My review of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME.
SPOILER WARNING! I have been a lifelong Spider-Man and Peter Parker fan, I still read the comics, and when it came to the movie incarnations of the Wall Crawler, it’s been mixed emotions. Whether it was Toby Maguire, Andrew Garfield, or Tom Holland, there were things I liked, things I did not, and some that just made me shake my head. I was like most fans, thrilled by the triumphs, but equally let down by the disappointments – and there were more than a few disappointments in the past two decades that Spidey had been on the big screen. And that is what makes SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME something special, because director Jon Watts, screenwriters Chris Mackenna and Erik Sommers, and whoever else at Sony who was calling the shots, have leaned into all those high points, and let downs, and given the fans something truly special that gives us closure, while opening the doors to so many new possibilities.
The film’s trailer pretty much lays out the basic plot, which picks up right where FAR FROM HOME left off. After Quinton Beck revealed to the world that Spider-Man is really high school senior Peter Parker, he seeks help from Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange in the form of a magical spell which would make the world forget who Spider-Man is underneath the mask. Of course there are complications from a botched attempt to cast said spell, namely that it transports many of the villains who have fought the other iterations of Spidey from their universes to the one inhabited by the current Spider-Man. And if the bad guys from those universes came through, then it’s only logical that… It’s actually a pretty simple plot, some have criticized it as such, but so much is built upon this basic foundation. The film has so many truly emotional and satisfying moments that we didn’t know we needed until we saw them up on the screen. It was such a kick seeing Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe back as Otto Octavius and Norman Osborn, also known as Doctor Octopus and The Green Goblin respiectively, and though I was not the biggest fan of Jamie Foxx’s Electro, he won me over with this encore. Thomas Haden Church returned as The Sandman, and Rhys Ifans was back as The Lizard. It wasn’t quite The Sinister Six film we were supposed to get, but pretty close just the same. Then there was the moment when the mask is removed, and it’s Andrew Garfield, followed by Toby Maguire, stepping through the portal. The sight of all three Peter Parkers interacting and working together to defeat their common foes is the cherry on top. The fact that Maguire can make webs come out of his wrists while none of the others can is addressed, and it’s the little details like that which make this film really something special. And having Garfield be the one to catch the falling M.J., something he failed to do for Gwen Stacy, was an awesome highlight. It was a reminder how much he committed to the part, and how maybe it wasn’t as appreciated at the time as it should have been. It was good to see Jon Favreau as back as Happy Hogan, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon as M.J. and Ned Leeds, and J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, who is now an Alex Jones like podcaster, and still capable of making big trouble for Spidey. Charlie Cox’s brief appearance as Matt Murdoch opened up a lot of possibilities for the future. Benedict Wong’s character has been doing double duty this year with his appearance in SHANG CHI as well. And there is a twist with Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May that is very true to the corner stone Stan Lee and Steve Ditko set in place for Spider-Man all those years ago. There are some interesting winks and nods in the course of the film: like having Flash Thompson’s autobiography be titled “Flashpoint” the original comic book multiverse story put out by the Distinguished Competition way back in the early ‘60s, and was having Norman Osborn smash his Green Goblin mask early in the film an acknowledgement that it too it much resembled something from the Power Rangers, a frequent criticism over the years?
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME is true to its title, a corner turned with no going back, and there is a bittersweet quality to the final scene. It reminds us that the story of Peter Parker has always been about living with loss and sadness, and the triumph that comes with getting beyond them, and finding what is great in life. There’s a mid credits scene with Tom Hardy that drives home the point there is Sony’s Marvel movies, and then there is Disney’s MCU. I had hopes that The Fantastic Four might be reintroduced in a future Spider-Man film, it would be the logical spot to bring them back, but that is unlikely. Sony wants to make more Spider-Man films with Tom Holland, who is great in the part, but I wish they’d consider making one more Spidey film with Andrew Garfield taking on Kraven the Hunter.
I am an indie author and my latest novel is ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964. It is available at the following:
http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m on Amazon
http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH at Smashwords
Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
http://bit.ly/2nxmg
The film’s trailer pretty much lays out the basic plot, which picks up right where FAR FROM HOME left off. After Quinton Beck revealed to the world that Spider-Man is really high school senior Peter Parker, he seeks help from Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange in the form of a magical spell which would make the world forget who Spider-Man is underneath the mask. Of course there are complications from a botched attempt to cast said spell, namely that it transports many of the villains who have fought the other iterations of Spidey from their universes to the one inhabited by the current Spider-Man. And if the bad guys from those universes came through, then it’s only logical that… It’s actually a pretty simple plot, some have criticized it as such, but so much is built upon this basic foundation. The film has so many truly emotional and satisfying moments that we didn’t know we needed until we saw them up on the screen. It was such a kick seeing Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe back as Otto Octavius and Norman Osborn, also known as Doctor Octopus and The Green Goblin respiectively, and though I was not the biggest fan of Jamie Foxx’s Electro, he won me over with this encore. Thomas Haden Church returned as The Sandman, and Rhys Ifans was back as The Lizard. It wasn’t quite The Sinister Six film we were supposed to get, but pretty close just the same. Then there was the moment when the mask is removed, and it’s Andrew Garfield, followed by Toby Maguire, stepping through the portal. The sight of all three Peter Parkers interacting and working together to defeat their common foes is the cherry on top. The fact that Maguire can make webs come out of his wrists while none of the others can is addressed, and it’s the little details like that which make this film really something special. And having Garfield be the one to catch the falling M.J., something he failed to do for Gwen Stacy, was an awesome highlight. It was a reminder how much he committed to the part, and how maybe it wasn’t as appreciated at the time as it should have been. It was good to see Jon Favreau as back as Happy Hogan, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon as M.J. and Ned Leeds, and J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, who is now an Alex Jones like podcaster, and still capable of making big trouble for Spidey. Charlie Cox’s brief appearance as Matt Murdoch opened up a lot of possibilities for the future. Benedict Wong’s character has been doing double duty this year with his appearance in SHANG CHI as well. And there is a twist with Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May that is very true to the corner stone Stan Lee and Steve Ditko set in place for Spider-Man all those years ago. There are some interesting winks and nods in the course of the film: like having Flash Thompson’s autobiography be titled “Flashpoint” the original comic book multiverse story put out by the Distinguished Competition way back in the early ‘60s, and was having Norman Osborn smash his Green Goblin mask early in the film an acknowledgement that it too it much resembled something from the Power Rangers, a frequent criticism over the years?
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME is true to its title, a corner turned with no going back, and there is a bittersweet quality to the final scene. It reminds us that the story of Peter Parker has always been about living with loss and sadness, and the triumph that comes with getting beyond them, and finding what is great in life. There’s a mid credits scene with Tom Hardy that drives home the point there is Sony’s Marvel movies, and then there is Disney’s MCU. I had hopes that The Fantastic Four might be reintroduced in a future Spider-Man film, it would be the logical spot to bring them back, but that is unlikely. Sony wants to make more Spider-Man films with Tom Holland, who is great in the part, but I wish they’d consider making one more Spidey film with Andrew Garfield taking on Kraven the Hunter.
I am an indie author and my latest novel is ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964. It is available at the following:
http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m on Amazon
http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH at Smashwords
Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
http://bit.ly/2nxmg
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