Spider-Man No Way Home (many spoilers in this thread, GO SEE THIS MOVIE)

That was a fucking great movie.

Really really good.

Keeping comments to the next post to avoid them showing up in the thread preview.

Question-

Short spoiler:

Long spoiler:

He said the thing!

That was all sorts of wonderful and fantastic!

-I know Peter and Strange weren't around for most of Endgame, but you think they'd appreciate the importance of not screwing around with the other universes timelines once it's established that guys like Octavius and Osborne are from the past and the other Peters are from the present.

-But even then, I don't think he changed anyone's fate (other than Flint) by doing what he did for them. That just makes what he sacrificed to help them all rh more more tragic.

-Was there no Uncle Ben in the MCU? I expected to at least see his grave.

You could even say it was amazing and spectacular.

No but it was a great movie. Genuine thrill seeing the folks from the past movies.

It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Just got back, and enjoyed it tremendously.

But how do I score this?

Back when I read comics, the stories were mostly contained in a single issue (or an occasional multi-issue story), but the reader was assumed to know significant events and characters from prior stories. If the editor really needed to prompt your memory, he'd put in a caption pointing you to a prior issue for the details. The one below is my favorite example: it calls all the way back to Batman #1 in the top right panel.



The Marvel movies are now like the comics in this regard. You are assumed to have seen and internalized the prior films (and, in the case of SM:NWH, to have seen some pre-MCU films, too!). If a character mentions not existing for five years, you are expected to know what that means.

And, after 27 MCU films with a huge, reliable audience turnout, I think that may be okay. These movies are now episodes in a cinematic comic book, and knowledge of prior films by the loyal readersh--er, viewership can be taken for granted.

Because if you don't know the prior films, SM:NWH is apt to be a chaotic, perplexing mess. But since you do, you're gonna get Endgame-level fan service, many callbacks to earlier films, and some poignant moments that resonate because you remember other films in the canon.

You know the setup: starting right where the previous film left off, Peter Parker has been revealed to the world as Spider-Man, which soon causes misery for him, his aunt, and his friends. So, he asks Dr. Strange for a magic spell to make everyone forget that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are the same guy. The spell goes awry, and Spider-villains from alternate universes (i.e., prior film franchises) start popping up to menace the city.

Let me say that the initial damage done by Strange's errant spell is fairly minor and quickly contained. It's also framed a bit differently (vis-a-vis Wong) than is shown in the trailer. So, it isn't quite the collosal f**k-up it appeared to be. At least not initially.

It seems like all of the problems caused by the new arrivals can be dealt with by undoing the spell, but in an interesting twist, Peter has to contend with Dr. Strange to prevent just that!

A mid-credits scene...

An end-credits scene...

Not sure it was intended that way, but the first half hour can be seen as a strong critique of cancel culture, as Peter and co. are penalized by the court of public opinion despite having done nothing wrong.

The humor is terrific (a few popular memes are referenced to great effect) and the action suitably thrilling. There are some surprisingly strong emotional beats in this film. A few big surprises occur as the story unfolds (avoid spoilers like the plague). The ending takes the franchise--undoubtedly it will continue--into new territory.

Is it the best of the MCU Spider-Man films? On individual film merits, it's a tough call. But since this builds on and rewards your viewing of earlier films, this is the most entertaining of them.

8.0/10.

Just got back from watching this. Not only was this a good Spider-Man movie and a good MCU movie, it's just a good movie. I liked the overall story and the message of this movie. It felt like a mostly complete story with a beginning, middle and end. It wasn't non stop action, set piece to set piece and forced emotions like you get from certain movies and tv. shows, it had some real weight to it. It showed Spidey at his most lowest point and it showed Spidey rise above the darkness and be the hero he's always been. The humor was on point and appropriate. They didn't undercut rough moments with a silly joke or something like that. The run time was needed to tell a story like this and I never felt bored. It's refreshing to see an action movie that allows the audience to breathe and have a little down time. I'm going to put a few more things in spoiler tags just because I want to give people time to see it.

The message of the film.

The final resolution at the end with Strange.

The one thing that irritates me, but it's not the movie's fault.

Without saying too much, I appreciated how humane a superhero story this is, and how the humanity got reinforced at just the right moment.

My biggest laugh in the film:

Biggest emotional beat. A toss-up between:

Biggest gripe?

I liked all of the jokes, but the ones I really just enjoyed, not because it was hilarious, but it was just a good joke.

One thing I noticed about Norman.

I rather liked the discussion of organic vs designed web

The age old question of if it comes out other body parts has been answered.

Just saw it.

Absolutely loved it and I'm glad I stayed completely away from anything remotely to do with news on this film. I did glean from the trailers (which featured a few pre-Holland villains) that it was highly likely that Maguire and Garfield would show up, but I went in knowing nothing more than what the trailers had shown.

Aunt May's death surprisingly didn't have the emotional impact on me that I think the filmmakers were going for.

What did get me was the look on Garfield Spider-Man's face when he saved MJ.

The movie also pulls a rabbit out of a hat by making some of the previous, shittier Spider-Man villains actually interesting. That's a feat in itself and somewhat saves some of the weaker Sony Spiderverse films.

Small nitpick. The messed up spell supposedly only summoned people who knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man.

So that shouldn’t have included Jamie Fox’s Electro. But whatever. Not a big deal and I actually liked how they used Electro in this movie.

Also it shouldn’t have included Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock. It would have made more sense if the Topher Grace version had shown up instead. But that’s just a mid credits scene and not really important. Maybe the symbiote somehow knew who Spider-Man was.

What is important is that some of the Venom symbiote got left behind. Very interesting.

I also liked the moment when Garfield Spidey saved MJ. Amazing Spider-Man 2 wasn’t a great movie but Gwen Stacy dying is always heartbreaking.

Presumably it could also include all of the people Peter saved on the train in Spider-Man 2.

My understanding is that they've retconned and powered up the symbionts a lot in the comics lately, to the point that they're multiversal beings. Even if Tom Hardy's Eddie didn't know who Peter was, his symbiont would remember from it's connection to the deceased version of itself in Topher Grace's universe.

Yeah there’s a little bit of gobilygook in this movie, but they it can be acceptable because of the strong story. Something I can’t say for…

Gwen calls Spider-Man "Peter" in front of Electro in TASM2, so it's not the plothole that some fanboys are asserting.

Was there an Omicron end credits scene?

Since Max didn't know Peter Parker, I suppose that could still be a plothole, depending upon how narrowly the spell's net was cast.

But two things occur to me...

(1) It's possible this Max/Electro was from another slightly different universe (there are infinitely many, after all) where he did know Spider-Man's identity; and

(2) It's just a movie.

Well... went to a full priced showing last night hoping for a small crowd and a bit of distance between myself and everyone else.... While the theatre wasn't packed, it was still a little too crowded for my comfort. But with that said, I still thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

Man!! I wish there was a way I could've avoided spoilers altogether for this movie, but I saw several headlines that let me know Tobey McG & Andrew G would be in this movie... As well as Willem, Jaimie and Alfred were spoiled by promotional material from Sony. The reason I decided to go so soon was because I was certain I would get spoiled to it on the internet sooner or later.

Reasonably entertaining but there's a lot that's completely incoherent - both in terms of what "forgetting" actually means and in terms of where and when the various characters who crossed universes came from and went back to.

With the villains that died in their original movies it's fairly easy to pinpoint, since most of them only learned that Peter Parker was Spiderman very shortly before dying. I assume Sandman, Venom, and the other Peters came from the present day, years after the events of their original films.

The villains that were sent back were sent back significantly different to how they arrived. It would have materially altered the timelines of which they were a part.
Not to mention that sending them back at all made the entire moral arc of the story - the attempt to 'fix' them, including that having led to May's death - redundant.

Then there's the fact that Electro shouldn't know who Parker is, and Sandman shouldn't want to cooperate with the goal of the other baddies to stay in the MCU. But the fanservice dictates otherwise so that takes precedence over logic.

It's unclear what the spell did...did it simply make everyone forget Peter Parker? Or did it erase all evidence of his existence?

Could one of his classmates pull out the high school yearbook and still see his picture in it? Will they wonder who that guy is that nobody seems to know? Or has the picture been erased?

If the spell retroactively erased all evidence of Peter Parker that would mean this is a different timeline, and things should be very different. Thanos might have won and the snap still be in effect.

But if it only erased memories, there should still be a lot of evidence that Peter Parker existed, and many people should have puzzling gaps in their memories, or facts they can't explain. Does MJ still have romantic texts between her and a total stranger on her phone? Does Ned have photos with a total stranger that show them having fun together? Does DMV have a record of a Peter Parker with a driver's license?

Maybe. If Norman went back a fraction of a second before he gets impaled by his own glider, then the timeline stays the same. In the old movie he seemed reasonable and lucid in his last moments. You could say that was because of the events of this movie.

Otto originally died to save the city from the overloading reactor he built, since it was already overloading before he learned Peter was Spiderman, he'd still most likely have to sacrifice himself again.

I never saw the Garfield movies.

Agreed. I suppose someone could try to argue that Peter "saved their souls" if nothing else, but that's a stretch.

I found it especially sad but also very Spider-Man that May died and Peter lost everything because they insisted on doing "the right thing," even if the end result ultimately made no difference.

OTOH, Spiderverse is a big thing for Sony, and Superior Spiderman was fairly big too. I still hope this gives them an opening to bring Otto back that way.

You're right that Sandman's choices didn't really make sense, though. Did he even really need to be cured? Maybe he could make more money for his family as a superpowered good guy than as a regular human with iffy fashion sense.

That particular gripe has already been debunked.

Then again, for someone who hates the MCU, I'm surprised you spent money on this film.