Hello, Peter! The internet has gone stark raving mad dissecting the first trailer for Spider-Man No Way Home, for easter eggs. We're less interested in trying to figure it out (we like to be surprised!) and more in what it's promising us. The familiar Tom Holland/Zendaya chemistry, mystical mayhem courtesy of Doctor Strange, and an attempt to relive the glory days of Sam Raimi's original Spidey trilogy (2002-2007).
We're in but let's do the Yes No Maybe So™ as we watch the trailer together after the jump...
MJ: This is a good one. Some suggest Parker's powers include the male spider's ability to hypnotize females.
Peter: Stop. Come on
MJ: Yes, my Spider Lord
YES - The chemistry between Tom Holland and Zendaya has always been good so round three, please.
MAYBE SO - Then the trailer moves into backstory and the "I want" setup for the plot with Peter in trouble with the law due to the death of Mysterio at the end of Spider-Man Far From Home (2019). The exposition / fallout from the last "episode" (yes, these franchises are just longrunning tv series now obly with gargantuan budgets and multiple years in between episodes) might be boring in movie length form. We'll see. We do hope that we get Daredevil as Peter's lawyer though. It's the one fan-service buzz/rumor/wish that would mean a lot since why discard Charlie Cox when he was so fantastic in the role just because you want to "redo" whatever was done in those Netflix series?
Now everybody knows.
YES BUT MAYBE SO - The world is mad at Peter Parker/Spider-Man now. J Jonah Jameson (JK Simmons), heard in voiceover, is egging that hatred on. Tom Holland can easily sell this as his sensitivity as an actor is a huge boon to the franchise. But we hope they dont lay it on too thick since we know that he'll eventually be a beloved hero again so get right to the plot and don't make Holland mope for an entire movie. Part of what made him such an ideal Peter/Spidey is his ability to play the lighthearted joking just as expertly as the drama.
YES - quick shots of the very good ensemble cast. Yay, Marisa Tomei! Always welcome on our screens.
OKAY SURE, YES - Apparently the movie takes place around Halloween which might be fun for various costumed reasons. We're assuming these hanging vampire lights remind Peter of Doctor Strange. Cue: the next part of the trailer.
YES BUT ALSO NO - Full disclosure. A fan of Doctor Strange as superhero. Not a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch as this particular Sorcerer Supreme. Peter goes to visit him and for some reason Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum (aka his Manhattan townhouse) is engaging in some Doctor Zhivago cosplay.
NO - Clumsy joke about calling Dr Strange Steven. "I'll allow it" Why is Cumberbatch's new wig so bad? But also is this really Doctor Strange because the next thing he does seems very against what this character would do.
YES -Peter in half costume running through his high school cafeteria? What's going on here? This could be a good worlds colliding whet your appetite mini action setpiece. We have no context for this scene because the voiceover is dialogue between Peter and Strange which is about casting a spell to make the world forget he's Spider-Man.
Don't cast that spell! It's too dangerous.
YES -The voice of reason, Wong (Benedict Wong) because... obviously! Remember that great "Tabula Rasa" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the entirety of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Making people forget things through sci-fi or witchcraft is ALWAYS asking for trouble.
Wong is also in Shang-Chi for a couple of scenes so Benedict is starting to rack up the Marvel film count.
MAYBE SO - This immediate regret about wishes made is good relatable conflict. But why is Peter Parker this dumb and why is Doctor Strange this much of a personality transplant? Hopefully the movie makes this all make sense.
NO - What just happened? Peter asks. "Well," says the fanbase "you see there's this thing called 'the multiverse..."
I am not entirely convinced the multiverse makes good stories. It ruined The Flash series for me because it's just so boring to always retread stories like they're on a loop so that you can alter them. It lowers the stakes even further than superhero stakes already are because it's even easier to reset and just erase whatever story you've told. Superhero films already commit this sin too often by way of resurrections and the like. So what are the stakes if no heroes can ever die, the Snap can be undone by going back in time, and everyone is just a contract-signing away from rebooting their once retired performances?
MAYBE SO Here we see some Inception visuals of the universe getting all bendy. When Marvel first started doing these Disney+ series they made a point to say to the press that casual moviegoers wouldn't have to watch everything to understand what's happening in the movies. I balked. But here we see an example that this is actually happening. If you didn't watch WandaVision or its stinger when Wanda is clearly messing with opening up the multiverse you might have caught it in Loki where they purposefully disrupt the sacred timeline which will bring on the chaos of the multiverse. And if you didn't watch either of those, now Doctor Strange accidentally causes it, too, with a 'change this one little thing about the world' spell gone awry. So, in short. Until the multiverse is the norm, we're going to have multiple plot points in multiple series and movies which are all hitting this exact same plot mark. The mark, being, as Strange says, "we tampered with the stability of space/time. The multiverse is a concept about which we know frighteningly little"
YES There's a quick montage that looks like a fight between Doctor Strange and Spider-Man. Superhero vs Superhero fights are always fun even though they usually strain credulity. But it does give us this comfort-familiar visual of Strange pushing Peter Parker right out of Spider-Man body. It was always a treat to see The Ancient One due that to cocky men like Banner or Strange.
MAYBE SO THIS COULD GET AWFULLY TOO MUCH OR NOT ENOUGH - New suit! Or different Spider-Man? The possibilities are many. At this point we get a quick montage of images (some of them purposefully blurry and dark) that you could interpret as Venom or The Lizard and then Electro, and maybe Sandman, so it looks like the movie is going full Sinister Six on us. When Spider-Man 3 came out in 2007 people were really angry that there were 3 villains (and thus none of them were given enough time for development) and now people are happy that there are apparently going to be twice that many. Times and expectations change.
YES GIMME GIMME GIMME - Willem Dafoe's familiar creepy laugh with a tossed Green Goblin grenade.
Be careful what you wish for Parker.
YES - love a good threat masquerading as a warning. But again why is Doctor Strange evil now?
"Hello, Peter"
YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES - ...the money shot: Alfred Molina returning as Doctor Octopus, the best Spider-Man villain from the very best Spider-Man film ever made (that'd be Spider-Man 2 from 2004)
Spider-Man No Way Home opens December 17th only in movie theaters and if this one doesn't bring audiences back into movie theaters movie theaters are probably doomed. The lowest grossing live-action spidey movie (The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with Andrew Garfield) made $708 million globally and the highest grossing (Spider-Man Far From Home with Tom Holland) made $1.1 billion. (If you adjust for inflation, though, the champ is still the original Tobey Maguire Spider-Man)
Are you a YES NO or MAYBE SO?