Fun Big Budget Disaster
First off, in the grand scheme of IMDB ratings, this is *not* an 8.4 by any stretch of the imagination. The paid ratings/reviews and recency bias among real users has reached a tipping point at this site and it is no longer a reliable source for objective movie reviews spanning the history of cinema.
Ahem...with that out of the way, "Spider-Man No Way Home" can be seen from a few different vantage points.
In one, and the major, sense it's a pretty entertaining big budget superhero flick that's mostly well written, acted and directed. There are some funny one-liners and situations and, of course, excellent special effects. However, the run time is too long and the writers tried to tie way too many MCU storylines into it. I mean like *way* too many.
In another sense - perhaps related to the last point in the preceding paragraph - it's a "Why did they really need to make this?" type of film. There are a couple of obvious answers and they are, in order, 1) $$ - HUGE box office $$ and 2) A genuine love of the MCU by the writers, which they took too far w/ all the storylines they tried to cram in. Another aspect of this movie - and the continuing MCU saga movies - is the same actors and actresses are in all of them now. Not only that, but they use actors that are also appearing in seemingly every other big budget or Oscar bait movie made. Do I *really need* to see frickin' Benedict Cumberbatch or Zendaya in ANOTHER movie at this point? Couldn't some other actors use the work? Yes, I understand that there is a continuity issue with switching actors while trying to extend the franchise(s) along the same story arcs, but since we all know they're never going to stop re-adapting Marvel characters/comics, isn't it time for a reset/refresh? Get some fresh faces in there and start over already. Kind of like what they've done with the switch from Toby McGuire (who probably is too old to play a young Peter Parker, admittedly) to Tom Holland. Either that or just take a break!
By now you can probably see that I'm fatigued of these MCU creations in just about every way and that "Spider-Man No Way Home" only added to that. Still, if you've read this far and are looking for a fun, shallow superhero film, and you haven't already seen them all, you could do a lot worse than this.
My rating: 5.4/10 rounded down to 5. This does not deserve an 8.4 rating along or above the pantheon of legendary movies that currently have equal or lower scores.
Ahem...with that out of the way, "Spider-Man No Way Home" can be seen from a few different vantage points.
In one, and the major, sense it's a pretty entertaining big budget superhero flick that's mostly well written, acted and directed. There are some funny one-liners and situations and, of course, excellent special effects. However, the run time is too long and the writers tried to tie way too many MCU storylines into it. I mean like *way* too many.
In another sense - perhaps related to the last point in the preceding paragraph - it's a "Why did they really need to make this?" type of film. There are a couple of obvious answers and they are, in order, 1) $$ - HUGE box office $$ and 2) A genuine love of the MCU by the writers, which they took too far w/ all the storylines they tried to cram in. Another aspect of this movie - and the continuing MCU saga movies - is the same actors and actresses are in all of them now. Not only that, but they use actors that are also appearing in seemingly every other big budget or Oscar bait movie made. Do I *really need* to see frickin' Benedict Cumberbatch or Zendaya in ANOTHER movie at this point? Couldn't some other actors use the work? Yes, I understand that there is a continuity issue with switching actors while trying to extend the franchise(s) along the same story arcs, but since we all know they're never going to stop re-adapting Marvel characters/comics, isn't it time for a reset/refresh? Get some fresh faces in there and start over already. Kind of like what they've done with the switch from Toby McGuire (who probably is too old to play a young Peter Parker, admittedly) to Tom Holland. Either that or just take a break!
By now you can probably see that I'm fatigued of these MCU creations in just about every way and that "Spider-Man No Way Home" only added to that. Still, if you've read this far and are looking for a fun, shallow superhero film, and you haven't already seen them all, you could do a lot worse than this.
My rating: 5.4/10 rounded down to 5. This does not deserve an 8.4 rating along or above the pantheon of legendary movies that currently have equal or lower scores.
- pacocharte
- Mar 16, 2022