For all the talk of superhero fatigue, one reality is abundantly clear. Spider-Man is still very, very popular. The world of the MCU may not know who Peter Parker is anymore, but the friendly neighborhood webslinger still brings crowds to the theaters.

The title Brand New Day suggests a kind of new adventure for Spider-Man. The film itself isn’t exactly interested in that. Instead, it’s mostly concerned with the ramifications of the end of the last film, a new era firmly rooted in the past.

Peter (Tom Holland) is by himself in New York, eating Little Caesars pizza and being a computer genius in a dumpy apartment. He’s very upset that Ned (Jacob Batalon) and MJ (Zendaya) have moved on without him, sharing an apartment in New York together after graduating from MIT. On his own without The Avengers, Peter is embracing the character’s origin as a street hero, occasionally teaming up with The Punisher (Jon Bernthal).

But something isn’t right with Peter. His spider hormones are all out of whack. A visit to Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) leads him to take his healthcare into his own hands, a process that might have yielded better results if a mysterious figure (Sadie Sink) wasn’t going around possessing all the people around him.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton does an admirable job making Brand New Day feel like something original. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the pacing is different from typical Marvel fare. Holland has grown up quite a bit over the years. This version of Peter Parker is certainly compelling, even if the story around him isn’t all that interesting.

While Brand New Day might look a little different from the rest of the MCU, the story is still firmly rooted in franchise tropes. There are too many characters for anyone to have a chance to breathe. The action sequences are fairly underwhelming, with lackluster special effects. The decision to mess around with Peter’s powers feels like something out of Superman.

The biggest casualty of the film’s lack of focus is Zendaya, reduced to the mere object of Peter’s affection. Agency lies at the heart of her story, as she lost her memories of Peter at the end of the last film. That lack of agency predictably pigeonholes what Zendaya can do with the character.

That whole dynamic weighs on the concept of a “brand new day.” This is not a new day at all. It’s merely picking up the pieces from the last movie. The first three Holland Spider-Mans formed a trilogy of sorts, with “home” in the title. This new movie suggests a different path that never really comes, which kind of makes sense. Those movies were not really a trilogy. All four are part of the MCU, playing by the MCU rules.

There is still a lot to enjoy in the movie. Holland’s chemistry is pretty perfect with the whole cast, but particularly Bernthal. The film might have been better off letting the two of them do their own thing the whole time, a buddy street crime film. The stakes aren’t exactly earth-shattering here, which is a refreshing change of pace, but the third act doesn’t exactly jell either.

Brand New Day is very entertaining, while never quite breaking free from the problems that have stagnated the broader MCU. The film is too tethered to its franchise obligations to ever get a chance to do its own thing. Worse than that, it feels oddly small at times, and not in a good way.

These movies used to think bigger. Now, hormones are the villain. Loneliness is an interesting subject for a superhero movie to tackle, and certainly a compelling one. The trouble is, the MCU is far too busy to ever let Peter have a moment to himself. The end result is the same cluttered mess we’ve seen dozens of times before.