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[Wraith]

I've had...choice words for the MCU and especially this version of Spider-Man but I liked this movie. Sometimes hype will cloud my judgement when it comes to these things but this entire plot was spoiled beforehand and I wasn't excited coming off the trailer anyway so I felt like I was pretty clear headed watching this one.

It's not perfect, but it transitions MCU Spider-Man out of most of it's bad habits pretty smoothly. So smoothly that diehard fans shouldn't be upset by the change. It's something that starts happening from the first couple of frames too. Spoilers from here on. This is kind of a ramble so I'll just sum up my thoughts at the end.

 

Spoiler

I don't mind a lewd joke here or there but Aunt May's entire character being based around bad jokes around how hot she is is probably the biggest black mark against the first film and how thoughtless it was. Far From Home was...an improvement, but still had jokes about how awkward it was that Happy had made a move on her, a retread of an already pretty lame Civil War bit.

I was glad to see that it was done away in the first couple of scenes. Aunt May's role in this story is the biggest improvement in this movie over the last two and it won me over even before the fanservice started getting wheeled out. She's positioned as the heart of the story, the person that embodies the core values of Spider-Man Peter struggles to live up to every day and the pay off comes in the form of two of the best scenes in the entire series.

The hits keep coming from there. The lame Disney Channel tween comedy tone from Homecoming returns but at least this time Peter and MJ have been together long enough to have actual chemistry. Her and Ned both get a bigger role to play in the emotional arc of the story and we finally get more of a sense of these relationships and how important they are to Peter. It's a bit contrived since, IIRC Peter and MJ only bonded on that field trip from a couple of weeks ago, and she and Ned weren't that close at all? Correct me if I'm wrong here.

I still feel like the first third of this movie is pretty clumsy. It feels like it's on fast forward. There's a frantic energy to Pete's life unraveling that's really fun to watch at first but then they start gliding through scenes that you'd want to let sit for a bit and it just gets kinda annoying.

Matt Murdock is dropped in the movie and yanked back out so clumsily that he had no time to do his thing. He'd just done enough to confirm Daredevil exists and peaced out.  I thought he was setting the tone for every cameo that would happen, and there were a lot of fucking cameos. Thankfully this was the worst one though.

Dr. Strange is also in that first third a lot, and he's kinda wishy washy in a way I thought was weird. He goes from earnestly helping Peter use an extremely dangerous to change fate for selfish reasons to droning on about how fate can't be changed, even though...changing fate was kinda what he does. He felt like the one character that was at the mercy of whatever the plot needed. At least it leads to a pretty great fight scene.

I always felt like the villains would be the flimsiest part of this movie but they're mostly pretty great. Their old characters and motivations are respected the entire way through with the exception of Electro who nobody really liked anyway. Instead of them being some boring 6 man unit they took the opportunity to lean into how different their motivations and relationships with Spider-Man actually are and let them loose. Most of these guys used to be decent men that got caught up in traumatic experiences that made them lose control of themselves, so you never quite know what's going to happen or who's going to fall back on old habits. One of the best scene in the movie is when Peter senses danger but is surrounded by 6 would-be supervillains and can't for the life of him figure out which one is going to turn. I had a good idea of who it was but I wasn't 100% sure, which kept things tense. Put me right in Peter's shoes.

And shit, their performances. I didn't expect Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe to still have it but they  carry the second act on their backs. I'm so used to straight up bad characterization from MCU movies that watching these guys just saunter in and steal the show again was great. Octavius switches from that growling, scheming supervillain to his more down to earth self as the movie progresses and it doesn't feel like a hair is out of place.

One thing they each bring with them are some old "isms" from each of the old movies that do a good job refreshing this version of the character.  The Doc Ock fight scene is mostly focused on the Spider-Man 2 esque problem of getting as many civilians off the bridge as possible. Electro and Sandman get a visually spectacular setpiece. Goblin gets brutal, outwardly violent beat downs that have a level of destruction on par with the originals. The lizard man exists. Most of these scenes have the trademark MCU 'humor' attached but that turns out to be fine because it keeps it from feeling like a total rehash. Peter taking control of Octavius's arms and playing with them instead of just decking him wasn't...I didn't laugh but it was cute, right? It was a reasonable way for this younger, wide eyed Peter to handle that.

Special shoutout to Norman Osborne for being the best Spider-Man villain in two different adaptations. The writing around him was always flimsy but that was never the point. The point was his circumstances created someone truly evil that tests Peter's instinct to do right by everyone. He might be the greatest thing to happen to this version of Peter in terms of development, just by testing his childlike optimism against the cold ruthlessness of a real sociopath. May shows him kindness and he repays her by brutally murdering her. Peter sees firsthand where being the hero gets you and still has to choose to keep going at the end.

I guess the only thing I didn't talk about yet are the Peters themselves and...yeah I wouldn't be surprised if people hoping for a ton of Andrew and Toby felt like they got the short end of the stick here. I was actually into the more restrained approach. This was Tom Holland's movie and I didn't want them to take away from that, as much as I like them as characters. They're mostly here to bring Tom Holland back from the brink when he's at his lowest, with experience on how to handle emotions like grief and hatred. It's mostly implied, but we also get a nice sense of closure with these characters too. Raimi Peter admits that he's still been haunted about not being able to cure Goblin and finally gets the chance, along with getting to reconnect with his old mentor in Octavius after all of this time. Webb Peter gets to cure Dr. Conners and finally have a friendly conversation with a cured, psychologically stable Max. The two feel more like equals now instead of one having a parasocial obsession with the other.

Oh, and while I don't think a lot of jokes in this movie are funny, Andrew is hilarious and it's fun to see him interact with everybody. Any conversation between the three Spider-Man usually had some fun banter in it.

Now, I've never really liked Tom Holland's Peter despite liking the actor and the performance. He's really about as selfish as Peter can be without much of the comeuppance the other Spider-Men get. His entire character arc is built on a really flimsy relationship with Stark that I've never fully bought into. This relationship seemed to take priority over the love of his friends, his family and his city that's supposed to define the character. His defining character moment was skipped over and this movie finally owns up to the fact that it's been such a footnote that it might not have even happened in the first place.

Most of that stuff is fixed in this movie. Tom Holland finally feels like Peter Parker to me, and a big part of it is the entire conflict spurs from his mistake. It doesn't feel inherited. It feels like Peter's natural instinct to try and control everything just blows up in his face here. Doing the right thing all the time is hard. It requires a lot of sacrifice that this Peter thus far just hasn't had to deal with yet. He's almost always been able to have it both ways. Live the ideal life and get most of what he wants while being Spider-Man at the same time. That's done here. Being Spider-Man is portrayed as a sacrifice. Trying to see the good in everyone and dedicating yourself to a society that almost certainly doesn't love you back isn't always rewarding. Sometimes you get burned.

And the ending, Peter's "punishment" was so well executed on an emotional level that I thought I was watching a different series. Almost every third act in the MCU is a drag that brings down the entire picture, but this is one of the few that actually brings the whole thing together. Peter is alone without any of the friends and family he once new and none of the powerful people that gave him the resources to be Spider-Man consequence free.

Some people want a more "down to earth" series of movies to come after this and while I'd be into that, I'm also okay with them never following this up for two reasons:
1. I've seen plenty of down to earth, back to basics Spider-Man media. Enough to have a good idea of how Tom's life probably goes from here. I would still watch it but a blander version of the Raimi movies going forward doesn't sound exciting to me. Maybe if they brought on a different director.
2. This movie is already setting records at the box office and I can't imagine Marvel scaling down after something like that. There's just as much of a chance they walk a lot of this stuff back in the next one and go bigger, and I don't want to see that.

So yeah, if it wasn't obvious I...kinda dug this? it wasn't perfect, but no Spider-Man movie is. Except Spiderverse ofc.

 

TLDR I liked it. The plot was flimsy and the first act is kinda bad but I like most of what it does. Spider-verse is still better and so are SM1/2 but those are high bars to hit.

[Kuzu]

I'm gonna see the movie again before I give my final thoughts.

[Jango]

I fiiiiiiiinally saw the movie yesterday, holy shit (I wanted to watch it before Christmas on IMAX, but my friends bail out, then the next week my gf got sick, and if it wasn't enough, I got a little sick aswell earlier this week, thank God I recovered quickly).

Anyway, movie is good. It has more good than bad fan service, but plot? Yeah, there's a story there... It's just not very good, shit happens because it has to happen or to prepare for a joke minutes later. But this is much like Avengers Endgame, it's an event movie. It's a super fun ride nevertheless.

Avengers Infinity War still my favorite of all time (and I doubt it will be topped), No Way Home is like third or fourth best to me (MCU). SM2 and Spider-verse still my favorites tho'.

[Teoskaven]

First trailer for the Moon Knight series, it comes out at the end of March:
 

Part of it seems convincing while the other feels they're not taking it too seriously. Could easily be just how the trailer is made, i'll have to wait and see.

Also, apparently it was announced last November that there's a Werewolf by Night Halloween special in schedule for this year with Gael García Bernal and Laura Donnelly in the main roles. Didn't knew that.

[KHCast]

So we finally get to see this series  action. Eh, it looks alright. The actual story stuff looks interesting, but as for the super power change….yeah still not really a big fan of that. Gonna have to see more of her new powers I guess to get a better vibe, but yeah, atm, not hugely into that change.

[Teoskaven]

Updated schedule revealed:

*Phase 4 ends this year with Wakanda Forever, the Halloween special and the GotG Christmas Special. Phase 5 starts after that.

*Ant-Man and Wasp: Quantumania releases 12 February 2023. It will include M.O.D.O.K., and Bill Murray is confirmed to have a role. Secret Invasion series will be released around the same time.

*Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 gets released 5 May 2023. It will be centered around Adam Warlock, Rocket's origins and the High Evolutionary will be the main villain. The Echo series will be released sometime in the summer.

*The Marvels gets released 20 July 2023. Loki season 2 will be released around the same time.

*Blade gets released 3 November 2023. The Iron Heart series will be released around the same time.

*Agatha Harkness' series retitled Coven of Chaos will be released between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024.

*Daredevil's new series titled Born Again is gonna have 18 episodes and is stated for a generic 2024 release (the character will cameo in the She-Hulk series); Vincent d'Onofrio is back as the Kingpin again.

*Captain America: New World Order gets released 3 May 2024. 

*Thunderbolts gets released 26 July 2024.

*Phase 6 starts with the Fantastic 4 movie being released 8 November 2024.

*There are 4 untitled movies and 5 untitled series in the works to be released in 2024 and 2025

*The next Avengers movie will be another two-parter released first 5 May 2025 titled The Kang Dynasty, and the second being released 7 November 2025 titled Secret Wars (probably inspired by the 2015 comic about the incursions).

 

As usual, other projects might sneak their way in like it has happened with phase 4. If i have to guess, Deadpool 3 is one of the unannounced projects.