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  • With a questionable premise, ‘Sing 2’ is as hollow as it is excessive

    I never got to see the first movie so I came into the movie without any attachments or expectations from the movie. I’m guessing most of the character work for these characters was done in the first installment but ‘Sing 2’ doesn’t do much with the characters they already have. While the film feels designed to just entertain and give its audience a good time, I find myself questioning a lot of the messages that are found in this movie for kids.

    The film begins with a musical that our characters are performing in – success that they have found obviously after the challenges they must’ve faced in the previous film – and they are quite victorious. They sing a very modern take on Prince’s ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ in a nod to Alice in Wonderland. Even with their sold-out performances, the show’s manager, Buster Moon, is hoping they’d catch the interest of the talent scout Suki, who is looking for new talent to bring to a Las Vegas composite called Red Shore.

    But to their dismay, Suki says that their show is entertaining but not quite what Red Shore is looking for. “You won’t cut it in Red Shore,” she says (and I’m paraphrasing) and she delivers the killing blow: “You’re just not good enough.”

    Motivated by the wise words of their rich patroness, Nana Noodleman, to work hard and prove everyone wrong, Buster takes his crew and goes to Red Shore anyway to audition anyway even if they weren’t invited to go.

    It’s this premise that gets me nervous. Instead of working hard to make a better show that would impress talent scouts, Buster Moon sneaks into an audition they were not invited to go and then proceeds to make a promise to give a show that includes a reclusive superstar, Clay Calloway, whom they have never met before.

    With a questionable premise, ‘Sing 2’ is as hollow as it is excessive

    Buster Moon and his company get the gig despite not having an invite, not having a script, nor having a superstar that they promised to deliver. All his crew’s hopes and dreams are resting on a lie, aside from the fact that everyone seems to be unprepared for the big-time like Suki had said.

    And then things get worse – for the crew, yes, that’s the heart of the story – but also for the questionable messages within the film.

    Mina, the sweet elephant with the amazing voice, is nervous about kissing her co-star, whom she’s never met. Buster Moon tells her, in a passive-aggressive way, to suck it up. There’s something wrong here. Rosita, a pig who is juggling her performing career and motherhood, is forced to do a dive from a great height when she has had no training or preparation. She’s just expected to do this because it’s the act that they wrote on the fly with no concerns about whether she could do it or if she was okay with it.

    With a questionable premise, ‘Sing 2’ is as hollow as it is excessive

    And then there’s the gorilla Johnny, who has to do a dance battle and it appears that he has no classical training and is constantly harassed by the master choreographer Klaus Kickenklober, who is mean and ruthless in his training. This bothers me a lot because, while Klaus is unnecessarily mean, it positions him and classical dance training as a bad thing. Later, the proposed solution to this is “going with the flow.” It undermines formal education in the arts. I have nothing against self-trained individuals but to demonize classical training seems very wrong.

    The film is filled with problematic storylines like this and handled in such a quick and dismissive way – some successfully while others not quite – which can exacerbate the misconceptions about what it takes to truly make it.

    And then, there’s the whole concept of making it. Red Shore looks and feels a lot like Las Vegas. It’s excessive and loud and bright. There’s no subtlety or class to all of this and it really equates success to money and bringing in the audience and it doesn’t quite anchor what it is they are doing – putting on a good show – to anything personal or meaningful. 

    If anything, the film really pushes a capitalist agenda by equating success to big and loud and bright and by any means necessary. 

    With a questionable premise, ‘Sing 2’ is as hollow as it is excessive

    The animation is amazing, though. The textures of the different fur and scales of the various animals are wonderfully executed. And you can’t go wrong with the songs of U2 (Bono does the voice of Clay Calloway). Even with the new arrangements, the songs are stunning. There are even some very spirited numbers like Coldplay’s ‘A Sky Full of Stars’ and Ariana Grande’s ‘Break Free’ in a spectacular visual feast.

    But at the heart of it all, it’s empty and shallow. The emotional beats are not fully pushed to their most satisfying end. It’s all visual gags – some quite good – and easy wins that don’t really stick because they came without any real deep struggle. 

    My Rating:

    5 stars - Don't Look Up review




    ––

    Sing 2 is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Find a cinema near you.

    ALSO READ:
    WATCH: ‘Sing 2’ Trailer Teases a Heartwarming Musical Adventure
    Animated Movie Event ‘Sing 2’ is Heading to Cinemas this February 23

  • ‘Uncharted’ is fun but lacks an emotional core that will make you invested in it

    I’ve played the video games ‘Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’ and ‘Uncharted: The Lost Legacy’ so I am quite familiar with some of the characters and the general vibe of ‘Uncharted.’ A quick look online reveals that the film version directed by Ruben Fleischer and starring Tom Holland will serve as an origin story for the games (as mentioned in several articles from Collider and Movie Web and imdb), though heavily borrows quite a bit of elements from ‘Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’ and, as some critics have stated, from many other adventure movies with similar themes like the Indiana Jones franchise.

    From the trailer alone you can see that the film makes full use of Holland’s incredible physicality and gymnastic skills to a great degree for some pretty hair-raising stunts. It promises all the thrills and spills of an adventure movie. The laws of physics and biology really don’t exist in this film – and so what? It’s a video game movie. There’s no way a person can do some of the things you will see here, especially after suffering so much damage from punches and slamming into walls. But Holland has stated that it was the most demanding work he’s ever had to do for any movie and you can really see him doing his stunts. For that alone, the movie delivers on its promises of thrilling action sequences.

    And while the film tries to bring the action from the game into the movie, what it fails to do is to really take its time to invest you in the characters. In a video game, whether you like the character or not, you are controlling the protagonist. Every time he does something amazing or cool, you feel connected to it because you’re holding the controller. The act of actually controlling the character endears the character to you. In a film, we are mere spectators so that investment has to come from a human element that is highlighted in the film.

    'Uncharted' is fun but lacks an emotional core that will make you invested in it

    For this film to truly work on all levels, it has to take time to develop some very important characters and their relationships with each other. The film presents us with Tom Holland as Nathan Drake, a young man who grew up in an orphanage with his brother, who both have the propensity for history, geography, and exploration. After they were separated after getting caught trying to steal a 500-year old map that details Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world, Nathan ended up growing up alone as bartender who engages in petty thievery until he meets Sully (Mark Wahlberg) who invites him to join in a hunt for Magellan’s lost gold. When Nathan finds out that his brother, who he hasn’t heard from in a long time, was Sully’s partner, he joins in on the hunt for the hidden treasure.

    The relationship between Nathan and Sam is vital to the film’s narrative. It is the prime motivating factor for Nathan to embark into this story but the film never takes time to truly show us what the relationship of the two was like. We just get the first scene when they were separated and are left to assume that they were close. This is a film. It’s more important to show and not to tell. The film lacks that connection we have to Nathan’s choice of joining the quest. Oftentimes, Sam is brought up to remind us why Nathan’s along for the ride but it doesn’t stick. It’s like the filmmakers just assumed we will want to see our hero risk his life in death-defying stunts that it isn’t important to emphasize on the why.

    'Uncharted' is fun but lacks an emotional core that will make you invested in it

    Similarly, Sully naturally is poised to become a surrogate brother to Nathan (though Sully is never trustworthy) but that relationship isn’t developed either. Instead, we get banter and funny one-liners that hinge entirely on their age gap.

    So while we go on this exciting adventure, we are in it just for the ride. We don’t actually get to feel the emotional beats. And while a lot of the action sequences are amazing to watch, there are quite a number of moments that lack clarity. Sometimes the camera is too close or the cut is too quick that we don’t see the full movement of how Nathan gets out of trouble. It’s not often but when it happens, it gets annoying.

    Because of the script’s lack of heart and emotion, the film is truly benefitting from Tom Holland’s charm and innocence. He is instantly likable and even if his character is a thief, you’re just naturally drawn to him. His physicality is amazing but he cannot carry the film through his charm and gymnastic skills alone. The script has to help.

    'Uncharted' is fun but lacks an emotional core that will make you invested in it

    Sophia Ali, who plays Chloe Frazer, gives Holland someone to bounce off with and it is their chemistry that grounds the piece but they’re not the centerpiece of this film. Antonio Banderas and Tati Gabrielle are so much fun to watch as the antagonists who will do anything to beat Sully and Nathan from getting the gold. Banderas is going for camp and looks like he’s having fun and Gabrielle just looks amazing in every scene.

    The last bit that bothered me is the way the film discusses history and lost treasure. While the whole scenario is similar to Indiana Jones, at least Indiana Jones was an archeologist who wanted to put things in a museum (still imperialistic and West-centric but his goals were for the preservation of culture and heritage, at the least). Nathan and Sully are after the gold for their own self-interest. It doesn’t matter that the gold was taken from the Philippines with the intent of bringing our riches to Spain.

    The Philippines is featured but they don’t really delve into our culture or history. It’s not important except where the gold is from – the film feels imperialistic all over again. For all of Nathan’s genius when it comes to history and the stories about explorers, he’s really just a treasure hunter. Without taking the time or the effort to contextualize the adventure, it seems that the film is saying it’s okay to take the riches of another country. It’s all fair game.

    So while I enjoyed the film for its inventive action sequences and death-defying stunts, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and left me wishing they gave Tom Holland more to do as an actor. Because ‘Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’ left me in tears at the end of it. I didn’t have any of that in this film.

    My Rating:

    5 stars - Don't Look Up review




    ––

    Uncharted opens this Wednesday, February 23 in cinemas nationwide. Find a cinema near you.

    ALSO READ:
    Thrilling Adventure Flick ‘Uncharted’ Opens in PH Cinemas This February 23
    WATCH: Tom Holland’s High-Octane Action Film ‘Uncharted’ Drops Final Trailer
    WATCH: Tom Holland Talks About the Stunts of ‘Uncharted’

  • ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ breathes fresh new life into a classic

    Hollywood always returns to tried and tested formulas with the hopes of bringing the audience to the theaters and scoring a hit in this very unpredictable landscape of movies. With comic book adaptations cornering the theaters – pushing comedies and non-Oscar bait dramas straight to streaming – the old checklists of ensuring a hit in the theaters is completely gone. This has led to some unappealing remakes and reboots of some “classic” IPs. There was Tom Cruise’s ‘The Mummy’ and ‘Men in Black: International,’ who had a great cast but a hollow script, ‘Terminator Genisys,’ and a few others. Appealing to nostalgia is a difficult juggling act as you have to introduce new audiences to the material while trying to satisfy the fans of the original but still delivering something new and refreshing.

    It’s why I was wary of ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ because what if this is just another appeal to nostalgia? Another cash grab of a famous IP, especially since ‘Ghostbusters: Answer the Call’ was met with some mixed reviews and was not the big hit it was expected to be. 

    I shouldn’t have worried. From the very start, ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ felt refreshing and new. Sure, there were rampant Easter Eggs left and right at the beginning but the focus of the film is on the new characters that they bring in. We are introduced to Callie (played by the very versatile Carrie Coon), who is struggling to make ends meet and she has to uproot herself and her whole family – Trevor (played by Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace) – to Oklahoma to a farm her estranged father had left her. The house is a wreck and they don’t know anyone in town but having no choice, the dysfunctional family has to try and start a new life here.

    Director Jason Reitman and screenwriters Reitman and Gil Kenan take their time to really establish the family dynamics. Trevor is rebelling (as all teenagers do) and Phoebe, who displays antisocial tendencies but is truly gifted with science and machines, and both have a tenuous relationship with their mother. Callie is at her wit’s end and she now has to face her unresolved feelings with her father as she deals with the legacy he has left behind.

    'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' breathes fresh new life into a classic

    And this is where the story begins to tether into Ghostbuster lore. Because, as hinted by the opening scene, Callie’s estranged father was a Ghostbuster. Slowly and organically, as Trevor and Phoebe discover who and what the Ghostbusters are (showing clips from the old movies as news footage) the worlds of the original film and this sequel start to collide.

    As the trailer shows us, the little town of Sommerville in Oklahoma is about to be run over by ghosts, and Phoebe and new friend Podcast (the hilarious Logan Kim) must take the mantle that was left behind at the old house and stop the ghosts with the help of Trevor, his love interest Lucky (played by Celeste O’Connor) and Phoebe’s science teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd).

    The film really takes its time to develop characters, relationships, and then the discovery of who and what the Ghostbusters are, and while all these elements are being brought up, Reitman weaves them into each other so that the film never feels scattered and all over the place. There is heavy use of elements from the first two movies but it’s never self-referential. It’s the story that was chosen to be told and it connects it directly with the first two installments of the franchise and this makes it feel like it’s doing something new with the IP.

    'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' breathes fresh new life into a classic

    The story is fast-paced and there’s quite a great number of funny moments and tense scenes, and at the very heart of it is a sensitive and touching story about a family that needs to embrace – not just their history and legacy – but their weirdness. 

    ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ is a fun movie that can be enjoyed by people who loved the first films or who’ve never seen it. There’s space in the filmmaking for both audiences. McKenna Grace manages to carry the film with the strength of her performance (and with a lot of help from Logan Kim, whose comic timing is impeccable) and I will always watch any movie with Carrie Coon in it. I shouldn’t have worried. This is how you make a new installment out of a thirty-year-old franchise.

    My Rating:

    5 stars - Don't Look Up review




    ––

    Ghostbusters: Afterlife is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures and now showing in cinemas nationwide. Find a cinema near you.

    ALSO READ:
    Paul Rudd’s Mr. Grooberson Gets the Call in ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’
    Finn Wolfhard Shares Love for ‘Ghostbusters’ Before Being Cast in ‘Afterlife’
    WATCH: ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Reveals Cute but Chaotic Mini-Pufts

  • With Spielberg directing, ‘West Side Story’ shines even brighter than before

    ‘West Side Story’ first debuted on stage in 1957 and is considered one of the greatest musicals of all time. It takes the Romeo and Juliet star-crossed lovers plotline and gives it a distinctly American flavour by transporting the narrative to then-present New York with the warring families represented by White Americans and Puerto Rican immigrants. It was turned into a film in 1961 and has been revived over and over again, even coming to the Philippines in 2017 courtesy of a British touring cast.

    It is that touring production back in 2017 that made me very afraid of this new revival. ‘West Side Story’ has some of the most beautiful music and songs of musical theater. The score of Leonard Bernstein and the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim are legendary and so many of these songs are ingrained into many of us, even if they aren’t musical aficionados.

    The 2017 touring production presented the show as is and it failed to capture the depth that the show can reach. After all, it’s a story about racial war and gangs. There’s a scene where a woman is ganged up on by a group of men and the Latin community finds the portrayal of the Puerto Ricans in both the original play and the 1961 movie to be problematic.

    What made me still want to see it despite my fears is that it is directed by the great Stephen Spielberg, a master storyteller who is well-versed in the nuances of a story’s humanity. I was later overjoyed to discover that Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay for their adaptation and what a powerhouse these two make.

    This new remake manages to keep all of the songs but make significant changes that only serves to really highlight the elements in the story that really make ‘West Side Story’ such a timeless story.

    West Side Story Review
    Photo: 20th Century Studios Asia

    In this version, Spielberg and Kushner allow the women to be much stronger in their portrayal in this film. It is still set in the 1950s but the women seem to have a stronger voice to make repeated calls for the two gangs – The Sharks, the Puerto Rican group, and the Jets, the American gang – to stop fighting. In this version, the women have hopes and dreams and even the lead character, Maria, who is usually so naive and innocent in the stage and the previous films, has a little more fire. Rachel Zegler’s performance gives her version of Maria a conscious choice to be with Tony (played by Ansel Elgort) while knowing full-well what this could mean. It makes the character, and the love story, so much more poignant.

    There is also a backstory that is given to Tony that adds a stronger redemption arc to the character and adds weight to events that unfold in the story. This new backstory makes Tony someone you want to root for because there’s a goal for something that is worthwhile and meaningful for the character other than love.

    West Side Story Review
    Photo: 20th Century Studios Asia

    The new changes also elevate what was once a love-at-first-sight story into an attraction born out of their surroundings. With Tony’s new backstory, seeing Maria is like seeing the purity and innocence of his new goals (of a more peaceful life) come to life. He is attracted to her because she’s a breath of fresh air. For Maria, Tony is a newcomer. He’s not one of the Jets that she knows of (though she later finds out he is) and he’s not one of the Puerto Ricans her older brother is forcing on her. For Maria, she’s looking to be free of her brother’s oppression and to enjoy the liberation that living in America promises. Tony becomes that for her. And in the process, they fall in love.

    Spielberg, ever the master storyteller, expands the world of ‘West Side Story’ and makes the city – the territory that the Jets and the Sharks are fighting over – as a character. Everyone is on the brink of eviction and some buildings have already been demolished in preparation to build the Lincoln Center. This tough neighborhood that is becoming a ruin becomes symbolic of the brokenness of the country. The city is a battleground and the fact that the discrimination is not addressed by the government and the police in any realistic and practical way bears weight to the story.

    Because unlike previous revivals, there is no painting of gray areas in this version. The Jets are a gang. The film doesn’t make any excuses for their racism. The song ‘Gee, Officer Krupke,’ which is usually sung and performed with a bit of humor in former performances becomes a scary insight in how some groups use the failure of the system as an excuse for their bad behaviour. Here, the Puerto Ricans have jobs. They’re in a gang to protect the neighborhood. In this film, the Puerto Ricans are in the right.

    West Side Story Review
    Photo: 20th Century Studios Asia

    And you can see it subtly even in the choreography. A big, wonderful dance number at the gym where Tony and Maria first see themselves is a showcase of fantastic dancing and camera work and editing. But in my perspective, the Americans – as good as they are – are not as impressive as when the Puerto Ricans burn the dance floor. Ariana DeBose (who received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in this movie) is a powerhouse. Her dancing and singing skills is equally matched by her spirited performance of Anita. She kills each number she’s in and like many wonderful actresses who played Anita before, steals the show by juggling the different textures of the character.

    It is also a brilliant choice of Stephen Spielberg to not use subtitles in all the Spanish parts of the film. There’s quite a number of long stretches of conversation in Spanish that you understand contextually from the sheer clarity of the filmmaking. It’s a powerful move because it puts the Puerto Ricans as equal to the Americans. Spanish is not second to English.

    Boasting some amazing set pieces, great choreography that is pretty to look at but always bursting with violence and rage, and some truly wonderful new renditions of beloved songs, ‘West Side Story’ is a marvel of filmmaking. It has the grandeur and sweep of a classic movie musical but it has all the energy and spirit of a contemporary movie. It’s only drawback is the many allegations that have come out about Ansel Elgort’s offscreen activities. He does a good job as Tony, though he’s not the strongest in the group. He delivers a sincerity that we’ve seen in films like ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ but it’s a heavy burden to see him there knowing what he’s done outside.

    But I won’t let that one piece of casting ruin what is otherwise a wonderful remake that corrects a lot of the dated portrayals of the original and the conservative approach to some of the themes. By fully committing to the story and its themes, Spielberg’s and Kushner’s ‘West Side Story’ is truly marvelous.

    My Rating:

    5 stars - Don't Look Up review




    ––


    West Side Story is released by 20th Century Studios and opens in Philippine cinemas this Wednesday, February 16.

    ALSO READ:
    WATCH: The Official Teaser to Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’
    WATCH: The Cast of ‘West Side Story’ Performs Songs from the Musical

  • The latest ‘Scream’ movie is a lot of fun but isn’t scary at all

    I really enjoyed the first ‘Scream’ movie when it came out in 1996. I remember watching it in the theater and was fascinated by how self-referential the film was (I’m not sure but we didn’t use the word meta back then) and how it criticized and praised slasher films and managed to provide surprises all throughout. I don’t remember much from the second and I never got to see the third and fourth.

    Considering that my attachment to the franchise isn’t deep, I was able to follow the story of the latest sequel (the fifth!), Scream, and enjoyed seeing Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette return as their characters. In fact, I enjoyed their return more than I did the new characters and they are not the real protagonists of the story.

    In this latest installment, the story follows two sisters, Samantha and Tara, who live in Woodsboro where the events of the very first movie transpired. Tara is attacked at home by Ghostface and Samantha must return to her hometown and face the dark secret that has led her to leave in the first place.

    In this reality, the story of the movie had been turned into a movie called Stab and everyone is aware of “the rules of surviving a slasher film,” and what is surprising is the amount of indifference the students of Woodsboro have with the news of another attack. Yes, the circle of friends that we are introduced to is affected by Tara’s attack but they are so desensitized by the idea of Ghostface returning to their town. They talk about it openly and discuss who would probably get attacked next. They walk around carrying tasers and protection. This is a town whose youth population is completely used to violence.

    In fact, it feels oddly reminiscent of how present-day Americans are so used to school shootings. They live normal lives and when a school shooting happens, they know exactly what to do. Is this a commentary on the violence happening in America today and it’s no longer a big thing among the youth? I can’t help but point that out.

    Scream Movie Review

    As Samantha investigates and tries to discover who attacked her sister, we are once again brought into the world of the franchise and people openly talk about their lives as if it were a slasher film because, after all, a killer is on the loose. There is a tongue-in-cheek aspect to this that is taken to its furthest extreme. It makes the film funny, funnier than I expected it to be, and then the film is not only making fun of itself (and slasher movies and franchises) but it started to unravel how films these days are so reactive to the audience.

    The relationship of movies and their fans is given center stage in the discussions here and it shows how much of the audience has become savvy of the outer workings of the film industry that some films are more focused on pleasing the fans than they are on committing to a story.

    And while this new installment of ‘Scream’ is working hard to hit the right notes balancing fresh scares with old themes, it falls into the trap of not hitting all the story beats. Melissa Barrera, who plays Samantha, doesn’t have the flair of holding your attention. Other characters are more interesting than our lead: Jenna Ortega’s Tara is so promising while Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mikey Madison are so interesting to watch as part of Tara’s group of friends, who are all possible victims or perpetrators. As the film tries to juggle the legacy of the franchise and bring something new to the series, its capacity to make us attached to these new characters doesn’t quite stick.

    Scream Movie Review

    So when Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette arrive to reprise their roles, that’s when the electricity returns for the film. The three have a complete understanding of this world and this particular genre so their presence creates electricity for the film. Unfortunately, it’s not their movie. I wish they had more screen time.

    And so while ‘Scream’ is fun because it takes itself lightly, reveling in the meta-discussions of slasher films in a slasher film, it’s never actually quite scary because we don’t really care that much yet about the new characters. There’s an inventive sequence filled with fake jump scares that’s just an absolute hoot to watch but other than these small moments of brilliance, the film doesn’t quite explode as it could.

    Scream movie review

    But considering foreign reviews have called this the best installment out of all the sequels, then I’m glad I didn’t see the third or the fourth. I had fun but it’s not going to stick with me the way the first movie did. Interestingly enough, that’s actually even mentioned in the film.

    My Rating:

    5 stars - Don't Look Up review




    ––


    Scream is holding sneak previews in select cinemas on February 1 and will release nationwide on February 2, 2022.

    ALSO READ:
    ‘Scream’ Rated R-16 Without Cuts to Hold Sneak Previews at Select PH Cinemas
    Meet the Next Generation of ‘Scream’ Stars
    WATCH: ‘Scream’ Final Trailer Features Early Rave Reviews

  • The Most Human Spider-Man Story Ever: A Review of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

    ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ was a completely unexpected cinematic experience for me. The story picks up just moments after ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, and what unravels is more centered on the effects of being Spider-Man in Peter Parker’s life than it is a comic book movie. While the film is action-packed and filled with meta commentaries on second chances, it feels more like a coming-of-age teen drama that is set in a comic book world and our protagonist just happens to have superpowers.  The first two movies (and Spider-Man’s involvement in other MCU movies) focused on what it meant to be Spider-Man, a friendly neighborhood web-slinger fighting crime and saving the world. And it also plays this off with him just being a high school kid.

    In this film, Peter Parker’s life as a teenager takes center stage. At the end of ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, we see the reporter, J. Jonah Jameson, announcing Spider-Man’s identity and in this film, Peter has to contend with the fallout of this very public revelation.

    Yes, there are super villains (we will get to that later) but the whole first act of the film and the crux of the conflict stems from how this revelation has affected Peter Parker (not Spider-Man) and the people around him – the people he loves. More than anything, we see how important MJ, Ned, and Aunt May are to Peter’s life. Yes, he’s a 17-year old kid who fought alongside Iron Man and Captain America and the rest of the Avengers but deep down inside, he’s just a kid. Director Jon Watts never lets us forget that – his youthful antics take on a deeper meaning – and it pushes us towards the incident and the cause of all this chaos.

    Because in order to get his life back – because the movie shows us the real-world consequences of living a public life as a superhero and not having the finances that Tony Stark has; if anything the movie shows us how being poor sucks – he visits Dr. Strange and asks him to cast a spell to make everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

    But as seen in the trailer, Peter realises the wording has to be exact, messes up Dr. Strange’s spell causing a rift in the multiverse. Enter the villains: Spider-Man’s enemies from different universes come crashing into the MCU and Peter Parker has to clean up his own mess and deal with some very, very difficult grown-up decisions.

    While the story revolves around a second chance – Peter Parker’s attempt at a second chance at anonymity leads to very dangerous consequences as well as a storyline involving the villains – this concept of “second chance” takes on a different meaning when looking at the film as a movie, a real-world product. Because, as the trailer has shown us, Alfred Molina reprises his role as Doctor Octopus and we all know Willem Dafoe returns as Green Goblin. Let me tell you, there’s more. But I’ll leave that to you to experience on your own.

    What is amazing about this is that we have actors given a chance to reimagine and play around with roles they played as far back as 17 years ago. The story in itself is compelling but sitting in the theater and watching an actor reprise a role he played in a movie set in a totally different reality and universe is just an incredible feeling. New things are explored with these old characters and there’s a feeling of something very new happening right before your eyes, while certain things remain frightfully the same. 

    The experience of watching this film brings out so many emotions. There are so many levels and layers to this idea of “second chances” that pervades throughout the movie – not just for Peter Parker – but for so many other characters as well. The human aspect of this film feels heavier and more grounded than any of the other Spider-Man films prior.

    And while there is so much joy in the experience of watching this film, this story is also very heartbreaking as it really gives us an in-depth look of a teenager whose very life has been torn apart by his escapades as a super-powered crime-fighting vigilante. Unlike the older Avengers, Peter Parker is 17, thinking about college, living with his aunt, and not the most financially capable of the other of MCU’s mightiest heroes. His life was just about to start and it was taken away from him and he now has to make some very adult decisions when he still hasn’t even graduated from high school yet. This is the heart of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ that really gives this movie so much depth. 

    And this is even amplified by Tom Holland’s, Zendaya’s, Jacob Batalon, and Marissa Tomei’s performances as Peter, MJ, Ned, and Aunt May respectively. 

    The film ends in such a powerful way that can be seen either as a bittersweet conclusion to the MCU Spider-Man trilogy or the beginning of another completely new set of stories in a world full of infinite possibilities. This was such a wild ride and I’m glad I got to see it in the cinema.

    My Rating:

    5 stars - Don't Look Up review




    ––
    Spider-Man: No Way Home is now showing in cinemas nationwide.