Bullet Points: Spider-Man: No Way Home
I am by no means a hardcore fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At this point, I have probably missed as many MCU movies as I have seen. But while I might skip an Ant-Man or Black Widow movie, there’s no way I am going to skip a Spider-Man movie. So when the opportunity presented itself to attend a screening of Spider-Man: No Way Home, I jumped at the chance…
- The Secret is Out: The movie begins with the aftermath of the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home, specifically Mysterio revealing to the world that Spider-Man and Peter Parker are one in the same. The revelation goes worldwide thanks to The Daily Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson (and can I say that I truly believe one of the reasons J.K. Simmons was put on this planet was to bring the J. Jonah Jameson character to life) and this puts Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and those close to him in the eye of a media storm and the subjects of a federal investigation.
- An Unorthodox Solution: Peter, his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) are doing their best to weather the storm and adjust to their “new normal”. But Peter feels guilty when the trio, who dreamed of attending MIT together, are all rejected “in light of recent events”. Peter wants to make things right for MJ and Ned, so he turns to Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to see if he can go back in time and prevent his secret identity from ever being exposed… Doctor Strange does not want to fool with the space time continuum anymore, but the Doctor does have the idea of a brainwashing spell that might just do the trick… but it ends up doing much, much more.
- The Multiverse Has Arrived: Thanks to Peter’s impetuous interference the spell goes haywire and The Multiverse is opened! This aspect of the movie has already generated a lot of buzz with characters from previous Spider-Man films being prominently featured. This creates scenarios that would have never been possible before and gave the movie an “anything can happen” vibe. Peter and his allies spend the rest of the movie not just undoing what has been done, but trying to make things better. And it all ends up with a big action finale that would make Remo Williams proud.
Spider-Man: No Way Home takes the Spider-Man franchise and turns it up to 11. I went in knowing I should expect the unexpected and I was not disappointed. Filled with the visually stunning effects you’d expect from a Marvel blockbuster with some laughs and a few moments that will pull at the ol’ heartstrings… Spider-Man: No Way Home is a dream come true for Spidey fans.
Here’s a dream come true for Bonus Bullet Points fans…
- Nice Reference: At one point Doctor Strange makes a reference to the 1980’s series The Equalizer and suddenly I regretted skipping 2016’s Doctor Strange. And speaking of the 80’s…
- Soundtraxx: I have mentioned in the past here on the site and on The Bulletproof Podcast how Spider-Man Homecoming featured two of my all-time favorite 80’s tunes, well the tradition of quality 80’s music continued in Spider-Man: No Way Home with the inclusion of “I Zimbra” by the Talking Heads.
- Dragoism: I couldn’t help but notice that Doctor Strange channeled his inner Ivan Drago at one point.
- But Wait, There’s More: There are two bonus scenes one in the middle of the credits and one at the very end setting up two more Marvel films of the future.
