I really hate the fact that the COVID pandemic has let me know how germophobic I am. A new spike in my homestate, and despite being masked, vaccinated, and boostered, meant that I was somewhat stressed out watching the latest Spider-Man movie in a theater. And I waited until a weekday afternoon to cut down on the crowds! There have been a couple times where my general unease in a dark room with strangers has worked to my general advantage, but this was not one of those cases. I want to relax when I see a Spider-Man movie, and I just couldn’t quite pull it off.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the movie, but keep that in mind as you read my review.
Picking up more or less where the last Spider-Man left off, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) has been publicly unmasked as Spider-Man and framed for murder by the late Quentin “Mystrerio” Beck. Hounded by both supporters and detractors, Peter finds himself under the microscope, leading to further problems for his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon). He does manage to beat the legal problems, but Peter can’t really stand the idea that his loved ones are suffering because of his own mistakes. So, he asks Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help. Strange can maybe help, but Peter’s requests as the spell is being cast cause a backlash. No one forgets Peter Parker is Spider-Man, but there might be problems coming out of the multiverse.
That problem rears its head when Peter finds himself being attacked by Dr. Octopus (Alfred Molina), apparently from a different universe, and he seems confused when the Spider-Man he’s battling is not the one he knows. It turns out a number of villains from other Spider-Man movies have also come through to the MCU, most notably Norman “Green Goblin” Osborn (Willem Defoe), and none of them seem too anxious to go back where they came from. Factor in as well that Peter isn’t comfortable with Strange’s methods for sending them back, and there’s bound to be problems. Peter wants to do right by everyone. Too bad other people don’t want to show him the same consideration.
This movie was a lot of fun, all told. The main purpose seems to be something of a conclusion and a mild reset for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. But it also plays as a celebration of all the cinematic Spider-Man movies. Molina’s Doc Ock actually seemed to be giving the same sort of performance as he did in his previous appearance in a very different movie from a very different director using a very different tone. Defoe also seems to have picked up where he left off, but his performance this time isn’t quite so over-the-top. I liked Defoe as the Goblin better in this one as a result. Factor in as well JK Simmons reprising his role as J Jonah Jameson, here imagined as an Alex Jones-style commentator, and there’s a lot to like just from the cast alone.
In many ways, this is a movie that says why Peter Parker is such a good hero: he does what he does to help others, even to his own detriment. That sets him apart from many other superheroes. Peter’s altruism makes him the only hero whose efforts to help others seem to explode so much in his own face despite his own well-meaning methods. If anything, the one problem I have had with these Spider-Man movies is that they always seemed to put Peter as a world-saving hero and not a friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man. Why is Spider-Man the hero who has to deal with the multiverse? Seems more like a Dr. Strange sort of problem, and he’s not the main hero here. Still, this was a nice tribute to the cinematic Spider-Man, and while it may come across as fan wank, it is well done fan wank.
Grade: B+
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