth’s staff will stamp a card for you.  After 4 stamps, each person would then turn their card in at the main desk and collect a blind bag pin representing one of the shows featured on Disney+ or Hulu.  Two of the ones I got were of the Muppet Show and The Simpsons, so I ended up with some good ones after all.

Nearby however was what I thought was one of the highlights of the whole convention experience.  One of my favorite things from D23 2024 was the National Geographic booth, which had this Circle-Vision like experience that felt like something that would feel at home in one of Disney’s parks.  For this year, Disney+ offered something similar, but still different enough to feel like it’s own thing.  It was what they called the Disney+ Theater, situated right next door to the pin hunt installation.  After lining up outside, guests up to 40 at a time would be corralled into a small but impressively assemble mini movie theater.  The screen was equipped for 3D projection and each of us got souvenir glasses with the Disney+ Hulu logo on it.   Watching a 3D movie would be impressive enough, but the presentation also included 4D effects like rumbling seats and water sprays to make the presentation even more dynamic.  And the whole thing included a live host speaking about all the programming we were about to see, which amounted to a supercut of the many different shows playing on the streaming platforms.  All of this, the live host, the 4D effects, and the crystal clear 3D projection made this an absolute must see of the convention floor, and to make it even better, they gave out another blind bag pin at the exit.  From there, I made my way across the floor to the other halls.  The lines were forming fast and got long very quick, especially at the stores which required virtual queues of their own.  I got my queue for the D23 showcase store for that afternoon, so I still had some time to wander around.  Of course, one of the highlights of each D23 is the Imagineering booth, where the people who design and build the parks get to show off what they are working on.  In past years, this experience often would draw big lines, but thankfully in the last few D23’s, they’ve made this pavilion more open spaces, so anyone can come and go as they please.  The cool thing about this year’s Imagineering pavilion was that it was designed with a large central foyer with a stage on the end with wings opening up into different rooms with models and artwork.  Throughout the day there would be small sit down presentations with Imagineers on the stage, but one of the biggest draws on this stage was a demo of the new free walking animatronic of Olaf that debuted in Paris this year; part of a new gen in character interactions in the parks.

There were smaller panels held on this day that I also managed to get into.  One was early in the morning, celebrating the 35th anniversary of Beauty and the Beast (1991).  On stage, they had Mark Henn, the animator who worked on the character of Belle, as well as the voice of Belle herself, Paige O’Hara.  Additionally, producer Don Hahn and composer Alan Menken were also there to talk about the film.  They shared numerous stories about working on the film, often bringing up the important contributions made by lyricist Howard Ashman, who died from AIDS during the making of the film.  After discussing the impact of the movie, the conversation shifted to talking about the Broadway show and it’s impact.  Invited onstage for this part was the original Belle from the Broadway show, Susan Egan, who later on would become one of the newly inducted Disney Legends at this year’s D23.  Speaking of Disney Legends, later on in the day I went to another Panel at the Disney Archives stage on the third floor of the Convention center.  There they had a Legnds in Conversation panel, with a sit down interview with four of this year’s class.  They included Imagineer Kim Irvine, Animator Eric Goldberg, voice actor Alan Tudyk and again Susan Egan.  ABC News’ Rachel Roberts (herself a Disney Legend from 2019), acted as moderator.  The four legends all talked about what ultimately led to them starting to work with Disney and how it felt being added to the list of legends.  Kim Irvine’s story was pretty interesting, considering that her mother and father were also Disney Imagineers.  Her mother, Leota Toombs, in fact would be forever immortalized as Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion attraction at the Disney Parks.  Eric Goldberg also shared a lot of interesting stories about being mentored by animation legends like Art Babbitt and Richard Williams when he was first starting out in the business, long before he came to Disney to famously bring the Genie in Aladdin (1992) to life.

After spending time getting to see much of what was available on the floor, it was time to make my way over to the Honda Center.  Because there was a no large bag policy in place for the venue, I had to drop off my backpack and swag bag off at my hotel room.  Because my hotel was in between the Convention Center and the Honda Center, I decided on this day to walk the 2 miles rather than take the complimentary shuttles offered to D23 guests.  This would be the only day I would do so, because it is quite the trek in the Southern California midday heat.  But, I got there in time for the first big presentation of D23; the Film and Television Presentation.  While I was up in the higher level and pretty far from the main stage, I still got a decent enough view of the big screen, enabling me a good view of the special sneak peaks of this show.  It was the usual rundown of what’s coming up from Disney Animation, Pixar Animation, Marvel and Star Wars with honestly not much in the way of many surprises.  A lot of the show had to do with giving us more details about stuff that’s coming out soon, like Avengers: Doomsday (2026), which we got the same trailer that they also showed at Comic Con only a couple weeks prior.  There were some pretty stand out things to talk about though.  One was the announcement of the new X-Men cast, which includes Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey, who already premiered in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.  The cast is already shaping up to be pretty special, including having breakout Obsession (2026) star Inde Navarette cast as Rogue, but one of the biggest surprises was the announcement that Adam Driver has been cast as the villain of the film, playing notorious X-Men foe Mr. Sinister.  On the Star Wars side, we got the first look at their new film Star Wars: Starfighter, releasing next summer in time for Star Wars 50th anniversary, which will also include a much sought after re-release of the original unedited version of the first film.  To talk about Starfighter, they welcomed the film’s director Shawn Levy as well as the star Ryan Gosling, who playfully leaned into his past as a Mickey Mouse Club alum by wearing his club jacket from his time on that show in the the late 90’s.  We also got announcements about upcoming films from the animation studios, including an official announcement for Zootopia 3.  And the show ended with our very first look at Frozen III, coming Thanksgiving 2027.  One other project they showed was a new mini-series celebrating the character of Oswald, who turns 100 next year.  The project, directed and produced by Jon Favreau looked really interesting, and as a treat everyone in the audience was getting a special Oswald trading card pack after the show.  This led to what I thought was one of the worst parts of this D23, which was the dangerously unorganized exit plan for the end of the show.  As everyone was clamoring for their free cards, it caused a long back up at the exits of the Honda Center, and at times got a little hairy as people were crowding around the poor staff that was caught in the middle of this.  It was an unfortunate sour note to end the night one, especially after a great first day on the convention floor.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 2026

Things were far more organized at the start of the second day.  There was no stampede to get in this time, and the line to get in remained organized and well managed.  I spent most of the morning walking around to the stuff I missed on the first day.  One of the biggest installations at this D23 was an experience called Mundo Pixar.  Hidden behind mysterious black walls painted with various Pixar character was something that I came in not know what it was going to be.  After waiting in a long, nearly hour long line, I did finally get a look inside and it was a very neat looking set up.  What Mundo Pixar is essentially is one of those immersive art experiences, where you get to go inside and experience a recreation of a space found in one of the many Pixar movies.  The one that they had set up for this show was a re-creation of Andy’s Room from the Toy Story movies, with you place in the middle of it seeing it from the perspective of a toy.  Oversized furniture surrounds the space, creating a neat visual trick that makes you feel like you’re a toy yourself.  There were also sculptures of Woody and Buzz Lightyear there in the room that we could snap selfies with.  After the Toy Story room, the exhibit opens up into a smaller recreation of the headquarters from the Inside Out movies.  Unfortunately, that’s it after the Inside Out room, as you exit right into a gift shop.  I know that this was just a sampling of what’s supposed to be a more expansive exhibition going on tour across the country, but I also think it quite fell short of living up to the expectation you have built up after waiting in line for over an hour.  While the Toy Story room was quite impressive, there really is nothing else to do in their other than just take pictures.  Anyway, it did offer a nice idea about what this Mundo Pixar exhibition was going to be like.

But that Mundo Pixar experience was certainly better than what Marvel was putting on at this D23.  At D23 2024, Marvel had one of the most impressive pavilions, which was built to recreate an experience at the TVA offices, which featured in the streaming show Loki and the movie Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).  This was yet another example of making a pavilion at this convention that in itself could feel at home as a theme park attraction as well.  But this year, Marvel decided to bring this pavilion back, but unfortunately gave us a watered down version.  This pavilion was probably half the total size of the pavilion from 2024, and mostly felt like a repeat in many ways, only done to a lesser degree.  We basically pass by artifacts that feature in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, with a particular emphasis on costumes, and that pretty much is all there is.  I give credit to the staff working this pavilion as they did their best to stay in character, but all of it felt like a downgrade from the last D23.  There were several other sights to see throughout the convention floor, some of which didn’t even require a line to stand in.  One of the coolest things that I saw on the floor was a highly detailed model of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.  Not only did it have working mechanics creating motion throughout, but they also had running water and boats moving through the model.  Remarkably they managed to do every single room found in the attraction in Lego form with a great attention to detail.  You could spend a good amount of time just taking in all the different little features throughout, and it was a line free attraction on the show floor.  There were also big displays for some upcoming films like The Bluey Movie (2027) and The New Simpsons Movie (2027), which brought back a bigger version of the hedge experience from the last D23.

For the Convention Center panels, I managed to get into a presentation celebrating the 65th anniversary of Spider-Man.  The presentation took place in the second largest venue of the convention, which was the Premiere Stage located in the North Wing.  The panel briefly went through the history of the character before moving onto the various different projects that are in the works centering on the character.  One of them is the highly anticipated Spider-Man issue #1000, which is going to feature stories and artwork from many all-star talents that have worked and currently are working with Marvel Comics.  They also talked about the different TV project, including the pre-schooler show Spidey and His Amazing Friends  as well as the animated Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series on Disney+, which has it’s new season premiere coming soon, of which we got a first look at the trailer for.  Then the panel went on to discuss the success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which brought out Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and actor Jacob Batalon who plays Ned Leeds on stage.  They talked about what it was like getting this movie made, especially as it marks a whole new direction for the character as well as for the series itself and the MCU as a whole.  Tom Holland couldn’t be there himself, but he did send a special message thanking the fans for making the movie a huge success.  At the end of the panel, everyone got a very special mini-poster with different Spider-Man designs used in the comics throughout the years.  On the second level of the convention center, D23 was holding something that was going to be a first for them at these events, which is an Auction of rare Disney artifacts.  A gallery was set up to display a few of the pieces that would be up for sale, many of which were from the Theme parks, including come carousel figures, two Big Thunder Mountain seater cars, park trash bins, and lots of promotional signs.  It’s great that Disney allowed us to take a look at these artifacts before they’re sold and placed into private collector’s hands.

With the afternoon fast approaching, it was time to make my way to the Honda Center once again.  This time, I did take the shuttle as opposed to walking the full distance.  This was going to be a big one, focused on the theme parks and guest experiences.  In many ways, I was more excited about this show than any of the others.  This is where Disney could really offer the big surprise announcements.  There is a lot of excitement surrounding the parks division of the company, given that it’s where the new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro came from.  And like at the last D23, they really know how to put on a good show.  For this presentation, they tapped actor Neil Patrick Harris as the host.  The format was interesting, as they made the whole presentation have this late night talk show vibe with a house band and lounge seat set up on stage.  The famed Carousel of Progress attraction was also worked into the theme of the show.  Neil did a fine job of keeping things lively and tongue-in-cheek in between the different announcements made on the stage by the Imagineers.  There were also a fair share of musical numbers throughout the show.  The most random one came after they announced they are finally going to fix the long broken yeti animatronic from Animal Kingdom at Disney World.  The broken animatronic earned a nickname over the years called Disco Yeti due to the strobe light effect used to mask the lack of movement in the figure.  So to send off this “disco yeti,” Disney brought out singer Gloria Gaynor to sign “I Will Survive.”  There was also a performance by country singer Sheryl Crow who was there to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pixar’s Cars (2006), right after they gave us more details of the new Cars themed area at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.  But perhaps the one special guest that stole the night came during the part of the presentation where they talked about the new Villains Land coming to Disney World.  Making a surprise special appearance on stage was Glenn Close in character as Cruella DeVil.  She walked out to a thunderous reception from the crowd and did a hilarious routine on stage making fun of the Imagineers as well as Neil Patrick Harris.  It’s been nearly 25 years since Glenn Close last played the part of Cruella, so it was really neat to see her step back into the iconic role and show that she can still nail it.   Afterwards, the show came to a close with perhaps the biggest surprise of the night, which was an announcement that Disneyland’s Tomorrowland was going to get a long overdue update, something which got a huge reception from the crowd.  And with that, Day 2 came to an end, much more smoothly than Day 1.  Only one more left.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 16, 2026

Now we come to the last day of the convention.  This usually is the day that I do clean-up and try to fit in all the things I missed on the previous days.  But, this final day would be different to the last one two years ago.  Instead of having the Disney Legends Ceremony at the end of the day, they moved it to just after noon, meaning that once it was over, we would still have maybe three to four hours still left to finish up our D23 experience.  Before the Legends Ceremony, I made my way to an early morning panel where we would be seeing a world premiere of a new documentary coming to Disney+.  This is another one from Oscar-nominated documentarian Leslie Iwerks.  The panel was given a special pre-show introduction from CEO Josh D’Amaro himself, talking about why he thought this was a special program to make.  Then Leslie Iwerks took the stage to welcome the other guests who were joining her.  They included Pixar head Pete Doctor, Disney Animation head Jared Bush, Lucas Film head Dave Filoni, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, and director Jon Favreau.  The documentary is called Disney Worldbuilders, and it discusses the connection between the different kinds storytelling that come together in Disney Parks around the world.  Each of the filmmakers discuss how they create the world from their own imaginations for the movies they make, and then they become astounded when those same world are brought into real life when they are re-created in the theme parks.  Though they were there for the panel itself, we also get interviews with former CEO Bob Iger and Director James Cameron in the documentary as well. This was an especially fascinating panel as it did offer an all-star line-up with all of the chief creative heads of all the different wings of Disney entertainment all on one stage.  The documentary itself was quite well done, and Leslie Iwerks continues her track record of making insightful and fascinating portraits of different periods and important figures of the Disney Company.

Now it was off to the Honda Center.  Of the three shows I went to, this is the only one that I had previously done at the prior D23.  My seat was both worse and better than the one I had before at the Honda Center in 2024.  I was closer to the stage this time, but at the very side corner, which gave me a very slanted angle of view.  Even still, I never really had a bad seat anywhere at this D23, because at the very least I was in the room for every single one.  For the Disney Legends Ceremony, they had Ryan Seacrest return as the MC, which he did well enough.  What I like about the Legends Ceremony is that Disney uses it to honor people from across the company’s history.  Only at D23 do animators and Imagineers get to share the stage with A-list movie stars, and get the rock star treatment from Disney fans across multiple generations.  This year’s inductees included the aforementioned Susan Egan, Kim Irvine, Eric Goldberg, and Alan Tudyk, as well as songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda, actors Anne Hathaway and Dwayne Johnson, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, sports broadcaster Chris Berman, pop singers The Jonas Brothers, and former CEO Bob Iger.  There were many fun moments throughout.  Lin-Manuel sang his entire speech to the tune of “Part of Your World,” with his speech written in a VHS clamshell box of The Little Mermaid, showing off his own Disney nerdom.  The lower part of the Honda Center seats were given placards that when raised up spelled out “Boomer” during Chris Berman’s speech.  Eric Goldberg was brought onto stage with a marching band playing “Friend Like Me” from Aladdin, a musical sequence that he animated quite a bit of when he worked on the Genie.  And of course there were surprise celebrity appearances to honor the different inductees.  Orlando Bloom showed up to honor Bruckheimer, the producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  Emily Blunt was there to honor her Jungle Cruise (2021) co-star Dwayne Johnson.  And naturally Bob Iger got the biggest special guests as sportscaster Al Michaels, news anchor Diane Sawyer, actress Ellen Pompeo, and actors Robert Downey Jr. and Harrison Ford all came out to honor a man who was often the one signing their very lucrative paychecks throughout the years.  And with all that, a very nicely staged Disney Legends ceremony came to a close, with thankfully more D23 yet to enjoy.

I quickly made my way back to the Convention Center to take in the last couple hours of the event.  I hit up some shops that thankfully had their lines die down over time.  There were some optional panels still available late in the day, but I decided to just stick to the convention floor for the remainder of time.  One of the things that I did finally have the time to experience was the Disney Archives exhibit.  Taking it’s cue from the last D23, the Disney Archives decided to do away with closed off exhibits that required guests to stand in line for, and instead create these open, free-flowing exhibits that you could enter and leave at your own leisure.  Last time it was set up as an auto show, displaying famous vehicles used throughout the Disney company’s history.  This year, the theme was artifacts being taken out of crates straight from the archive, dubbed Disney Archives Uncrated.  These represented a fairly random selection or props and costumes from many different films and shows made by Disney.  One of the spotlighted sections of the gallery was a collection of artifacts from the Jim Henson Muppet Studio.  Displayed here was the Kermit puppet used on the Muppet Show, as well as the prop banjo that Kermit plays in The Muppet Movie (1979).  Other props that caught the eye were Mary Poppin’s carpet bag from the movie, the power disc from the original Tron (1982), and a giant popcorn lighted sign for the Hannah Montana show.  Overall, a nice, albeit scaled down exhibit from the Disney Archive team.  With one last hour left in this year’s D23, I decided to take a look at something I had overlooked this entire convention.  Avatar had a pavilion at this D23 that I honestly had no interest, because I thought it was just a repeat of the same exhibit they had last time.  What surprised me was that it was not the same at all, but instead what I found was a 4D cinematic experience similar to the Disney+ theater I visited on Friday.  It wasn’t quite as impressive as that, given that it was a shorter experience and had no sitting, but we did get a nice presentation that felt richer and more worthwhile than the last Avatar pavilion.  I’m glad that I managed to fit this one in at the last minute.  I gave the convention floor one last walkthrough before the final call to leave the convention came.  One other great change this year was that they kept the convention floor open an extra hour, closing at 8 this year instead of 7 in the past.  But, all good things must come to an end.

There were many things that I felt got improved upon this year from past D23’s.  I love the embracing of more attraction like experiences.  The Disney+ Theater was definitely a floor show highlight, with the Avatar experience being second.  The Pixar Mundo experience looked really cool, but also felt a bit underwhelming, and then the lackluster Marvel pavilion was just an embarrassment.  I did also really like the layout of the Imagineering pavilion, which almost in the way felt like a mini convention center within itself.  Disney could really improve on some of their crowd flow management, especially after the Friday night Honda Center incident.  But, their panel presentations at the convention floor theaters were always well managed.  One thing that I really appreciated about this D23 is that they offered those who missed out on the Honda Center presentations a chance to catch some really special shows there back in the convention center.  One of them that I heard was especially good was the Disney Rewind Concert.  This was a show where many different performers, both who worked on the original films and those who have sung covers of famous Disney songs, performed live for the audience there at the show.  This included some special surprises, including Ariel voice actress Jodie Benson performing not the song she’s known for (“Part of Your World”) but instead the villains song given to Ursula in the same movie (“Poor Unfortunate Souls”).  Disney also introduced something new this year which were Afternoon passes, which allowed guests to have a chance to make brief visits to the convention floor for a 4 hour period of time at the end of each day for a marked down price.  This is a great way to increase access to more visitors who may have avoided the convention before due to the price of admission before.  Overall, even with some quibbles about various things, I still had an incredible four day experience at D23.  Thankfully I got the full Honda Center and Convention Center experience this time around.  I hope my luck continues when passes go up for sale for the next D23 in two years.  It will be interesting to see how they schedule it, given that it’s going to be the same summer that the Olympics are coming to LA.  We might be seeing a late or early D23 in 2028, depending on how much space they want to build for themselves surrounding the frenzy that the Olympics will bring,  So, thank you for another incredible D23 to all those hard working cast members at the Walt Disney Company.  You put on a great show and I can’t wait to return again in two years time.

Collecting Criterion

Collecting Criterion – No Country For Old Men (2007)

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Without question one of the most important pairs of filmmakers that had a profound effect on cinema over the last half century have been the Coen brothers.  Both Joel and Ethan Coen emerged out of the independent movement of the 80’s and 90’s to become some of the industries most idiosyncratic voices movies.  But even while their style of filmmaking is distinctively modern, their choices in storytelling feel very rooted in classic Hollywood.  Their movies have run the gamut between screwball comedy, western, and noir, all the while still maintaining that peculiar Coen Brother touch to them.  What really makes their dynamic interesting is that their cinematic vision is so uniquely unified, given that their two minds have resulted in one singular style.  We all know a Coen Brothers movie when we see it, no matter what genre it is.  The Coens have also been very guarded about their approach to movie-making.  Unlike a lot of other filmmakers, they rarely pull the curtain back to show us how their films were made and what their method entails.  The hardly ever do interviews, so when their movies make it to home video, they often either have only the bare necessities of bonus features, and if there is more, it’s thanks to the participation of those involved in the film who are not named Coen.  Even still, Criterion has been able to bring some of the Coen Brothers movies into the collection and with the usual bells and whistles involved.  Strangely the brothers’ introduction the collection was not one of their most famous films, but rather the movie that was their then most recent release; Inside Llewyn Davis (2013, Spine #794).  Since then, a number of other films of theirs have entered the collection, including their debut film Blood Simple (1984, #834), the critically acclaimed Prohibition Era thriller Miller’s Crossing (1990, #1112) and the black and white noir The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001, #1301).  These are great additions to spotlight some of the Coen Brothers’ lesser known works, but unfortunately their most iconic films like Raising Arizona (1987), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother Where Art Thou (2000) have still yet to be added to the collection.  But Criterion did manage to land a coup by having the Coen Brothers’ Best Picture winner enter the Collection; 2007’s No Country for Old Men (#1243)

The movie would end up winning four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Directing (for both of the brothers), Adapted Screenplay (Coens again) and Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem.  In the years since, this Oscar win would only grow in esteem given that it beat out other films that have gone on to be proclaimed as masterpieces in the nearly 20 years since, like Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Will Be Blood (2007) and Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton (2007).  But that doesn’t mean No Country for Old Men’s win looks undeserving either, but rather an impressive feat.  It certainly was a culmination of many years of the Coen Brothers building up an impressive body of work that the Academy could no longer overlook.  No Country for Old Men also had the Coen Brothers working with a more serious tone than a lot of their other movies.  Sure there were dark elements in movies like Fargo, but there was also this underling of humor throughout their body of work.  Not so much with this film.  It is easily the bleakest film that the duo has ever made.  Adapted from the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy, this is a haunting exploration of the darkest reaches of the human soul, fueled by greed and twisted takes on moral justice.  McCarthy of course was a legendary writer whose body of work can best be described as Western Gothic.  While No Country for Old Men is a celebrated work of his, it’s not quite regarded as one of his most famous novels, and is largely elevated in esteem due to this film adaptation.  His most famous works that have defined him the most as an author would be the post apocalyptic The Road, which was adapted into a 2009 movie, and Blood Meridian, which some have claimed to be an un-filmable book due to how dark and graphicly violent it is.  The fact that it still hasn’t been adapted into a film even after 40 years is testament to that reputation.  But, for No Country for Old Men, you can’t help but feel that the Coen Brothers were the ideal match for McCarthy’s novel.  Their history of making insightful explorations of the hidden corners of American society matched up perfectly with McCarthy’s pitch black look at the amoral world of America’s borderlands, and the twisted characters that call it home.

In the harsh desert expanse of West Texas, a ranch hand named Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles across a drug deal that went horribly wrong.  In the middle of a massacre scene with multiple bodies, he finds a briefcase filled with $2 million.  Eyeing a valuable prize, Moss decides to take the money for himself, but it doesn’t take long for him to be discovered by cartel members who are also searching for the money.  Moss manages to shake off the cartel, but knows now that he is a wanted man.  He tells his wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald) to go to her mothers as he leaves to go into hiding with the suitcase of money.  Following the trail that Moss has left behind during his escape is a local lawman named Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a seasoned veteran who’s been burdened down by a world that’s become more deadly and corrupt over the years.  Bell hopes to catch Moss alive, but that seems to be better said than done, because an even more dangerous predator is out there searching for Moss as well.  The cartel has hired an extremely ruthless bounty hunter named Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) who’s weapon of choice is a tank fueled stun gun that’s typically meant to slaughter cows.  Chigurh is a man of few words and an almost detached presence wherever he goes, seemingly acting like an angel of death with the sole purpose of collecting his bounty, while also killing anyone who gets in his way, unless they manage to beat fate through a coin toss.  Another bounty hunter named Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) also has his sights on Moss, and manages to catch up to the fugitive, reasoning with him that he’ll offer protection from the more lethal Chigurh.  But even though Moss considers the plan Wells gives him, Chigurh manages to catch up first, and it doesn’t end well for the competition.  The last remaining option is for Moss to face justice by awaiting for Bell to deliver him into the hands of the law.  The only question remains, can Moss elude the seemingly undeterred movement of certain death heading his way in the form of Anton Chigurh.  And what can an old timer like Bell do when faced with all the chaotic evil that has erupted out of this simple act of greed that spiraled into this trail of blood through the desolation of this backwoods borderland community.

No Country for Old Men represents Cormac McCarthy at his finest, telling a story that is both contemporary and immediate in it’s setting, but also biblical in it’s themes.  While it is a tale of good vs. evil in the biblical sense, it also shows us the moral grays to blur the lines between good and evil that define who these characters are.  The purest depiction of good in the story is Ed Tom Bell, the seasoned old sheriff who sticks by his moral center.  But the story also shows that his moral code is almost incompatible in this world of overwhelming evil fueled by greed and ambition.  He is the embodiment of the novel and film’s title, No Country for Old Men, an aging symbol of the old traditions on which the West was built on, and helplessly watching as this new, destructive world is passing him by.  And then you have the opposite of that in Anton Chigurh, an amoral machine of death that seems to be the embodiment of this more nihilistic future.  And yet, even with his seemingly detached attitude towards killing, Chigurh doesn’t seem like he does it for his own profit or pleasure.  It’s almost like he kills as a duty to the order of the world.  That’s why he seems obsessed with the idea of fate.  He puts people’s lives up to the decision of a coin toss.  If they win, he leaves them alone and moves on, but if they don’t, they become one more casualty amongst many others.  In what is perhaps the most famous scene from the movie, this test of fate is profoundly staged in a random gas station stop that Chigurh makes on his way to finding Moss.  Javier Bardem brilliantly plays this moment, as does character actor Gene Jones as the gas station attendant, with a simple coin flip turning into an almost biblical test of fate.  In that one scene, you see how well the Coens were perfectly matched for the material.  Most other filmmakers would’ve sensationalized this scene, but the Coens keep the staging of this moment simple and to the point.  It plays without music, and almost with minimal sound, like the whole world has grown silent just to witness the outcome of this very moment.  The Coens knew the gravity of the story they were telling and they wanted to do justice to McCarthy’s writing, which itself has it’s own detached style, reflecting the starkness of the world that it is depicting.

It’s no surprise that the performances throughout the movie are top notch.  Josh Brolin had a breakout period in his career with both this and his Oscar nominated performance in Gus Van Sant’s Milk (2008) the following year.  Long before he would join Marvel and bring the villain Thanos to life, he showed off with these films that he was a dramatic actor worthy of working with the best.  In fact, he has become a favorite of the Coen brothers, appearing later in their films True Grit (2010) and Hail Caesar! (2016), the latter as the lead actor.  Here he does a great job of showing Llewelyn Moss, a morally conflicted man who gets himself way in over his head due to his own greedy ambitions.  Tommy Lee Jones of course delivers a knockout performance as Ed Tom Bell, the one pure soul who remains steady in a world that has long abandoned him.  And of course Javier Bardem in an absolutely iconic villainous role as Anton Chigurh.  The great testament about his performance is that he still manages to be terrifying even while having a ridiculous bowl style haircut on his head, something that Bardem even joked about during his Oscar acceptance speech.  Even beyond that iconic gas station moment, his whole performance is chilling to watch.  It’s the way that he plays Chigurh as this almost robotic like killing machine; like the Terminator if he were flesh and bone.  A lot of the aura off his performance just come from watching him so effortlessly perform his job without distraction.  It makes him both fascinating and terrifying at the same time.  One other major thing of note in the movie is the absolutely stunning cinematography by frequent Coen brothers collaborator Roger Deakins.  Deakins does such a brilliant job of capturing the sweltering conditions of these hot Texas desert locations.  It’s the nighttime scenes where he especially excels, because his stark contrast between stark fluorescent and neon lighting and dark shadow in between give you a sense of the still oppressive heat that stick around even after the sun has gone down.  Deakins also does a brilliant job of capturing the vastness of the empty West Texas vistas.  Deakins, despite having many previous nominations, would sadly still have to wait for his Oscar, as There Will Be Blood’s Robert Elswit took a well-deserved award home that year, but No Country for Old Men was yet another reminder that he is indeed one of the greatest cinematographers of all time.

When it comes to Best Picture winners in the Criterion Collection, you know that the home video presentation was going to be done with a great amount of care.  Given that this movie is just under 20 years old, Criterion had a good source to draw from in their transfer.  A new 4K scan of the original 35mm negative was used to creative this digital master, with Roger Deakins supervising the final grading and processing.  What results is a director and cinematographer approved transfer of the movie that is honestly the best that it has ever looked outside of the cinema.  Free of blemishes and imperfections, this is a very clean and clear image that makes the overall movie look amazing in 4K viewing.  You would probably find it hard to believe that this a film reaching it’s 20th year, because it looks like it could’ve been shot just last week.  The movie still holds up visually, which is typical of most Coen brothers films which often have a timelessness to their movie that help them stay relevant after many years.  The film also gets a magnificent restoration of the original 5.1 soundtrack.  It’s not a dynamic film in the sound department, given that so much of the movie’s tension is built through it’s use of silence, but whenever that silence is broken, it sounds amazing on any system.  That gas station scene in particular makes great use of subtle sound, especially with the desert wind howling just outside and even the slight rustle of a candy wrapper standing out.  All of it comes across with crystal clarity.  The film was given a Dolby Vision certified presentation, so the dynamic range in color really pops off the screen if you watch it on a 4K television set equipped with HDR.  It’s a wonderful transfer for a film that isn’t even the flashiest of movies that the Coen brothers have ever.  Imagine what Criterion could do with a movie splashed in color like The Big Lebowski. For a movie that has the esteem of Oscar behind it, the Criterion Collection certainly does not disappoint, and the movie gets the treatment it deserves under their label on a visual and audio level.

Given the Coen Brothers aversion to doing interviews about their movies, it’s not surprising that their presence on the bonus features for this Criterion edition of their movie is pretty sparse.  Even still, they did manage to do a special sit down interview just for Criterion, with author Megan Abbott moderating.  The interview becomes more of a discussion about the movie and how it relates to Cormac McCarthy’s novel, but the brothers do discuss how they approached their adaptation of the novel.  In particular, they point out how seriously they took finding the right locations for the movie that fit with the vision of the bleak Texas desert setting that Cormac described in his book.  Another new documentary on the Criterion set is a conversation between Roger Deakins and associate producer David Diliberto, also hosted by Megan Abbott.  Their discussion covers a lot more ground about the on the set work that went into the making of the movie.  They talk about all the motels and cattle farms they came across during the making of this movie, searching for the right locations that would fit the story they were telling.  Much of the remaining material on the set are archival bonus features that were found on previous home video releases of the movie from Miramax.  One of the more interesting bonuses found here is a behind the scenes documentary made by Josh Brolin himself.  In it, he gets clips of interviews from his fellow co-stars as well as the Coens themselves, all discussing what it’s like making the movie as it’s being made.  A more standard Making of documentary from Miramax is also available on the set, as well as promotional interviews with Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Kelly Macdonald.  Another documentary has cast and crew discussing what it is like working with the Coen Brothers, which offers a nice portrait of the elusive duo from both long time collaborators and newcomers alike.  Another short documentary called “Diary of a Country Sheriff” delves deeper into the pivotal character of Ed Tom Bell, and his symbolic place within the story.  Tommy Lee Jones particularly shares his own thoughts about the character and how he approached bringing him to life through his performance.  Lastly the film’s theatrical trailer can also be found as a bonus feature.  Like always, Criterion gives you a full package worth of bonus features, especially with a movie of this award winning pedigree.

It was an extraordinarily competitive year at the Oscars in 2007, with three certifiable masterpieces at the top; No Country For Old Men, There Will be Blood, and Michael Clayton in the running for Best Picture.  Personally, I would’ve gone with There Will Be Blood personally, just because it was my favorite movie of that year and one of my favorites of all time.  But, there’s no denying that the Coen Brothers were deserving and long overdue for attention from the Oscars.  They helped to define cinematic art through the 90’s and 2000’s, including delivering Oscar winning movies like Fargo in the process.  They were too good not to get their due recognition from the Academy, and No Country for Old Men was the movie that came at the right time to capitalize off of that goodwill built up over the years.  Paul Thomas Anderson, who got overlooked that same year, in a way had the same outcome happen for him in the last year as he finally got his long overdue Oscar win for One Battle After Another (2025).  But, what is more important is whether or not your movie stands the test of time beyond it’s win at the Oscars, and No Country For Old Men is one of those timeless movies that still feels just as fresh and relevant as it has ever been now almost 20 years later.  Javier Bardem’s chilling, Oscar-winning performance as Anton Chigurh is still as iconic as ever and the character has risen to be considered in the annals of the greatest cinematic villains of all time for most people.  The movie also helped to propel Josh Brolin into another stage of his career as a serious actor and leading man.  But what is special about this movie is that it stands alone even among Coen Brother movies.  Not even in their body of work does a movie like it exist, except maybe their adaptation of True Grit, and that is a more traditional Western than this one.  The movie they made right after this was the darkly comic Burn After Reading (2008), which is a huge tonal shift for the Coens after the bleak No Country.  It shows that the Coens were never filmmakers inclined to rest on their laurels and continue to follow Oscar glory.  They made movies that appealed to them just as much as they would to their audience, and that’s why their filmography is so wild and varied.  Criterion did justice to this iconic piece in their body of work, and hopefully the Coens will allow even more of their movies to become part of the Collection.  This is no coin toss, it’s a certifiable win for any collector of classics from the Criterion library.

https://www.criterion.com/films/29429-no-country-for-old-men

Movie Reviews

Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Review

If there ever was a character that felt like he was bulletproof at the box office, it would be Spider-Man.  Since Sam Raimi’s 2002 blockbuster of the same name starring Tobey Maguire as the webslinger, Spider-Man has been an absolute juggernaut in the cinemas.  Out of all the Spider-Man movies that have come to the big screen, only one can be considered a box office disappointment, 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  And that movie’s just slightly over $700 million worldwide gross is still far better than most recent comic book movie grosses today.  Spider-Man has managed to maintain it’s successful run at the box office not just through live action, but also animation with Sony’s Spider-Verse series of films.  But one thing that has emerged through the nearly 25 years of Spider-Man’s box office dominance is the different eras that have become defined.  Of course the Sam Raimi movies stand on their own, with Spider-Man 2 (2004) particularly being singled out as one of the greatest super hero movies of all time.  But the mixed response to the third film in the trilogy, Spider-Man 3 (2007), led to a period of flux for the franchise.  Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire moved on, and Sony was determined to start fresh with a whole new team and a whole new Spider-Man.  This led to the launch of The Amazing Spider-Man era of the character on the big screen.  Andrew Garfield definitely brought a whole new kind of energy to the character and was largely celebrated as an acceptable replacement for Tobey Maguire as the character.  The movies on the other hand were a different story.  While the first Amazing Spider-Man (2012) had a decent reception from the critics and fan community, the second film is considered by most to be one of the worst super hero movies ever made; a convoluted mess that was embarrassing for all involved.  Sadly for Andrew Garfield, it would be a short lived stint as Spider-Man, as all the parties involved were looking to reboot the series once again.  This time, Sony was willing to play ball with Marvel Studios and their parent company Disney in having them take on the creative control of the Spider-Man franchise while Sony held onto the film rights.  And this would lead to MCU era of Spider-Man.

Instead of starting from scratch again, Marvel and Sony decided to establish their new Spider-Man in the middle of him already having been a super hero for a while.  So no radioactive spider and no Uncle Ben.  His arc would instead be centered around how he was going to fit in as part of the larger MCU.  His introduction in fact didn’t even happen in his own franchise, but rather in Captain America: Civil War (2016).  The role also went to a much younger actor than the previous films.  Both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were in their mid 20’s when they were cast in the roles.  When he was cast as the third Spider-Man, Tom Holland had just turned 18, marking the first time this teenage super hero was played by an actual teenager.  But even as young as he was, Holland was perfect match for the character.  Having come from a background in dance and gymnastics, Tom had a built in ability to perform some of Spider-Man’s more physical feats of agility without relying all the time on a stunt double.  But beyond all that, Tom was also incredibly charming and likable as the character, and audiences took to him pretty much immediately.  The success of his debut in Civil War carried over into the first film of his own franchise, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).  In contrast with the other Spider-Man films before, these MCU movies focused more on Spider-Man being a kid, making his story more of a coming of age arc rather than super hero origin.  All at the same time, Marvel continued to feature Spider-Man as an important part of their universe, even getting promoted to an Avenger in Avengers: Infinity War (2018).  The MCU era for the character did hit a high point post Avengers: Endgame (2019), with Spider-Man now playing a part in the ongoing MCU’s new Multiverse Era.  This led to an opportunity for Marvel to tie all the past Spider-Man movies together into one film, and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) would prove to be a monumental film.  Tom Holland would end up sharing the screen with both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in a team up for the ages of three generations of Spider-Men, and it led to record-breaking box office the likes that even this always successful franchise had seen up to that point.  For Marvel, it would be a difficult feat to try to follow up a movie like this, which is probably why both Marvel and Sony took a five year break.  But now Spider-Man is back in Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026).  But does it live up to the strength of the rest of the series, or did this Spider get flushed out.

At the end of No Way Home, we found Spider-Man’s entire world flipped upside down.  In order to prevent a multiversal catastrophe from happening, Spider-Man had Doctor Strange cast a spell that caused everyone in the world to forget that he, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) was the webslinger, including those closest to him: his best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) and his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya).  For the next couple years, Peter has lived alone in New York, continuing to perform as his super hero duties, including stopping dangerous super powered villains like Scorpion (Michael Mando).  Though not every mission goes so smoothly, especially when Spider-Man has to compete with another vigilante hero named Frank Castle, aka The Punisher (Jon Bernthal).  But for Peter, diving himself fully into his work still can’t beat back the feeling of loneliness, which only intensifies when both Ned and Zendaya return home from college.  Despite wanting so badly to rekindle the relationship he once had with them, he also knows that the best way to keep them safe is to keep his distance and leave them ignorant of his Spider-Man identity.  But things begin to unravel as his body is going through some transformations.  The spider DNA that gave him his powers is starting to overwhelm his human DNA, and it’s causing Spider-Man to lose control and become more aggressive.  In order to understand what is going on, he seeks the advise of Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who has invented a technology that inhibits his transformation into the Hulk.  Peter hopes to use the same technology to balance himself out.  However, the city is facing a whole new threat with a unseen enemy who has the power to take over someone’s mind.  Not only that, but this mind-hopping foe (Sadie Sink) can jump from one mind to another, and only Peter is immune to the effect.  Whoever this person is, they seem intent on attacking the local office of the Department of Damage Control, searching for something that lies deep within their vaults.  Can Spider-Man manage to overcome the changes that are happening to his body?  And who is this individual who can posses anyone they want and what is DODC hiding that this person is so intent on finding?

Now Way Home in many ways felt like a closing chapter, not so much for the character of Spider-Man, but for that part of the arc of his story.  From Spider-Man: Homecoming to No Way Home, Spider-Man’s maturity was very much centered around his orbit with the Avengers and the larger MCU.  It was an interesting way to portray Spider-Man’s development, but it was also a departure from the comics, which frequently shows Spidey as someone struggling to make a living.  With the spell cast in No Way Home, this MCU Spider-Man in a way was given a re-set, where he’s been cut of (by choice) from all the luxury and connections he had before.  But the only way they would be able to make that change to the status quo land was if they followed through with this idea and fundamentally change what Spider-Man needs to be in the MCU.  And with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, they managed to do that spectacularly well.  This movie did exactly what it needed to do, which was to deliver a very different kind of Spider-Man movie, while at the same time honoring all the ones that have come before.  There is continuity between this and the previous trilogy of MCU Spider-Man movies, but stylistically, it feels grittier and more mature while also still maintaining the fun.  A lot of this has to do with the change in creative direction between this and No Way Home.  The previous three Spider-Man movies were all directed by Jon Watts, who moved on to other projects outside of Marvel.  In looking for his replacement, Marvel stayed in house and tapped Daniel Destin Cretton for the job.  Cretton has been a fixture at Marvel for some time, having directed the beloved Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) as well as his recent hit series Wonder Man for Disney+.  Cretton was also going to direct the ill-fated Avengers: The Kang Dynasty before that got scrapped after Marvel abandoned the Kang storyline in favor of Avengers: Doomsday.  But, knowing just how talented he is with making projects both big and small, Marvel wanted to keep Cretton within the family by allowing him to direct their newest Spider-Man film.  And Cretton did not disappoint.  What he ended up doing was make what is probably the best Spider-Man movie we have seen in over 20 years.

Daniel Destin Cretton gives the series the new energy it needed.  It’s still the familiar Spider-Man formula we know, but framed through his own vision, which seems more grounded than the previous trilogy films.  That works in this movie’s favor, as it definitely focuses on Spider-Man returning back to his friendly neighborhood savior roots.  This isn’t a Spider-Man dealing with celestial threats or high tech calamity.  He’s just helping the streets feel safer for his fellow New Yorkers, which is exactly what he’s always been in the comics.  The change in tone also helps make this movie feel more mature as well.  It’s kind of like how things changed in the Harry Potter films as they went along, with the latter movies taking on a more serious tone the further they went.  But what’s even more important is that Daniel’s approach to this movie also puts the focus back on Peter Parker and what it now means for him to be anonymous in the world again.  The people still love Spider-Man and everything he does, but we also see how Peter is becoming more and more lonely behind that mask.  Watching the movie, I found this movie had a lot of parallels with Raimi’s brilliant Spider-Man 2.  That film also put the hero through an existential crisis of identity, though in that film it was through Spidey losing his powers, whereas in this film his powers are getting stronger and more erratic.  There’s a very strong message found in there, where Spider-Man is confronted with the fact that he can stop things from changing, whether it’s the past life he had with Ned and MJ, or the transformation he’s going through physically, and that it’s better to not fight it but instead embrace it.  This is strongly laid out in the film, especially with the fact that it’s also reflected in the storyline with the protagonist in the film as well.  I can’t say who that person is, because it’s a major reveal, but suffice to say the movie deals with her own crisis of identity very well as it is a mirror to Peter’s own journey.  If there is one thing that works against the movie is that even at 2 1/2 hours it still feels like some of these explorations are rushed, because it is a movie stuffed with so much.  But at the very least, all of the stuffing put into this movie is still a lot of fun.

One of the great things about this movie is that it did allow for the time passage to be reflected in the story.  The movie does skip these characters’ college years, because they had to.  Tom Holland and Zendaya are getting close to their 30’s and it will be increasingly hard to still depict them as college aged.  Even with them now matured, both actors still perfectly fall back into character like no time has passed.  Tom Holland may very well be the best actor to ever take on this role, and it’s something that he’s now done for over a decade.  He still brings a warm-hearted charm to the character, and it’s great to see the movie allow him to go deeper with the character.  Zendaya doesn’t feature as much in this story as she has in the previous films in the series, but she does make the best of the scenes she has.  And no surprise, this real life power couple still have tremendous on screen chemistry.  What also stands out in this film is the performance of Sadie Sink as the film’s antagonist.  Again, can’t say who she is because that would be a spoiler, but I’ll just say that she is indeed a comic book character and Sadie is perfectly cast for this part.  She manages to give this character a fantastic presence, and it will be interesting to see how this role plays a factor in her career moving forward.  It’s also interesting to see how this movie departs from the traditional rogues gallery formula of Spider-Man movies, giving Spider-Man a different kind of challenge with a foe that is very different from the ones he faces in the comics.  My favorite part of the movie though would have to be Jon Bernthal’s Punisher.  It’s an inspired choice to put him in this movie, because he brings a wonderful bit of chaotic energy to the story.  It’s a risk putting this very R-Rated Marvel character into a PG-13 movie, but they manage to allow the character to feel like he fits in this story without having to soften the character too much.  He’s strangely enough one of the funnier characters in the movie, and that’s even with him still being in line with the comic book character.  And Jon Bernthal also has incredible chemistry with Tom Holland, with The Punisher definitely giving off a big brother kind of energy.  The appearances of other Marvel characters in the story, such as Mark Ruffalo’s Dr. Banner also feels organic to the story, and it doesn’t make the movie feel like it’s shoehorning in MCU content just to reinforce Spider-Man’s place within it.

It should also be noted that this may also be the most beautiful looking Spider-Man film we’ve ever seen; even more than the Raimi films.  What I really appreciated with this movie is the muted color palette.  Because the Jon Watts Spider-Man films were more lighthearted, they also incorporated a much more saturated color palette to match the tone, which worked for those film even if it did make them look a little flat.  Daniel Destin Cretton’s team changed the color scheme completely by taking the saturation out and giving the movie a more silvery shine to it, which really makes the colors pop more; especially Spider-Man’s red and blue suit.  They also reimagined how they visualized Spider-Man’s fighting abilities in this film.  You can definitely see the lessons learned from Shang-Chi, with a lot more emphasis put on the staging of the action sequences, allowing us to follow what is actually happening.  One of the definite highlights is a showdown between Spider-Man, The Punisher, and the Hulk.  And to think that you would ever see a fight scene in a movie involving that trio of characters on the big screen become a reality.  Sure it involves a lot of visual effects, given that the Hulk is involved, but you still feel the visceral force of the action, and there are a lot of clever dynamics that go on in that fight.  And it perfectly spotlights all the things that we like to see each of these characters do, with Spidey’s agility, Punisher’s expertise with weaponry, and of course Hulk smashing.  The movie even reimagines how to visualize Spider-Man’s swinging through the skyscrapers of New York.  The “camera” sticks close to Spidey in these moments, so it feels like we are swinging right beside him and seeing the world through his eyes as the city literally flies by us.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the creative team took some inspiration from the popular Spiderman games on the PlayStation.  I also love the way that New York feels like a character all it’s own in this movie.  This isn’t a city defined by landmarks, but rather by the people that Spider-Man interacts with everyday.  We get to see a lot more of that interaction this time around, which is another thing that this movie has in common with Spider-Man 2, showing just how important the connection between the hero and the city really is.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day really is everything you want out of a Spider-Man movie, and it will absolutely stand as one of the best.  It’s perhaps too early to know if it should dethrone Spider-Man 2 from the top, but it’s definitely a contender.  I do think that this is definitely the best of the Holland Spider-Man films, and each of the previous ones were all really good.  It was definitely going to be tough to surpass a movie like No Way Home, but honestly by keeping things simple and centered around the main hero, it actually found a way to become an even better movie.  Sure, the movie still has connecting threads to other past MCU films, and it is also planting seeds for the future as well.  But this movie doesn’t feel like it’s a way station for other Marvel properties.  A movie like Captain America: Brave New World (2025) was so bogged down by it’s adherence to checking off different MCU touchstones that it ultimately ruined the film as a result, making it feel less like it’s own movie and more like an episode of an ongoing shoe.  That doesn’t happen in Brand New Day.  While it does reward you with nods to past MCU projects (and hints of future ones), it also works them in organically into the story to the point where they won’t be distracting.  This story isn’t about setting the stage for what’s next; it’s focused on what’s present, and that’s Spider-Man fully embracing the hero he should be.  The movie does a lovely job of delivering that message of self-respect and not being anchored down by your past.  Things have changed for Marvel and Spider-Man, and the movie reflects that very well.  I don’t know how much more involved Daniel Destin Cretton will be in the future of this franchise, given that he also has the option of returning to Shang-Chi, but my hope is that he does stay involved in the shaping of Spider-Man’s story from here out in some way.  He did a great job of giving us something new and expected, while also honoring the movies that have come before.  While the revelations in No Way Home were a bit crazier and more mind-blowing, it also showed that there wasn’t much else to the story other than the the surprises they sprung on us.  That’s why Brand New Day is the better movie as a whole, even without all the fan service.  It hits a lot stronger with the emotional core, and that’s what will help it resonate more over a longer period of time than No Way Home, even if that movie was also pretty memorable itself.  It’s great to see this franchise still doing right by the iconic webslinger, and it will be interesting to see where both Spider-Man and the MCU go from here.

Rating: 9/10