Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Director: Jon Watts

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, and (wait for it… spoilers, but its way too late because the human eye has already looked at the end of the line) Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield

Have I Seen it Before: Feels both apt an strangely inappropriate to make a joke about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), so I’ll just leave it at that.

Did I Like It: This movie is already working at a disadvantage. A bunch of Spider-men in one movie has been done, and in an astonishingly brilliant way in the aforementioned Into the Spider-Verse. Tom Holland’s work in the role may have tragically peaked with his first, semi-solo outing, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), which is a nearly-perfect teen comedy, and features Michael Keaton in a central role*. Chasing after what came before is a curse of any trilogy capper, but the question remains does this film persevere against that limitation.

Yes, mostly. It’s not a film that’s going to have a lot of success standing on its own, if for no other reason than someone would need at least two (and as many as eight) prior movies for every moment to land. That’s more of a design flaw in the Marvel movies as a whole, the further the ongoing story of the MCU goes.

The multiverse storyline isn’t as manically unhinged as its animated predecessor. They could have offered brief moments with Nicholas Hammond, or even Shinji Todō. They could have gone a little further and explored live-action Spider-Man that never came to pass. I’m talking James Cameron-directed Leonardo DiCaprio and another check in with Donald Glover. Hell, Keaton could have shown up and made sure we all know he’s still Batman… But all of that would have made the film so over-stuffed as to be inaccessible to anyone but me. And DC will have me covered on that other thing. That being said, even after all of the hype and denials, it was still a nice little moment to get our old Spider-men back, if even for a bit. The movie even manages to accomplish that great thing of later/legacy sequels: improving the entries which previously left a bad taste. I’m looking in your direction, Spider-Man 3 (2007) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). If nothing else, Andrew Garfield is vindicated… even if he’s spent the last several months pointedly lying to all of us.

Now that I think about it, I can only point to one verifiable, undeniable missed call in the film. In the film’s nearly-final scene, Peter’s landlord couldn’t have been played by Elya Baskin (or, Mr. Ditkovitch from the Tobey Maguire films)? The MCU-series put J.K. Simmons in the role of J. Jonah Jameson again. There’s no reason they couldn’t have gone for two.

*If you didn’t think that one would rank as my favorite, then you’re new here.

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Director: Jon Watts

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jon Favreau

Have I Seen it Before: No. Even that middle-credit scene was still a breath of fresh air.

Did I Like It: Yes.

I do wonder if some of this review is actually fueled by the theater-going experience. We tried the new Cinergy facility here in Tulsa. They’re Chuck-E-Cheese for grownups milieu might work for some people, and it is encouraging that they cannibalized the auditoriums of the late, great Village 8 for their screening purposes. However, their attempts to provide the same amenity-rich experience as the Warren falls flat with a limited menu and an awkward ordering process. Also, apparently they haven’t mastered the air conditioning of these facilities. To their credit, they were aware of the climate control issue and took it upon themselves to hand out gift cards like they were after dinner mints. If I had previously known I could make fifty bucks in fifteen minutes just by staring at Samuel L. Jackson while sweating most of my body mass away, I might have made different career choices. It was a perplexingly unique movie-going experience. They have pinball machines there, so I imagine I will be back if for that reason alone.

And the immediately difficult task ahead of me is to start comparing it to other films. Is it the greatest Spider-Man movie of all time? No. Is it even the greatest Spider-Man movie released in the last twelve months? No.

This movie is really running up against some rough competition coming so soon after the awe-inspiring, adrenaline-goosing Spider-Man: Enter the Spider-Verse (2018). It even tries to dabble in some multi-verse shenanigans, but mostly as a fake out for the true plot in play*. I can’t even say that this is the greatest movie featuring the character as assayed by Tom Holland. Spider-Man Homecoming (2017) is jauntier. It’s blending of teen movie and big budget spectacle is more seamless. 

And, of course, Homecoming had Michael Keaton in it. There were reports that he would appear in this film as well. I’d like to say I don’t dock any points away from a movie for not featuring the once and future Batman, but I think that I even remotely like a film that could have featured Michael Keaton and opted not to is something of a testament to the film’s resiliency.

And that’s where it becomes clear that the comparison to other Spider-men is unfair. Should we be griping that this film isn’t quite as good as some of the greatest recent entries, or should we marvel (I see what I did there, and I’m not all that thrilled with it) that it is arguably true that the three greatest films (in no particular order) in the series are the most recent ones.

Because there is quite a lot to love here. Tom Holland is never not believable as a teen who’s in just a little bit over his head. Jake Gyllenhaal brings a manic charm to his role as Beck/Mysterio and so thoroughly plays on Peter’s unspoken need to fill the void in his life left by certain other characters, that you can’t help but hate him even more in the third act when his petulant villainy is brought to bear. On that note, it’s fairly effective as the more life-affirming wake for Tony Stark, where Avengers: Endgame (2019) felt like a gut-punch of a funeral. Zendaya accomplishes a startling task, keeping all of the brittle fun of her MJ, while still rising to the romantic comedy around her and showing vulnerability when the scenes demand. Jon Favreau shifts from the grumpy put-upon schlub of Homecoming to be the understanding grown up Peter eventually finds. Apparently the love of Marisa Tomei is the magical fuel of this series.

It’s a very sweet movie, and absolutely worth watching. I just hope they keep this up. And Gods of Asgard, please keep Venom (as played by anyone) as far away from this series as possible.

Huh.

I’m just now wondering how long Talos has been covering for Fury… Huh. That makes me re-think a lot of things.

*Or is it? Are we 100% that the J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons, you read that right) who runs the the Info Wars-esque dailybugle.net isn’t the same J. Jonah Jameson that gave Tobey Maguire such grief? Mysterio’s cover story of coming form an alternate universe is just a bit too specific to not have any truth to it. Wouldn’t Mysterio be far more interested in injecting just a little bit of truth into the large lie. Is anyone wondering how Jameson got an exclusive on Spider-Man’s identity? One wonders.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Director: Jon Watts

Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Zendaya

Have I Seen it Before: Absolutely.

Did I Like It: I think it’s pretty perfect.

And, no, that’s not just because Michael Keaton is actually in the movie.

It’s a little bit about that, but there are other things, too.

Let’s talk about basics. This film presents—or more accurately, continues from Captain America Civil War (2016)—the second cinematic reboot of the wall-crawler. As opposed to the tedious The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), this new version of the character justifies his existence by being existing in a world different than what we might normally expect from the character. 

Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) is not an old bitty (not that there is anything inherently wrong with being an old bitty). MJ (Zendaya) isn’t really MJ, and in fact there may not be a real MJ. Also, we may never have to see some teen beat cover boy react as a spider bites his hand. We’ve seen it. We don’t need to see it again. For that matter, what we don’t know what the hell Uncle Ben looks like in this iteration, and that’s refreshing, too. I want to say Bradley Whitford, but I just want to keep putting cast members of The West Wing in everything (the only thing that the Garfield series got right, by the way). Comic book purists might have cause to complain, but they really need to lighten up. Variety is the spice of life, or at least the spice of summer tentpole movies.

Beyond that, it works in its own rights, completely divorced from either the large Spider-Man mythos or the large MCU. It’s one of the more engaging teen comedies produced in the last several years. Tom Holland channels the best parts of Matthew Broderick and Michael J. Fox to makes a character that may not always seem like a reel teen, but certainly seems like a character from a real teen movie a la the era of John Hughes prime. The idea that Toomes (Keaton) is both Parker’s arch-nemesis and his girlfriend’s dad is the right layer of conflict for one of these movies. It’s an amazing twist that feels organic and surprising, even after having seen it a couple of times.

I really can’t gush about this film more. Like the original Iron Man (2008), it’s a revelation when I was only expecting a diversion. It’s outstanding that my review of the film has gone this long without mentioning one more performance by Downey Jr. While I’ve been in light mourning for Tony Stark, I’m reminded by this film that there is probably plenty of life in the Marvel movies yet. Even if Gwyneth Paltrow receives far more credit (in this instance only) than she may fully deserve.

On one more strange note: Is it weird that this film is in the running for best Captain America film, and the last Captain America film also has a competitive play for best Spider-Man movie? What a time to be alive and watching movies in the summer.