Spiderman: No Way Home

Not a tad disappointed at all. Absolutely fabulous.

I'm not really a MCU fan, but even then you've got to admit, Spiderman has its charm.

I remember when I was a little kid, in 2002, the first Spiderman was released. Starring Toby Maguire, it was the topic of the year. Back then, smartphones weren't a thing, we get our information from the newspapers and we watched the movies in the theatres instead of Netflix. Then there was a sequel, Spiderman 2, which was literally the topic of the year, even bigger than its predecessor. And I remembered I was in awe watching it - the movie stuck with me forever, and I can still remember the scenes even today.

I never really watched Andrew Garfield's reboot of Spiderman until 2 days ago. In my opinion, while Toby Maguire was the original one, he was a tad too mature. Andrew Garfield's is far less nerdy but is a much more agile and acrobatic spiderman, even though slightly weaker as it stayed loyal to the comic version by using web-shooters instead of shooting his own webs. 

Tom Holland's version never really resonated with me. I like his physicality and agility but he was far too talkative and immature to be a superhero but that's partly because he's in a universe where his 'colleagues' and villains were far too grand so his role was dwarfed and pale in comparison.

Until now, we've got Spiderman: No Way Home.

Spoilers - yes, all three spidermen are in the film! Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield are in too!

Let's just admit it, it was a mind-blowingly fantastic 2 and a half hours. The only complaint I have about this film is that the pace is far too high - you never really get to take a breath because the story just pushes along non-stop. I guess with 5 villains, you don't really get to rest.

I won't spoil too much other than revealing the other two are appearing, but I will just say I feel very, very bad for Tom Holland's version of Peter Parker.

He came into MCU universe as a young, innocent, naive kid. But by the end of the movie, he has absolutely nothing left. He lost his mentor, Tony Stark. And then, he lost his only family member - Aunt May. He had to watch both of them died, and one in his arms and he had to flee because he was being pursued. He then lost his friends because he pled Dr Strange to rid everybody of memory about him, including Strange himself. He lost MJ. He lost Ned. He lost Happy. He lost everyone. At the end, he started living on his own, starting a new life, but anonymously continuing as a spiderman.

My question is thus this, why can't Strange cast a spell that makes people forget about 'Spiderman', instead of 'Peter Parker'? If everybody is attracted to Peter Parker because he was Spiderman, making them forget about Spiderman should have done the trick equally efficiently. That way, at least Peter Parker gets to keep his friends like MJ and Ned, although he would probably still lose Happy and Strange. But that looks like a far nicer alternative than a lonely choice.

And this movie ends the trilogy. This effectively makes him the loneliest Spiderman. Toby Maguire's Parker had MJ and Aunt May, Andrew Garfield's lost Gwen but he similarly still had May. Holland's had nothing. It's really a very, very sad ending for a little kid who joined MCU happily but now has absolutely nothing left.

I hope there could be a sequel where somehow the spell breaks, and Strange gets a chance to fix it again. Or, better, maybe Wanda wouldn't be affected by Strange's spell, and Wanda retains her memory of Parker and looks for him in the next Doctor Strange movie.

He deserves a better outcome.

But overall, this movie is absolutely fantastic, worth every penny I spent. 

Disney+

Disney+ had 11/11 sales - first-time subscribers or returning subscribers get to pay S$1.98 for the first month, then the full price for the next if the subscribers don't cancel. I subscribed, mostly because I'm parasiting my sister's Netflix account and I wanted to return the favour, but then Disney+ SG is not available in Malaysia, so I watched it on my own. Initially, I went for the cartoons (childhood memories), then I tried to watch a bit of 24 and Lost, both series I briefly watched when I was little but never finished. I initially got bored.

Then, I saw Guardians by the Galaxy Vol.2. I watched the first, I remembered it was good. I remembered the second hitting the cinemas but I never watched it, so I seized this opportunity to catch up with what I lost. Holy shit. This began my madness about MCU.

Believe me or not, I didn't know MCU existed. I know about Avengers series but I didn't know it was part of a deliberate, planned Marvel Cinematic Universe. I didn't even watch Iron Man or Captain America to begin with. I remembered the tonnes of questions flooding my FB's page after Avengers: Infinity War about what the hell happened in the ending, and the hype about Avengers: Endgame, and also Black Panther because somehow Wakanda was a real thing.

Hooked, I immediately watched the MCU films I liked. Because I watched Avengers: Infinity War and then the sequel first, it was a bit boring trying to watch from the first - switching from an action-packed movie to an introduction is not a great idea. Next time, please just start from the jump.

I watched only the recent ones - Dr Strange, because Benedict played Sherlock and I liked him. As always, awesome actor. I then watched Spiderman, and jumped into the bandwagon of watching Homecoming and Far From Home, although I initially wasn't interested in them to begin with because Tom Holland's version of Peter Parker was a little 'too young' for me. But it was entertaining nonetheless (and I like Stark-Parker's father-son relationship a lot).

I just finished Captain Marvel. This movie was a bit boring, but it was still good. Pace's very slow after you've watched Avengers. I'm now hooked on WandaVision. I like Wanda, she's a powerful witch and a really intriguing character. Of all the characters in the MCU films, I like Wanda, Danvers, Peter Parker (ya, though I initially disliked him), Dr Strange (literally Sherlock with magic), and Guardians of the Galaxy's teams, especially Groot, and also Quill. And also Black Widow, but she lost points because she's quite ordinary, just equipped with fighting skills, when compared to the rest of the team members. But she's hot.

Needless to say, I'll continue the current MCU series. I regretted not knowing it earlier, and didn't watch Avengers: Endgame in the cinema, I could imagine it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Well, I never really liked Marvel. Now I like it only because I subscribed Disney+ and was introduced to it. Never mind, better late than never. I'm considering subscribing for one full year - that allows me to save 15% annually or 11 months + 1 month free, but other than these movies I'm not sure Disney+ has a lot else to offer me. But we'll see.

Looking forward to Spiderman: No Way Home!