I first published this in May 2022. But all of the live-action Spider-Man films are being re-released over the next several weeks so this seems an opportune time to re-publish this post. I went to see Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” (2002) yesterday, and it is REALLY TERRIFIC to see this on a big-screen again with great cinema-quality sound. I thoroughly urge you to go back down memory lane and give them a try!
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During the first Covid lockdown I revisted all of the “Star Trek” movies. After getting Covid… AGAIN… I’ve gone and revisited all of the “Spider-Man” feature films. I say “revisited”, although one will be a brand new review since I’ve never seen it before!
Spider-Man (2002).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons.
Director: Sam Raimi.
Writer: David Koepp (based on the comic books by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko).
Financials: $825M on a $139M budget (5.9x multiplier).
Plot:
When weedy swot Peter Parker (Tobey McGuire) is bitten by a genetically-altered spider he develops super-spidey powers. These powers let him get closer (albeit in disguise) to his dream-girl Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). But Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), the father of Peter’s best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco), has also been transformed. Through an out-of-control experiment, Norman develops an uncontrollable alter-ego, the Green Goblin, that is set to terrorise New York.
Review:
I remember being thrilled by Spider-Man when it first came out. And I have to say that time has not lessened its impact. The movie’s special effects still hold up really well.
Amongst all the superhero action, there’s also some dramatic bite. The death of Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) is well-done. Peter’s guilt, associated with his part in the events leading up to this, is palpable and moving.
Maguire (at 27) can’t pull off the school student vibe anywhere near as well as the Spideys to follow. But it’s still a highly likeable performance. And there’s genuine chemistry between Maguire and Dunst who, if there was one, would definitely win the Oscar for the dreamiest eyes! That upside down kiss is a moment in movie history, no doubt about it.
Sam Raimi really delivers here a fabulous movie that keeps you thoroughly entertained for the whole of its running time.
As a historical milestone, the movie of course came out the summer after 9/11. A reflected image of the twin towers still sneakily made the final cut. But the original teaser-trailer (pulled from theatres after 9/11) heavily features the towers.
Spider-Man 2 (2004).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, James Franco, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons.
Director: Sam Raimi.
Writer: Alvin Sargent (based on a screen story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and Michael Chabon. Based on the comic books by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko).
Financials: $789M on an $200M budget (3.9x multiplier).
Plot:
A new super-villain is terrorising New York in the form of Doc Ock (Alfred Molina). This is after a fusion experiment goes off the rails. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) must thwart Doc Ock whilst trying to navigate the stream of anti-Spider-Man propaganda from J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) and the efforts of Harry Osborn (James Franco) to avenge his father’s death.
Review:
I think that this movie has a ‘difficult second album’ feel about it. Although still full of the fun and action from the first movie, I don’t think it had quite the same level of carefree vim as the original. The story feels like it’s been written by a committee… which indeed it was!
That being said, it has a memorable villain in Doc Ock. (His reason for having his AI-arms though is a bit ludicrous. They could equally well be attached to the fusion device itself!). The movie has some memorable moments. The death of Ock’s beloved wife (Donna Murphy) is stylishly done, and the “New Yorkers together” scene on the subway car heavily reflects the prevailing post-9/11 sentiments.
There’s a particularly curious directorial decision in here that has always puzzled me. After Peter has his moped trashed, he is seen dejectedly dragging it home. Then we cut to an oddball, albeit very funny, scene in an elevator. Spider-Man is in full costume, talking to a stranger about uncomfortable crotch-riding-up! Then we are back to Peter dragging his bike along again. It’s almost as if Raimi loved the quirkiness of the scene, but there was no logical place to slot it into the movie. So he slotted it in anyway!
Spider-Man 3 (2007).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Topher Grace, Thomas Haden Church, Bryce Dallas Howard.
Director: Sam Raimi.
Writer: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. (Based on a story by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi. Based on the comic books by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko).
Financials: $895M on $258M budget (3.5x multiplier).
Plot:
Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are a couple, with Peter considering a proposal. But there’s a chance landing(!) of a meteorite next to them. A vicious symbiote (Venom) is set to turn Spider-Man into a much darker version of himself. If this wasn’t bad enough, Harry Osborn is out to kill his former best friend. And escaped convict Flint Marko accidently falls into a particle generator and is transformed into ‘Sandman’.
Review:
Oh dear! I remember being bitterly disappointed when this first came out, and time hasn’t softened that disappointment. It’s such a mess of a movie. Primarily because it tries to stuff the script with so many different ‘baddies’ that it is completely without focus. It’s telling that in the finale, although Venom and Sandman agree that they need to “work together” to defeat Spider-Man, they seem to do some sort of half-arsed ‘tag-team’ approach . You only ever see one of them attacking Peter at any one time!
I’ve read that Sam Raimi was really disappointed with how this turned out. But you’ve only got to read my summary of the plot (above) to say “Hang on a minute”! This was surely always going to end up as a confusing mess! Didn’t anyone in the production raise concerns?
Although the villain-overload is its biggest crime, the movie also has failures in the special effects department. It tries to be WAAAYYYY too clever with its visuals. Yes, some of the moves that Spidey does while swinging through the city are impressive. But other dramatic spinning and rotating camera shots are simply confusing and nausea-making. In particular, an extended chase scene with Spidey and Osborn, through a seemingly everlasting alley, plays more like you are watching a dizzying scrolling-video game.
The film has some redeeming elements. Maguire has great fun as “bad-Spidey”, especially when wowing the ladies of New York in his new slick suit. (This was later to be spoofed – in a “we don’t talk about Bruno” sort of way in the Spider-Verse movie!). And I enjoyed seeing Dunst strutting her stuff as a broadway musical star, rather like Kate Capshaw did in the opening of “Temple of Doom”.
The film cost a lot more than budgeted (some estimates are a whopping $350M). And although the worldwide box office was comparable with the previous films, this was to prove the end of the Raimi era. It’s probably not a bad thing in any case, since at 32 years-old Tobey Maguire was already laughably old to be playing a college student! But it’s bizarre to note that, after the success of “No Way Home”, there is a fan-based campaign (#MakeRaimiSpiderMan4) to allow a Raimi/Maguire comeback movie.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Irrfan Khan, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, Sally Field.
Director: Marc Webb.
Writers: James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves. (Based on the story by James Vanderbilt and the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko).
Financials: $758M on $230M budget (3.3x multiplier).
Plot:
While sneaking into a secret lab in the Oscorp building, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is bitten by a genetically altered spider and…. yada, yada… you know the rest! The head of the research project, Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) is trying to use the regenerative capabilities of reptiles to help humanity (and to regrow his amputated arm). But when he tries out the serum on himself, the experiment goes horribly wrong.
Review:
I thoroughly enjoyed re-watching this. I *think* I might not have seen this movie since first seeing it in the cinema ten years ago. As a reboot it covers all the same ground as the first Tobey Maguire film. However, it takes a somewhat different approach that keeps it fresh.
Perhaps learning some lessons from “Spider-Man 3”, the movie adopts a ‘less is more’ approach on the villains. There’s just a single villain – The Lizard – for Peter Parker to outwit. This frees up more time for the backstory of Peter’s childhood and his relationships with his aunt (Sally Field), doomed uncle (Martin Sheen) and school crush (Emma Stone). And the film is much better for that.
Andrew Garfield delivers a personable performance in the lead role. And Emma Stone is as mesmerising as ever, playing Gwen Stacey. It requires some suspension of disbelief though for the movies coincidences. Firstly, Gwen JUST HAPPENS to be the lab assistant at Oscorp. (What? A “part time” highly responsible job at a major corporation?). And secondly she JUST HAPPENS to have the city’s police chief as her father! The pair have a geeky sort of chemistry between them. But it’s still a bit of a stretch to believe they are both high-school pupils. (Garfield is a better age-fit than Tobey Maguire, but still not in the same league as Tom Holland).
As ever, the movie decends into a shoot-em-up finale that – thanks to some liquid nitrogen – has a lot going on. It also has an unusual end to the battle which I found quite appealing.
A negative for me, for once, was the music by James Horner. (I feel ashamed to be writing this, generally being a big fan). The theme is instantly forgettable and I found a lot of the incidental music to be unusually intrusive. Not one of his career high-spots.
By the way, there is a nice Stan Lee cameo on this one as an ‘oblivious to the carnage’ librarian. And the film does feature a mid-credits “monkey“, where (SPOILER!) a mysterious stranger (presumably a so-far-unseen Norman Osborn) visits Connors in prison.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Sally Field, Paul Giamatti, Felicity Jones.
Director: Marc Webb.
Writers: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinkner. Based on a screen story by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner & James Vanderbilt. And based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko.
Financials: $709M on $200M budget (3.5x multiplier).
Plot:
He’s haunted by his promise to Captain Stacy (an uncredited Denis Leary) to stay away from his daughter. But the love between Peter (Andrew Garfield) and Gwen (Emma Stone) continues to grow. The dangers in the background here are two-fold. Firstly, a mild-mannered janitor (Jamie Foxx), after an encounter with eels, turns into the destructive Electro. And then there’s Peter’s old school buddy Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan). He’s warned about a family genetic defect by his dying father (an uncredited Chris Cooper). But in trying to fix it, he turns into the Green Goblin.
Review:
Made in 2014, we are into the period here where I started doing my online reviews. So you can find my original review for this film here.
Again, as for the first Garfield film, I think I have only seen this once before. But, unlike that earlier film, I must admit to finding myself being rather bored with this one. It again smells of “writing by committee”. The story is a lot less inspiring than I remember it to be. The whole Osborn/Goblin thing feels bolted onto the main Electro story. And the “Rhino” ending, with Paul Giamatti, is utterly bizarre: was this set up for a sequel that never happened?
The script is also uninspiring and seems to lack a lot of the ‘zing’ of the first film. There is a lot of ‘talky-talk’ between the characters that doesn’t really move the story along. It feels almost ad-libbed at times.
The lacklustre Hans Zimmer score (“lacklustre” and “Zimmer”: not words you normally see together) also feels all over the place. Zimmer did this with “The Magnificent Six” (Michael Einziger, Junkie XL, Andrew Kawczynski, Johnny Marr, Steve Mazzaro and Pharrell Williams) and the different musical styles are jarringly obtrusive.
For me, the film is at least partially saved by a dramatic and memorable bell-tower scene that is both impressive, surprising and moving. It demands some great acting by Garfield and Stone.
But overall, this one is a bit of a mess, reflected in a lacklustre US box office of $200M on opening. This led to the cancellation of the planned #3 and #4 Garfield films. So, we were set to have YET ANOTHER reboot. But this time it was to be built on the firmer foundations of the juggernaut Marvel Universe movies.
Captain America: Civil War (2016).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr.; Scarlett Johansson, Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, Jeremy Renner, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Daniel Bruhl.
Director: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo.
Writers: Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. (Based on the Marvel comics by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby and (uncredited) Mark Millar & Steven McNiven.
Financials: $1,153M on $250M budget (4.6x multiplier).
Plot:
With the Avengers split and in open warfare with each other, Tony Stark seeks an ally in a kid he’s seen in a spider outfit helping people in Queens.
Review:
Not strictly a Spider-Man origin film, but the Marvel film that introduced not only the latest Tom Holland incarnation of the character, but also the hottest Aunt May so far in the shapely form of Marisa Tomei! (This is going to be an entertaining running joke moving forwards).
This is a cracking Marvel film. (I only ever got to see this on an airplane so never wrote a proper review for it).
In terms of the introduction of Peter Parker and Aunt May, that happens in the movie at 1h16m. The iconic airport battle, involving Spider-Man, happening at 1h29m. There’s also a fun ‘monkey‘ at the end of the credits that preps for the subsequent movie (the end caption is “Spider-Man will return”).
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, Michael Keaton, Zendaya, Robert Downey Jr., Jon Favreau, Jacob Batalon, Tony Revolori, Laura Harrier, Angourie Rice, Tyne Daly.
Director: Jon Watts.
Writers: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley & Jon Watts.
Financials: $880M on $175M budget (5.0x multiplier).
Plot:
After experiencing the highs of fighting with the Avengers, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is finding it hard slotting back into the highschool norm. Particularly as he can’t tell his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) or his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) about his secret identity. He has to be content with being the ‘friendly neighborhood Spider-Man’. But he gets something more juicy to get his teeth into when Toombs (Michael Keaton) – a local ‘blue collar’ arms dealer – starts hijacking shipments of alien weaponry.
Review:
My original review of this film is here. And I must have had my grumpy pants on, giving this only 3.5 stars! For it is a wonderful blast of fun from beginning to end. It seamlessly integrates the Spider-Man legacy into the MCU juggernaut (winding up towards its highpoint of the two “Infinity War” movies).
Tom Holland is the best fit so far for the role of Peter Parker – being young enough and geeky enough to pull off the 14 / 15-year old. And chewing the scenary wonderfully is Michael Keaton as “The Vulture” (almost doing a retread of “Birdman“). He just about steals every scene in which he appears. Also worthy of note is Zendaya, in her movie debut. She has limited screen-time but is memorable as the snarky and sarcastic M.J..
I particularly liked the counterpoint in the script between Toomb’s working-class ‘bad-guy’ arms dealer and Stark’s upper-class ‘good-guy’ arms dealer. Perception is everything!
The special effects are top-notch (even if pulling a bi-sected Staten-ferry together again seems a little unlikely to save it)! The film only lost my respect a little in a frenetic finale (a common complaint from me) involving a plane hijack. The action is just so rapid-fire and the editing so epilepsy-inducing that it’s really difficult to work out what’s going on at times.
After a couple of lacklustre Spider-Man soundtracks, Michael Giacchino really hits it out of the park with his new Spider-Man theme. Based on a 6-note motif, it is both Avengers-grade grandiose when played by the full orchestra but reflects the youthful frivolity of Peter Parker when played pizzicato on the strings. Superb.
All in all this laid a really strong foundation for the Marvel/Spider-Man franchise.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Tom Hiddleston, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Josh Brolin (and a heap of others!).
Director: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo.
Writers: Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Based on a story by Jim Starlin (uncredited)).
Financials: $2048M on $321M budget (6.4x multiplier).
Plot:
Thanos developments are proceeding! The purple villain is scouring the Universe to collect all of the Infinity Stones as the source of supreme power. For with that, and his specially forged gauntlet, one click of his finger will immediately cause half of the population to be vapourised. Can the Avengers stop him?
Review:
Again, I look at my original 4* review for this movie and think I was being prissy just because it was a Marvel movie. For this is one hell of a roller-coaster of action/adventure entertainment. It is infused with great humour but has more than its share of Shakespearean pathos.
It’s included in this summary – together with “Endgame” – since Spider-Man plays some key parts in the story. You’d have to be a completely sad and hopeless geek to note down an index of all the times where Spidey appears in this movie. But if you were, you’d find that they are at 18m; 1h00m; 1h18m; 1h46m and in the finale from 1h58m to 2h15m. The scene at the end here featuring – spoiler! – Spider-Man’s blip requires some real acting from Tom Holland. And this really hits the spot: I find this scene – a scared young boy mortally wounded on the battlefield – very moving indeed.
Infinity War is a truly epic production, currently standing at #5 in the greatest box office returns of all time. Another Avengers film in the following year was set to beat that. But before we get to that…
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Mahershala Ali, Chris Pine, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Zoe Kravitz, Nicolas Cage, Kathryn Hahn.
Director: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman.
Writers: Phil Lord & Rodney Rothman.
Financials: $376M on $90M budget (4.2x multiplier).
Plot:
Miles Morales is just a bright high-school kid in (Earth-616’s!) New York who gets bitten by a radioactive spider. After a brutal murder, Miles puts on the Spider-Man suit but needs someone to show him the ropes (or rather, the webs). Thankfully, a multi-dimensional rift allows some expert trainers to assist!
Review:
Quietly sitting between the two halves of the “Infinity Wars” money-train, this animated feature film came out in December 2018. I never got to see it at the cinema. But I heard a lot of Marvel fans raving about it on the web. And with good reason. Right from the Colombia logo, this is a dazzling feast for the eyes and the ears. A movie that shimmers with visual inventiveness. It’s also extremely funny, with some cuttingly clever dialogue, knowing digs at some of the earlier Spider-Man incarnations and visual gags that Ted Avery and Chuck Jones would have been proud of.
The list of stars doing the vocal performances is very impressive. This is a good answer to have in the back of your mind if there is a “Pointless” finals question on films starring Nicolas Cage, Lily Tomlin or Chris Pine! It’s worth staying for the end of the titles. Not only for the “monkey” (setting up for a sequel movie, and nostalgically delving into the original 1967 cartoon series). But also to hear Chris Pine hamming out a Spidey-Christmas hit. (By the way, he does NOT have a degree in Chemical Engineering as he moans about. It’s a BA in English!).
The Multiverse
I remember as a teen reading one of the cod-science books that were popular in the early 70’s. (This might have been Lyall Watson’s “Supernature”). I was intrigued by his description of double-slit diffraction of a light beam. If you reduce the brightness down to be a SINGLE photon at a time, you still produce the diffraction pattern. (This is true by the way). If there was only one photon, what was it reacting with to create the pattern? The author postulated that it was reacting with photons in the same experiment in a different universe! (I’m not up with my quantum mechanics to understand where the current thinking is on this stuff is!)
As such, the multiverse concept has interested me for a long time. The multiverse has been around in Marvel comics for even longer though, first appearing in a comic for “The Flash” in 1961. In the MCU it was first referenced by The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) in “Doctor Strange“. There were various “dimensions” visited by Strange in that movie. But “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was, I believe, the first Marvel movie to actually deliver on the vision of visitors from other universes converging on ‘our’ earth.
I’m not normally a huge fan of animated films (a reason why I haven’t included the wealth of animated Spider-Man shorts in this article). But this feature film really is a hugely impressive work. (It impressed the Academy as well, winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 2019 awards). If you haven’t seen it, it is WELL worth a watch.
Avengers: Endgame (2019).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Paul Rudd, Brie Larsen, Jeremy Renner, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, Josh Brolin (and a heap of others!).
Director: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo.
Writers: Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely.
Financials: $2798M on $357M budget (7.8x multiplier).
Plot:
Thanos has succeeded, sending half the population into oblivion. Earth is trying – and failing – to come to terms with what has happened. No more so than Ant Man (Paul Rudd). After five years he’s escaped from the Quantum Realm to find himself ‘missing presumed blipped’. But perhaps, even given the hopeless circumstances, he has an idea that can help.
Review:
The conclusion of this highly lucrative phase of the Marvel Universe, “Endgame” is second only to “Avatar” in terms of global box office. It’s another cracker, hugely entertaining though much darker in tone to “Infinity War”. (I actually prefer the first film). My original review of the film is here.
This movie is included in this article for completeness, since Spider-Man (Tom Holland) takes until the 137th minute to make an appearance! However, he does feature prominently at that point in the “Portals” battle at the end of the film.
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zendaya, Samuel L. Jackson, Jon Favreau, Jacob Batalon, Tony Revolori, Angourie Rice.
Director: Jon Watts.
Writers: Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers. (Based on the Marvel comic by Stan Lee).
Financials: $1132M on $160M budget (7.1x multiplier).
Plot:
Grieving after the death of Tony Stark, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is determined to go on his school trip to Europe with his friends, where he has romantic intentions towards M.J. (Zendaya). But he keeps ghosting Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who is desperate to contact him. For terrible forces – “Elementals” – have wreaked havoc in different parts of the world.
Review:
My original review of this film is here.
The movie beautifully follows on from “Avengers: Endgame” in solemn and reflective mood. But pretty soon, we slot back into the more light-hearted comedy that the series has nurtured. There’s a (very welcome) expansion for the roles of Betty Brant (Angourie Rice), as Ned’s unlikely new date (#punching). And Zendaya takes centre stage as Peter’s new love interest.
Micheal Keaton is obviously missing from this one. But in his place as the “guest star” is Jake Gyllenhaal who is clearly having a blast playing the mighty “Mysterio”. With his smirks and winks he is a fabulous addition to the series.
We also return to the concept of the multiverse… even if it turns out to be something of a red herring in this case.
It’s another top-notch soundtrack from Michael Giacchino. He complements his Spider-Man theme from the last movie with a plaintive M.J. theme and a wonderful theme for Mysterio: a pumping-electro intro leading to a suitably bombastic orchestral riff. His “Far From Home Suite Home” (LoL) on the soundtrack is a much-played piece of music on my Spotify.
Does the movie quite deliver on a childlike joy of “Homecoming”? After watching both films again, I think not. But it only misses it by about 10 or 20%. It’s still a highly enjoyable romp. And the mid-credit “monkey” is an absolute cracker, bringing back J.K. Simmon’s J. Jonah Jameson (not seen since “Spider-Man 3”) for a surprising and shocking reveal that kicks directly into the next film in the series.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2022).
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Talent: Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jon Favreau, Jacob Batalon, Tony Revolori, Angourie Rice and multiple surprise guests! (I’ve kept this spoiler-free. Although most of you have seen this, there might be some who haven’t and are blissfully ignorant of the various twists!)
Director: Jon Watts.
Writer: Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers. (Based on the Marvel comic by Stan Lee).
Financials: $1893M on $200M budget (9.5x multiplier).
Plot:
With his identity exposed and his life, and his friend’s lives, in ruins, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) turns to Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for magical help. But messing with a spell like that can have unexpected consequences for the multiverse.
Review:
The team behind “Far From Home” is back and with a bang. I saw this twice at the cinema (my original review is here). But it is not due to stream in the UK until late July (2022). From those cinema trips, it absolutely nailed it for entertainment value in my view.
Where this movie really scores is in making of mockery of all my previous moans about Spider-Man having been rebooted twice! (OF COURSE! IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW! NATURALLY, THEY INTENDED TO DO THIS ALL ALONG!! (smile)). The convoluted plot is just so clever in warping the multiverse concept to its needs. I had a massive grin on my face for a lot of the movie, particularly when the various villains arrived! It’s a stunning bit of writing, with some extremely poignant call-outs to past movies in the series (a diving catch for Zendaya is particularly affecting).
The film could also be credited with putting cinema movies back on the tracks again after Covid. Just look at that Return on Investment multiplier! It’s by far and away the highest multiplier of any of the Spidey films so far. And that’s only 6 months after release! It’s currently sitting at a majestic No. 6 in the all-time box-office rankings which, given the cinema-going circumstances, is extraordinary!
The Future for Spider-Man?
With the sort of box-office performance of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, you can be sure that Disney is going to want to keep this franchise going. But in what way? This article nicely summarises where we are in mid-2022. It looks like there are two animated sequels for the “Spiderverse” movie in the works (a no-brainer). And discussions are underway for another Spider-Man film… and possibly another trilogy of films. Will this be with Tom Holland and the gang again? Only time will tell. I’m sure their agents are negotiating hard and thinking of their 10 percents!
