Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

Following the big spoiler at the end of No Way Home, Peter Parker is going through some pretty dramatic ch-ch-ch-changes. Meanwhile, he faces off against a powerful adversary who appears to be able to jump into different human hosts at will. It's your traditional comic book story involving heroes struggling to fulfill their purpose while overcoming great adversity, except this time everyone is firing on all cylinders (Punisher included). As always, humanity defines these characters, and at the heart of it, it's a warm, gentle story. I have nothing cynical to add. This is just a great Spider-Man adventure.

4 premature webshots out of 5

Note: Next up for our crew? Avengers: Doomsday, in time for Christmas 2026.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

29 years after he started the M:I franchise, Tom Cruise returns one last time to end it. And it couldn't come any sooner, as he's traded in his boyish good looks for someone closer resembling Buddy Hackett. Still, at 62, he's performing insane stunts and doing things that I could never do at any age, so you can't really knock it. Maybe there's something to that Scientology shit, after all.

Picking up shortly after the events of Dead Reckoning, The Entity is still an active threat (if somewhat an abstract construct) while the world is again at the precipice of succumbing to global devastation. It's exposition-heavy at times, and heavy-handed at others, but I mostly find it fascinating due to its finality. The improbable part is that they managed to tie up so many loose story strands from throughout the series in a satisfying way while weaving together all of the films. (Meanwhile, my impossible mission was trying not to piss myself for three hours.) It's a welcome return to form that succeeds in ending the series on a high note. Tom's mission, should he choose to accept it, is not to fuck it up by making another one.

3½ MacGuffins out of 5

Note: Huge shout-out goes to Ving Rhames, who has appeared in every single one of these films alongside Cruise, but never quite seems to get his due.