Spider-Man: No Way Home 2021
I have not been too happy with the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, but I heard good things about this one and wanted to see it. It is still a little disappointing. Very quickly this movie is off to a bad start, building on some of what I liked least from the last movie. They are also trying to add some humor, but most of it doesn’t work, so the characters just do some goofy things in the name of humor but aren’t delivering. Then Doctor Strange makes an appearance and is brought down to that level as well, not really a good fit, and he feels like a special guest star. I am hopeful that Doctor Strange will do better in his own movie next year. But the goofy beginning is just a way to set some other stuff into motion that is more fun with more of a payoff. I don’t want to spoil any of that, but while I enjoyed it, I was still a little underwhelmed with the impact. I have to blame the material first, and Tom Holland second who just seems like he can’t really act, though part of that is his character as an indecisive teenager, which goes back to the material. The other character I really don’t like and who has gotten worse over time is J. Jonah Jameson, now portrayed as an Alex Jones figure, which just transfers my dislike of Alex Jones onto the movie. I never really buy the whole “the superhero is a bad guy” trope that is used, especially in Spider-Man movies, but in The Avengers as well. It seems like anyone could figure that out and feels like an artificial conflict. There is enough going on in the movie that it is worth watching, but not enough to save this series.
Written: 28 Dec 2021
Owned on: Digital