"The perfect comic book movie."
/5 Reviewed by Adi MursecWhen I walked into the cinema to see this movie I thought I’d seen it all from online spoilers and trailers from the last few months, but thankfully what I had seen didn’t even scratch the surface of how unexpectedly awesome this film is. I might still be running on a bit of hype from just watching it, but I think it was easily the best Marvel movie so far.
Warning, this review will be full of spoilers from this point onward.
The movie starts off shortly after the demise of Mysterio in Spider-man Far from Home, at the end of the movie Mysterio ends up killing himself but in his last breath tells the world that Spider-man is Peter Parker, and he was responsible for all the destruction. The world is a little divided at this point, as many still believe Mysterio was a hero and Spider-man killed him in cold blood.
At this point, the police bring Peter, his friends, and his family in for questioning. We see Charlie Cox’s Daredevil as he gives Peter some legal counsel. I would be pretty excited about this point as it means we could get more Daredevil. However, this is Marvel, and they like to troll fans. Remember during Wander Vision when we thought they would bring in the X-men starting with Evan Peter’s Quick Silver but then turned out to be some random neighbor named Ralph Bohner. Until they release a trailer for a new Daredevil series, we need to count this as a cameo and nothing more.
From the trailers we’ve seen the premise from then on follows Doctor Strange helping Peter out. Doctor Strange doesn’t have the Time Stone anymore, and he’s no longer saucer supreme either due to being missing for five years during the blip. He casts a spell to make people forget Peter Parker is Spider-man, but it goes wrong and instead of making people forget, it pulls in villains from throughout the multiverse who know who Peter Parker is.
Norman Osborn/Green Goblin played by Willem Dafoe comes across as the main villain in the story. Being the first movie villain in the Spider-man movies, he’s managed to keep in shape and has all that twisted personality and split personality thing going on still. I never thought in a million years we would get to see him return, but they managed to it and do it very well. He was really sinister and totally messed up Tom Hollands Spider-man.
Max Dillon/Electro played by Jamie Foxx really stepped up his villainy and was a lot more comic accurate in this movie. He’s been reinvented slightly, as he now has a body and is a little less mentally unstable. I’m so glad Jamie Foxs returned and again much like Green Goblin he’s just really stepped up the villainy, this time with more of a plan.
Dr. Otto Octavius played by Alfred Molina was the first villain to be confirmed from what I can remember, I think Alfred let it slip in an interview, and it spawned loads of rumors from then on. He plays a big part in the movie and is the first to really gain redemption and a second chance. Tom Hollands Spider-man managed to fix his controls over the tentacles, and he immediately decided to switch sides and make up for the bad he’s done in exchange for a second chance.
Dr. Curt Connors / The Lizard played by Rhys Ifans was great to see again. I feel like some of his parts may have been cut to move the movie forward a bit, he’s first captured by Doctor Strange and appears in a cell. It felt like they could have had a big sewer chase here with Spider-man, but he’s pretty much a background character, although they managed to fit so much into this movie I guess some characters needed to lose focus at parts.
Flint Marko / Sandman played by Thomas Haden Church was a great addition to the cast. He adds a bit of an extra dimension to it. Yeah, he was a villain, but he had his reasons and in this movie he follows on with them. He’s been pulled through into another universe and just wants to return, at any cost, so he can see his daughter again. So some villains want to stay in this universe as they died in their own, he wants to return, and it brings a bit more drama and heart to the movie, especially the final battle.
Venom played by Tom Hardy, just a bit of humor for the mid-credits scene and left a bit of the symbiote behind. I’m not sure what the plan is for him in the future of Sony’s Spider-man movies. He doesn’t cross paths with Tom Hollands Spider-man, so it felt like they wanted to keep an open door for Venom’s interaction with Spider-man. Who knows maybe there is a different actor playing Spider-man in his universe.
So that’s a quick run down over the sinister five and a bit. They have all been pulled into the main MCU, Doc Oc and Green Goblin find out they died in their universe and initially want to stay. Doctor Strange creates another spell to send them back, but Peter Parker decides he wants to help them before he sends them back to imminent death. He has the technology to cure them of whatever makes them villains, and wants to help.
This leads us to the most heartbreaking scenes in the movie, where Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May is killed by Green Goblin during an escape. It’s a tough scene to watch and gives Tom Hollands Spider-man an uncle Ben moment. It was more than unexpected for me but really breaks Peter at this point, he wanted to help a group of villains and ended up getting his only family killed. Furthermore, it’s at this point I realized how much they stepped up Tom Hollands Spider-man. I personally think his previous two Spider-man movies felt like Iron Man spin-offs. He had no personal identity, as he had backup and all the weapons he could use. Now we see Hollands Spider-man really feel alone, and it is a heartbreaking few scenes.
Enter the legendary Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Spider-men. They are both back, Garfield looks just as he did back in the day, but Maguire has aged a bit and is a bit further on in his life. It’s such a relief they are both actually back, and it’s not over done, it was just a perfect return for them both. It’s the ultimate nostalgic moment for any Spider-man fan over the age of 30.
They find Tom Hollands Peter Parker hiding and in emotional pieces on a rooftop. They explain how they have both lost people such as Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy and explain how much it changed them. Furthermore, they wanted to give this Spider-man a better chance at dealing with loss and all decide to stick to the plan of fixing the villains before sending them back to give them a second chance.
Onwards to the final act, the big battle on the Statue of Liberty. Now this is an amazing battle again it’s full of heart and emotion, there is even a part which we briefly saw in the trailer where MJ played by Zendaya falls off some scaffolding reminiscent of Gwen Stacy, Tom Hollands doesn’t manage to save her but this time Andrew Garfield did. He really is the Amazing Spider-man, wish we got to see Garfields third movie, but this did help close off his arc.
One by one we see the sinister five being cured and see the redemption in their eyes, but Green Goblin isn’t giving up without a fight and there is a pretty bloody battle between him and Hollands Spider-man. Maguire’s Spider-man stops Hollands from killing Green Goblin and takes a knife in the chest for it. In the end Goblin is cured, and they all get set to return to their own universes and second chance.
Doctor Strange comes in to try and send them back, but at this point, it’s too late, and we see a cloud full of Spider-man villains trying to claw their way in. At this point, they decide to cast a new spell which makes everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spider-man I’m sure I’ve missed a good few Easter eggs at this point as we see dozens of siluets of Spider-man characters.
Now the ending is genius, we’re left with Hollands Peter Parker all alone in a world where nobody knows who he is. Not even Doctor Strange remembers. He’s no longer got the Iron-Spider suit or any Stark Technology. All his friends who they created just for the movies have forgotten him and have enrolled in college. Basically, they managed to reboot Tom Hollands Spider-man on the third movie. We’re left with a scene of him making a new suit from the material as he should have in the first movie, and it feels like he’s aligned with what everyone wanted for a new Spider-man.
Pretty much anything people have complained about in the previous two Spider-man movies has now gone, we’re left with Peter Parker on his own with his secret identity and a clean slate for future movies. Sony/Marvel Studios could do anything at this point. Personally I’d love for Holland to continue making movies within the Marvel Studios MCU and Garfield/Maguire to continue making solo movies with Sony.
They have given fans so much in this movie I can’t see anyone complaining, it might be the perfect comic book movie. At one point, I didn’t think they could top End Game. The most recent movie the Eternals was a bit of a flop and regarded as the worst MCU movie so far, then a few weeks later they pull this one on us, and they have all of a sudden raised the bar on comic book movies in a whole. I loved the Zack Snyder Justice League movies but if I had to choose between the Justice League and more Andrew Garfield Spider-man movies at this point, I’d easily choose more Spider-man any day of the week. Sony made a monumental deal when they bought the movie right to Spider-man all those years ago, and I hope they keep making these movies.
I’ve been to see movies and wanted my money back, this is the first one I’ve left, and thought I want to pay more for this movie, it delivers on so many levels and I could easily sit in a cinema and watch it on repeat all day. The fact they just brought the original Spider-man movies into the MCU makes me wonder what they will do with the X-men in the future.
Posted by Adi Mursec on December 15, 2021
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