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Reviews
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Very well made with some story problems here and there.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is a very enjoyable movie that I saw with my friend and his family a few weeks after opening night. My friend had already seen the movie and told me it was the best thing to happen to superhero cinema in a long time. I enjoyed the movie, but not as much as expected.
First of all, the actual production value of the movie was excellent. The acting, VFX, etc. Was very well done. The only real problem I had was some story and tone issues. When I watched this movie, I had not watched Spider-Man: Far From Home. My friend had told me most of the major story points, so I didn't feel like I had to watch it. This movie starts basically right where the last movie left off with Spider-Man's (Tom Holland) identity as Peter Parker being revealed to the public and being seen as a murderer of Mysterio. The opening scenes of the movie show Spider-Man being berated by the public about the "murder" and reveal of his identity. The tone of these scenes is very dark and claustrophobic with the feeling of Peter being trapped by the public. However, in the next scene, Peter picks up MJ (Zendaya) and a pseudo-happy song begins playing, shifting the tone quite abruptly.
As an ironic fan of Venom (2018), I was excited about the post credit scene, but felt the execution was not on point. According to exposition set up earlier in the movie, the spell cast by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) "malfunctioned" so that all Spider-Man villains who knew his identity were brought to the Tom-Holland reality to find spider man. Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) had no idea of Spider-Man's identity, nor anything else about Spider-Man, as the Venom duology take place far from NY. Thus, it makes no sense why Eddie Brock would have been brought through realities. This problem is shared with Electro (Jamie Fox), who didn't know Spider-Man's identity either.
Bringing it back to things I enjoyed about the movie, the action was superb. All of the fights are fluid and exciting with barely any stale moments. The bridge scene was a great reveal of Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) from different realities being transported to the Tom Holland reality. The Doctor Strange fight stood out to me the most. With the fight taking place in the mirror dimension with Strange having full control, it lends itself to some spectacular and trippy visuals. Despite being very abstract and out-there, the fight is still easy to follow and a blast to watch.
To address the positive elephant in the room, yes, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield playing the Spider-Men from their respective movies was an absolute delight. Some of my favorite scenes were just all 3 Spider-Men interacting with and playing off of one another. I was a bit skeptical of Andrew Garfield showing up in the movie given the lackluster quality of the 2 movies he starred in. However, he really stole the show and gave it his all in an amazing performance. Due to this, however, Tobey Maguire did not do nearly as much to impress me, despite me liking his movies more than the Andrew Garfield and occasionally Tom Holland movies. He was still great and had a lot of funny references to his movies.
Overall, Spider-Man: No Way Home is a pretty good movie.
The Legend of Bum-bo (2019)
Bum-bo Want Coin
The Legend of Bum-Bo is a great puzzle game that differentiates itself from the Binding of Isaac enough to feel like its own game, but still has a lot that Isaac fans can enjoy.