Spider-Man: No Way Home

[psocoptera]

Finally watched Spider-Man: No Way Home (household is finally done having covid/isolating from the 13yo who never tested positive this time around). I enjoyed it, I thought they did some neat stuff, but it definitely felt like a "long spear" work in the sense that it was relying on a lot of other prior works for its impact to land. I don't think that's bad, necessarily - when it's done well, it's very cool! Someone tells a whole series of stories and builds them up to a point that couldn't hit without all that spear behind it! In this case I don't think I really got the full impact that a more dedicated spider-fan might have, but I got enough - they helpfully recapped some key points re the Andrew Garfield movies, which I never saw - and I liked the plot overall. The idea of the multiverse as an opportunity to save people who couldn't be saved the first time around, and the various villains working together (sometimes) to help save each other, had some really nice moments. And while Peter's choice at the end felt forced in an "authorial fiat wanted this tragic ending" kind of way, on further reflection I actually really like it as an appropriate way to wrap up this Peter-in-high school trilogy. Like if the whole thing has been about high school experiences being reflected and magnified into superhero experiences, then it really did fit the transition from "you guys are my best friends and we'll never forget each other" to "and then everyone moves on to a new stage in their lives and leaves their high school days behind them". (Although it would have been amazing from a pain-for-Peter perspective if MJ and Ned had started dating in the new no-Peter-verse.) And while I feel like the last thing we need is another round of "superheroes can't have relationships", I thought they did a good job with Peter's realization that Spider-Man girlfriends and best friends do not have the best survival rate, like, I didn't feel like they beat us over the head with it, just gave him that nice little moment of genre-savvy clarity at the end. My only real criticism is that I'm struggling to find anyone writing the kind of nice little post-canon closure stuff that people were doing after Endgame. I want a ficlet darn it. [ETA: if they do decide to make a Spider-Man 4 and want to keep Zendaya, MJ-Venom would be *amazing*.]

(Also I was convinced that this was a 2022 movie and I was getting a jump on my Hugo watching, but apparently it was a 2021 movie and just missed being on the ballot last year. I guess if I want to watch something for this year I need to watch Wakanda Forever...)

Comments

[glassonion]

You should watch Wakanda Forever --- i'm interested in what you'll think of it!

[psocoptera]

I want to! I might have already if everything hadn't gotten derailed by covid. Did y'all end up seeing it in the theater? I can't remember if you said.

[glassonion]

No, it's on Disney Plus as of a couple of weeks ago, and we saw it there.

[oracne]

I really liked the complexity of Wakanda Forever.

I'm also looking for post-No Way Home fic - I should do another search.