It’s telling that the credits montage at the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day is comprised of mundane New York scenes that are brimming with character. Director Destin Daniel Cretton, taking over this particular branch of the mighty Marvel waterway from three-time Spider-Helmer Jon Watts, is clearly interested in bringing the wall-crawler as down to earth as he can possibly get. Yes, the unwieldy sprawl of the cinematic universe that now stretches over nearly forty films and a rat’s nest of semi-canon television series is still inevitably oozing into the whole endeavor, puffing up the film beyond its ideal size and shape. Cretton’s prevailing instinct is to scale back as much as possible, and it’s remarkable how effectively he keeps the plot-dense adventure in a comfortable zone.

The new film picks up a few years after the multiverse mess that was Spider-Man: No Way Home. Having sacrificed his friendships to a magical spell that caused the world to forget about his existence, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) spends his days and nights tirelessly swinging around New York City in the guise of Spider-Man. During breaks, he scrolls through the social media feeds of his now-lost girlfriend, M.J. (Zendaya, thankfully getting more to do after the diminishing returns of the two prior films in the series), and his best bud, Ned (Jacob Batalon). Although he stepped out of their lives to protect them, the appearance of new villain (the film’s marketing has withheld most information about this figure, so I will, too) prompts Spider-Man to reenter their lives as an anxious guardian.

Screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who also have credits on the three preceding Spider-Man films, are smart in the way they structure the gradual revival of these three core characters’ relationships. The emotional beats feel like they’re arrived at honestly, even if some of the big moments are held so long that they nearly tip over into gratuitous tugging at the audience’s affection. Similarly, the infiltration of characters who were established outside of this particular subset of films is handled more deftly than has been the case in the recent past of Marvel movies. In particular, the obsessed vengeance-seeker Frank Castle (John Bernthal) makes a fine foil for the friendly titular hero, in part because the filmmakers don’t get bogged down recapping his history. They instead find a way to succinctly establish his relationship with Spider-Man and move matters along quickly from there.

Cretton proved himself a skilled director of action with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and he grows yet more adept here. The fight scenes are always clear and dynamic, no matter how much their scope expands, and Cretton shows some real visual inventiveness with the way he imagines Spider-Man’s movements through the world. There’s also a welcome imagination to the ways that the film’s main antagonist uses their powers, including one mid-film fake-out that is deviously clever. There’s a lot that can be said about the film’s themes of valuing personal connection and the general challenge of simply growing up. Mostly, though, it’s a pleasure — and maybe a relief — to report that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is plainly a winning, entertaining movie. If this is indicative of how effectively the character can still be realized onscreen, long may he thwip.