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Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-...Mans?

Film: Spider-Man: No Way Home
Format: DVD from Cortland Public Library on rockin’ flatscreen.

A couple of years ago, I would have happily told you that I was fully on board with all of the MCU properties, or at least most of them. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but when I watched Avengers: Endgame, some of that ended for me. It felt like we had reached the end of a complete story (which we had, of course), and knowing what I know about comic books, I know that nothing ever really gets resolved. Finishing Endgame felt like a good place to get off the ride. And yet, I think it might be impossible to be fully abreast of modern culture without staying at least a little familiar with the later stories. And so, here I am finishing up the latest Spider-Man troika with Spider-Man: No Way Home.

No longer content with simpler stories of a hero taking on an enemy, or even several enemies, we’re going full-tilt into the Multiverse with this one. At the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, the secret identity of Spider-Man as Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is revealed to the world, and he is held responsible for the death of Mysterio, who was actually the bad guy the whole time. With his secret out, his life becomes a trainwreck; he is constantly harassed, and because of the scandal, he is refused admission to every college he applies for. Worse, the same thing happens to his friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and Parker’s girlfriend MJ (Zendaya).

In desperation, Peter goes to Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and asks for him to cast a spell that essentially causes everyone in the world to forget he is Spider-Man. But, he keeps adding conditions to the spell and it spirals out of control. Strange contains the spell as best he can, but a few things creep through the cracks. Essentially, the spell has opened up some portals from the Multiverse, and other Spider-Mans (Spider-Men?) and other universe villains creep through. What this means for us in the audience is that this movie is going to connect the previous two Spider-Man universes with the Marvel Universe. We’ll get original trilogy Spider-Man Tobey Maguire, along with his Green Goblin/Normal Osbourne (Willem Dafoe), Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), and Sandman/Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church). From the second set of movies, we get another Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and Max Dillon/Electro (Jamie Foxx).

The Peter Parker of this universe essentially teams up with the Peter Parkers when he learns that sending the other universe villains back to their own universe will essentially put them back where they were moments before they were killed. He instead decides to cure them, reversing their various psychopathies or physical issues before sending them back to their own places. Of course, this is complicated by the fact that they don’t want to go back, and in the case of Norman Osbourne, don’t want the cure.

There’s a lot here that works. Tom Holland, at least for me, is the right person to actually play Spider-Man. He’s always been a teen, and most commonly depicted as a kid in high school. Holland looks the part far more than either Maguire or Garfield did. There are also a lot of nice “comparing the different Spider-Man aspects” to the film that honestly felt like it owed a large debt to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It also doesn’t pull any punches, including the death of a beloved character.

I’m a little bit at a disadvantage here since I never saw either of the Andrew Garfield movies. There’s a lot of loose ends flying around in this movie that need to get tied up, and there is some sense of needing to know some of the backstory from the other films to really follow what is happening. You could easily watch the first two films of this trilogy having never seen a previous Spider-Man film or anything much from the MCU. That’s changed here—this one is fully immersed in MCU lore and requires at least passing knowledge of the Maguire and Garfield roles.

It is, of course, big and blustery with big fights and lots of property destruction. That’s par for the course. Spider-Man: No Way Home is also close to 150 minutes long, including the credits, which also include a post-credits sequence that brings Eddie Brock/Venom (Tom Hardy) into the MCU and a teaser trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Honestly, this movie is fine. It’s busier than it needs to be—not a lot happens with Connors/Lizard, for instance, and he feels like an afterthought much of the time. The same is kind of true with Flint Marko/Sandman, seemingly here because we need a villain representative from all three of Maguire’s movies and both of Garfield’s. The plot generally does work, and the casting, as always is top-notch. J.K. Simmons, Marisa Tomei, and Benedict Wong are always standouts.

And so I suppose I’m a little torn. This is good, but it’s also overwhelming, loud, and filled with a lot of crashing stuff and noise and thunder. And for all of this, they couldn’t fully replicate the “Spider-Man pointing at himself” meme.

Why to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home: Multiple Spider-Mans/Men is a fun idea.
Why not to watch: It’s loud and probably 20 minutes too long.

10 comments:

  1. It *might* be too long, I could agree with that..but I loved every minute of it lol. By far my favorite live action Spider-man film.

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    1. I enjoyed the interplay between the three Peter Parkers quite a bit. I think I'm just burned out on superheroes at the moment.

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  2. Yeah I think a lot of the Marvel movies are waaay too long, but I enjoyed this one quite a bit thanks to the fun rapport of the three Spideys!

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    1. I don't know when they got that long. I wish they'd do more of a Werewolf by Night thing and keep them short and fun. So many of them end up feeling like an ordeal because of that length.

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  3. I really do like this film while I will admit that they could've trimmed 10-15 minutes of it but I still enjoyed though I haven't had the chance to re-watch it because I no longer have Starz! and I think it's on Netflix but right now. I don't have Netflix at the moment.

    What I liked about the film is that it is about Peter Parker trying to take some responsibility for his actions even though what happened to him early on was something beyond his control as he was trying to do the right thing. Seeing Tobey and Andrew was great. Especially for the latter as I wasn't fond of the films he did, notably the 2nd one which was horrible and bloated as fuck, but I was glad he was able to get some redemption for a change.

    I know Tom Holland is going to return as Spider-Man as I just hope they do something a little bit more simple as the MCU has been on some shaky ground with Quantumania being a major disappointment and Secret Invasion being an absolute mess with a badly-written villain.

    Always go back to the comics and be simple. Take risks but not at the expense of the stories. That's what Marvel needs to do. Also, fire Jeff Loveness. He wrote Quantumania and was the reason the film sucked. Also, do not put Deadpool 3 in the MCU because it's going to suck. Why? 2 words: Shawn Levy.

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    1. There is a lot to like with this one, but I find myself want to watch this sort of spectacle less and less right now. When did action movies become things that you had to plan your day around? I'm looking to sit down with John Wick IV in the near future, but the damned thing is nearly three hours long! There's no need for that.

      I haven't seen either of the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies, and I haven't seen Quantumania yet, either. Honestly, I'm in no rush.

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    2. Having seen the 4th John Wick film, it didn't feel like a 3-hour film as I had fun watching that one. Beau is Afraid.... that was just as long but it was a pain to watch.

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    3. I haven't really considered Beau is Afraid as something I want to watch right now. Maybe...but probably not unless I have to.

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  4. I'm also in the "really enjoyed this" camp. I thought the interactions between the three Spideys was fun and the villains were fantastic. Who'd ever have thought we'd get to see these versions of Green Goblin and Doc Ock again? I also agree that Tom Holland is the best Spider-Man and has the best supporting cast with MJ, Ned and Aunt May. And JK SImmons as J. Jonah was, as always, perfect.

    I, too, was disappointed that the Lizard and Sand-Man didn't get much to do, but I think they weren't even on-set, being exclusively voiceover for CGI and old footage. The pandemic claims another victim. I'm looking forward to the next MCU Spider-Man, but also hope they tone it down a bit.

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    1. I love Alfred Molina's Doc Ock and think Dafoe's Goblin is really one of the great supervillains in film. It was great to see them back.

      It is interesting that they picked a single villain from each of the films of the other Peter Parkers.

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