Entertainment
Now Playing: Spider-Man: Brand New Day
It’s a must watch for Spidey fans who want to see Peter Parker enter his sad boy era.
The Holland-led Spider-Man trilogy is one of my favorite franchises in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Compared to other series with admittedly disjointed plots, all of Spidey’s storylines have a clear thread leading from one to the next. Since the fourth entries after trilogies are historically lackluster, I had a lot of trepidation heading into Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Thankfully, all those worries were unfounded. Brand New Day follows the same throughline as its predecessors, once again reinforcing Spider-Man as the strongest franchise that Marvel offers fans today.
A brand new day indeed
Coming from No Way Home, Brand New Day still has Peter Parker live a new life as a literal nobody where no one remembers who he is. So begins his existence as just Spider-Man with no friends or family.
When a new and unseen threat ravages through New York City, Spidey starts to wish that he still had friends to help him out, which leads him on an inevitable collision course with Ned and MJ. Ironically, it also leads him to other characters in the city, including the Hulk and the Punisher.
A cacophony of villains
When I first saw the trailer, I was worried about the astounding number of villains from the get-go. After all, one of the biggest problems in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, the most maligned entry in Spider-Man movie history, was the villains. Though far from the movie’s biggest problem, having too many bad guys without a solid plot led to its terrible reception. You can see why Brand New Day’s trailer raises some flags.
If you were thinking the same thing, Brand New Day does indeed have a cohesive plot. Everything flows neatly into one another. Each emotional beat of Peter feeling for his solitude mixes well with the action. In here, fight scenes feel like they have a purpose.
And there is a big bad here. It’s not just a collection of guys that Spidey has to go through. That big bad, who shall not be named at this time, doesn’t feel like just a placeholder for Peter’s internal struggles. They have a character of their own and their own struggles to solve. I wouldn’t say they’re at the level of Loki just yet, but they definitely have a better go at it than most of the MCU’s other villains.
Marvel’s New York City finally debuts
Despite being a prime location since 2012’s Avengers, New York City never really felt like the quintessential city for superheroes in the comics. In the movies, the city was just another city to be ravaged when a new villain comes along.
For the first time, Brand New Day makes the city feel like a lived-in world with a bunch of superheroes living in the neighborhood. And they do pop up.
Does Peter have a scientific problem that only a very specific hero can solve? It’s a good thing Bruce Banner is just around the corner. Does he need some muscle? Well, the Punisher is skulking around somewhere. Plus, there’s even a succinct reason why other superheroes can’t help out.
In this way, Brand New Day presents itself more like a comic book series than a one-off movie. It’s like following the story alone from issue to issue. It’s not the most perfect adaptation of the landmark city, but it goes a long way from just another ravaging of New York.
Peter’s sadness
Everything here hinges on Peter’s loneliness. Despite meeting a trove of characters across the cinematic universe, Peter yearns for time with his loved ones. But they’re gone.
Unlike the past three films where he always had someone to go home to, he has no one here. Tony Stark is dead. Aunt May is gone. Happy has gone to parts unknown. Ned and MJ have no memory of him. Brand New Day has a way of making you feel for his aches, whether the way he still keeps track of MJ or some physiological changes as a result of his predicament.
It also helps that the movie’s big bad has similar motivations. Both serve as perfect mirrors against each other, elevating both their stories effectively. And that’s all I’ll say about that.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a few steps behind from being a perfect Marvel movie, but it’s still an extremely strong part of the Spider-Man mythos. The trilogy, now quadrilogy, remains Marvel’s most consistent franchises to date. It’s an absolute must-watch.
Entertainment
UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony gets two more shows
Both shows will be held on the next day.
The Philippines has an unquenchable love for game-based concerts (so *wink wink* please bring more of them). Though these concerts do generate a lot of hype, the drawback is that they often sell out way before most fans can grab tickets. If you’re an UNDERTALE fan, that experience might be rocking you right now, as both shows have already sold out. But fear not: UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony has just opened two more shows.
Late last month, Film Concerts PH, in partnership with SOHO Live, announced UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony happening on October 17. As expected, both shows, at 3pm and at 7pm, sold out very quickly after sales opened.
Today, the concert experience is opening two more shows on the next day, October 18. Like the original date, the two shows will happen at 3pm and at 7pm, allowing more fans to experience the concert.
The concert will be performed by the Filharmonika Orchestra and conducted by Thanapol Setabrahmana. Personally curated by creator Toby Fox and developed by Lambert Jackson with Materia Music, the concert experience showcases the game’s most recognizable tunes laid over gameplay footage playing simultaneously. Plus, for the world tour, the experience will have expanded scoring.
Tickets are available through Ticketmelon. Both dates will be held at The Proscenium Theater in Makati.
SEE ALSO: UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony hits Makati in October
As of today, the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will take around 650 hours to watch. So, if you wanted to catch up with everything before this December’s Avengers: Doomsday, you would need to allot around 5 hours per day to watch content from Marvel. For a lot of us, that sort of commitment is completely untenable. Thankfully, Marvel has released an official watchlist, paring the list down to something much more manageable.
Before the MCU got as big as it is today, it was fun to do a movie marathon heading into a major Marvel release. For example, when Avengers: Endgame came out, some theaters held continuous marathons lasting a few days. Take note that this was before Marvel officially included every TV show and legacy movie (like the X-Men universe).
Now, heading into Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel will not ask you to devote the rest of your year just for homework. Instead, here’s an official list you can use to catch up:
- X-Men
- X2
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- The Avengers
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Avengers: Endgame
- Loki
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- Captain America: Brave New World
- Deadpool & Wolverine
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Thunderbolts
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Compared to the extensive list of everything Marvel, this official list is much more manageable, especially since there’s only one show (Loki). It’s also a veritable who’s who of the MCU, so it’s hard to get bored.
There are, however, a few surprises and spoilers. For one, if you’ve been avoiding the teasers and trailers, the X-Men films might be a shock to you. Likewise, the inclusion of the critically panned Brave New World is interesting.
The exclusions are just as noteworthy, too. Though the two earliest X-Men films are included, the list doesn’t add Days of Future Past, one of the first Marvel films to use time travel. Thor: Love and Thunder isn’t on here, despite Love, Thor’s adopted daughter, appearing in the trailers. Brand New Day is also missing, but that’s likely because the movie isn’t on Disney+ yet.
Avengers: Doomsday premieres in cinemas on December 18. Four months should be enough time to catch up on these titles.
Entertainment
Now Playing: The End of Oak Street
A more grounded, relentlessly suspenseful take on human-dinosaur coexistence
For years, cinema has repeatedly tried to answer the age-old question: “What if humans and dinosaurs co-existed?”
Executions have varied wildly from standout franchises. There’s the corporate greed-driven, sci-fi techno-thrills of Jurassic Park.
There’s also the colossal, kaiju-laden spectacle from modern monster movies led by Godzilla.
The End of Oak Street, on the other hand, approaches the premise from a much more grounded and relentlessly suspenseful angle.
Led by A-listers Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor, director David Robert Mitchell delivers what feels like a Marvel-style “incursion” — except localized entirely to a quiet 1980s suburban neighborhood.
⚠️ Some spoilers ahead! ⚠️
Well-paced buildup to an 80s nightmare
The End of Oak Street doesn’t waste time getting its board pieces into position. It quickly establishes the Platt family dynamic: Anne Hathaway’s Denise is a frustrated aspiring writer, Ewan McGregor’s Greg is a moonlighting pizza delivery rider struggling to keep his family afloat while striving to be a better man, husband, and father.
They have two children: Brian (Christian Convery) and Audrey (Maisy Stella) plus their family dog Starbuck. The Platts aren’t picture-perfect, and a brief argument early on reveals this fractured marriage on the brink of divorce.
Visually, the film nails its 80s aesthetic right off the bat. There’s warm color grading, period-accurate costume design, and of course, backyard activities to build-up the overall setting.
The mystery kicks off when Denise photographs a mysterious plant suddenly appearing in her neighbor’s yard, only to be identified as Pleuromeia, a species that had been extinct for millions of years.
Moments later, a violent storm and a blinding flash of cosmic light would rip Oak Street out of normalcy as dinosaurs and other prehistoric wildlife would be transported into the same timeline.
Dinosaurs galore, relentless suspense
Once the neighborhood shifts, the film becomes a continuous gauntlet of prehistoric terror. Mitchell fills the screen with an impressive array of creatures.
There’s all kinds, from the flying pterosaur, the harmless but massive Stegosauruses and Triceratops, the heavily-armored but likewise herbivorous Ankylosaurus, and the main threat, the Allosaurus. In between, there’s even giant pre-historic crocodiles and eels.
Cinematography works exceptionally well here. It balances full creature reveals with the more subtle, tension-building frames, like the tip of a tail disappearing, spikes moving behind house roofs, or just the simple rustling behind bushes and trees.
Also noteworthy is how these various species all mostly played a role in the plot’s progression, not just thrown visually for mindless fanservice or eye candy.
Arguably, the two most suspenseful scenes were the attack of the mighty Allosaurus in a brutal, wide-open chase, and the claustrophobia-causing slithering prehistoric eel that held the Platts’ collective breaths while trapped inside their home.
Logically, when you’re in a state of panic, you wouldn’t be able to notice what’s happening around you, which was exactly what happened to the Platts when discussing a strategy just as the apex predator was about to get to them.
Worthy performances, well-timed sequences
Hathaway and McGregor carry the film’s emotional weight, from the portrayal of their strained marriage to trying to stay intact amidst the chaos for their children.
Greg gets a tragic, redemptive arc when he sacrifices himself in the mid-film shocker as he gets caught by the Allosaurus. All he wanted to be was a better husband and father figure, afraid to lose everything.
This leaves Hathaway’s Denise to process grief when there is no time to waste, and when the immediate goal is to steer her kids to safety. She somehow finds a way to express these emotions when she repeatedly stabs the prehistoric eel later on.
Convery and Stella also hold their own as the Platt kids with their portrayals of panicked youngsters. There’s bone-headed, irrational decisions and just plain annoyance when their seniors are trying to focus on problem-solving.
Involving Brian’s neighborhood crush, Jeannette, along with his bullies while everything is falling apart feels natural. It’s something kids would definitely do even with Oak Street getting torn apart.
For the most part, it felt like filmmakers timed the sequence of scenes well. They knew when to zig and when to zag, and when to insert particular elements.
But letting Starbuck loose into the jungle felt like a stretch, given how it’s filled with predators, although I get inducing even more anxiety to viewers when there are several question marks yet to be answered.
Endless chase, intriguing finale
At a 99-minute runtime, the final third of the film transitions into a long, heart-pounding chase to sustain the energy high.
Eventually, Denise, the kids, and Jeannette find the wormhole atop local librarian, Mrs. Valcourt’s house.
They fend off giant prehistoric crocodiles and pterosaurs in a gripping final scramble. Starbuck miraculously reappears, and the survivors plunge back into the wormhole and are able to get home safely.
This brings everything to the resolution. Denise lands back in 1982, just a few minutes before the incursion occurs. Knowing what’s about to happen, she calls Greg to deliver pizza so he can avoid the radius of the cosmic event entirely.
As with movies involving time-travel, resetting the timeline is what’s logical and realistic.
However, it does feel a lot anti-climactic, wiping away the entire journey that involved character growth, trauma, and heavy emotional stakes, for a happy ending and the success of Denise’s writing career.
Should you watch it?
On our Watch Scale, The End of Oak Street sits comfortably under Watch at your convenience.
The creature variety, sustained tension, and shrewd pacing make it a fun, heart-pounding ride.
Its reset-button ending and occasional logical flaws prevent it from being a top-tier dinosaur movie, but it’s one of the better ones we’ve had in a while.
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