{"id":156571,"date":"2022-03-12T21:28:32","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T04:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=156571"},"modified":"2022-03-12T21:28:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-13T04:28:32","slug":"movie-review-spider-man-no-way-home-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2022\/03\/12\/movie-review-spider-man-no-way-home-2021.html","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spider-Man: No Way Home<\/em> is a complicated film, on one level. There are multiple fight sequences, as well as a lot of talking sequences, some big passages of time, some thorny conundrums that get handwaved aside, and some others that last until the bitter end.<\/p>\n

The last SM movie ended with Peter Parker being outed by Alex Jones fill-in J Jonah Jameson both as Spider-Man and (thanks to villainous shenanigans) as the murderer of Mysterio and the wreaker of havoc across London.<\/p>\n

The movie manages to quickly get past that, but it also has impacts through the entire film. Even though the cliche of “wanted by the police” isn’t lingered over, the repercussions of the event continue to last, leaving Peter’s life a never-ending media circus. But, as we’ve had hammered home over the years since the last SM film, public belief doesn’t necessarily align with truth, meaning that even when Peter is exonerated, he remains under attack by JJJ and<\/em> by a substantial portion of the general population.<\/p>\n

Worse, the biggest villain fought against by our her for the first quarter of the movie is the college admission process, and MIT decides that all the excitement means they will take a pass not just on Peter’s application, but on his girlfriend MJ’s and his bestie Ned’s. Which in turn leads Peter to go to Doctor Strange to see if the Sorcerer Supreme can set things aright.<\/p>\n

He does not, but in the process the universe is broken, and beings from other worlds start to shift into ours, in particular some arch-enemies of previous Sony Spiderverse films.<\/p>\n

It’s all a glorious muddle, yet the narrative through-line is maintained amidst various super-battles, with Peter trying to take care of his friends and family … and learning that great Spider-Man lesson not yet uttered in this go-around.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, SMNWH is a story about growing up<\/em>, of coming of age — not solely because Tom Holland is becoming a more mature actor in appearance, but also (to not be meta) not just in personal courage and heroism (Peter has already demonstrated that). This is a movie about that moment of maturity when one learns to extend the application of one’s virtue beyond just a\u00a0 circle of friends and family. That includes the willingness to lose everything in order to save others, even those who might not deserve it.<\/p>\n

Throw in a great soundtrack by Michael Giacchino, some really nicely done SFX (including battles of CG figures that look more and more realistic), a variety of cameos from elsewhere in the Multiverse, and a ton of witty banter and general geekery, and it’s a delightful capstone to the Tom Holland trilogy of Spider-Man films.<\/p>\n

(So, of course, they’ve announced a fourth film. We’ll see what they do with it.)<\/p>\n

P.S. There are two post-credit scenes, one to placate Sony, one to placate Marvel. Neither are great, but worth waiting for unless you really, really need to pee.<\/p>\n

\"Spider-Man:<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally posted<\/a> on Letterboxd.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Holland SM films have been about growing up. This one’s even more so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[525,41],"tags":[1234,2239,1953],"class_list":["post-156571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marvel-cinematic-universe","category-media-movies","tag-mcu","tag-smnwh","tag-spider-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/spider-man-no-way-home-multiverse-poster.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":160093,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2023\/06\/24\/movie-review-spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-2023.html","url_meta":{"origin":156571,"position":0},"title":"Movie Review: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (2023)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 24-Jun-23 11:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A more-than-worthy successor to the first film, full of fun, drama, and spectacle.","rel":"","context":"In "Animation \/ Cartoons"","block_context":{"text":"Animation \/ Cartoons","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-cartoons"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse poster","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-poster-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-poster-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-poster-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-poster-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":135611,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/11\/movie-review-spider-man-homecoming-2017.html","url_meta":{"origin":156571,"position":1},"title":"Movie Review: “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 11-Dec-17 8:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, I know I'm late to the game with this one, because, honestly, I've been burned out on Spidey -- in movies and comic books -- for quite a while. This movie changed that. \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606 (with a \u2665) Full Review: https:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/spider-man-homecoming\/ A \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 review of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) I lost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/spider-man-homecoming.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49530,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/10\/spider-man-will-join-the-marvel-cinematic-universe.html","url_meta":{"origin":156571,"position":2},"title":"Spider-Man will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Feb-15 7:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"Albeit with some contractual strings attached back to Sony.I would be more excited about this if I were more of a Spider-fan. In general, though, I find him ... meh. Mostly stand-alone, witty banter, tragic relationships, web-slinging and all that -- I just don't see him fitting into what has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":146128,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/07\/07\/a-non-spoiler-spider-man-far-from-home-quick-review.html","url_meta":{"origin":156571,"position":3},"title":"A non-spoiler “Spider-Man: Far from Home” quick review","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Jul-19 10:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A fun movie, very Spidey, with some interesting themes layered in","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)"","block_context":{"text":"Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/marvel-cinematic-universe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spider-man-far-from-home-poster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spider-man-far-from-home-poster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spider-man-far-from-home-poster.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spider-man-far-from-home-poster.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spider-man-far-from-home-poster.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44138,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/04\/sony-beats-marvel-and-dc-to-a-super-herione-movie.html","url_meta":{"origin":156571,"position":4},"title":"Sony beats Marvel and DC to a super-herione movie","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-Aug-14 1:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"What with DC still dithering about how difficult it is to work with Wonder Woman's background, and Marvel's Kevin Feign complaint Marvel's calendar is already too full, kudos to Sony for beating both of them to the punch. The point not being that a female superhero film will necessarily be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130655,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/14\/force-ranking-the-mcu-heroes.html","url_meta":{"origin":156571,"position":5},"title":"Force-Ranking the MCU Heroes","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 14-May-16 12:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an attempt by \/Film to force-rank the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe [(which apparently excludes Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, though not the Netflix series or Agent Carter). It's a mook's game, of course, because (a) everyone's going to have their own preferences, and (b) there are cases where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156574,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156571\/revisions\/156574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}