Spider-Man: No Way Home is what Marvel universe and cinemas need
The themes of redemption and the emotional impact within the latest Spider-Man film take it right up there to be one of Marvel’s best, Duncan Lay writes.
Entertainment
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If you are only going to see one movie this year … you’re a bloody idiot, because you need to see at least two and preferably four.
Top of your list is Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is the film that the Marvel universe and cinemas needed.
I was lucky enough to see it on Tuesday night, at a screening where we had to hand in our phones beforehand so no spoilers could be revealed.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to reveal any spoilers here. Not that I’m pretending to be a wonderful person or anything, it’s more that there are so many spoilers I would need a bigger column to go through them all.
Even if you are not generally a fan of superhero movies, this is an amazing film.
The themes of redemption and the emotional impact within this film take it right up there to be one of Marvel’s best.
Like many other fans, I was becoming fearful that Marvel was losing its touch. After Avengers Endgame, the movies have been a little predictable and even a little blah.
The TV shows – apart from the brilliant WandaVision –weren’t really setting the world on fire. Worse, they were demanding you pay the Disney+ subscription and watch them so you could keep up with the movies.
That was making me resent them.
No Way Home clears the slate and catapults Marvel back to the top.
But don’t go out and see it this afternoon. You do need to do some homework first to truly appreciate it.
They have been featured on the trailers so it is not a spoiler to say that Tom Holland’s Spidey is facing most of the villains from the three Tobey Maguire movies and the two Andrew Garfield films.
So see the Maguire films on Binge first. They are brilliant, so that’s no chore. The Garfield ones are nowhere near as good but if you are on a roll, see them on Netflix.
The point is to understand the baddies are not just cartoon characters.
Seeing No Way Home after that is like having a grind of black pepper and a sprinkle of parmesan on your pasta. It just adds something.
(True, the Garfield ones are more like adding kale. Doesn’t taste the best but you know you probably need it.)
Anyway … No Way Home.
It’s funny, it’s dramatic, it has huge emotional and physical stakes – it’s as good as the original Avengers and only a cobweb off Avengers Endgame.
Marvel needed it and cinemas need it. The crowds have been building since they reopened but this demands to be seen on the big screen and before you do hear any spoilers.
Most importantly, you need to see this in a crowd. It’s like being at a sporting event.
You need to be swept up in the emotions, which magnifies your own.
There were three giant cheers and outbreaks of applause during my screening and the huge roars of laughter, gasps of horror and cries of joy during the film is something you just can’t get at home.
For superhero fans and indeed for film fans, this is the grand final. And your team wins.
Divisive result of Spielberg’s ‘Woke Side Story’
Steven Spielberg is one of the world’s great directors, with an extraordinary string of hits so big that you need fences taller than the ones from Jurassic Park to round them all up.
But he may be putting that all on the line, with his remake of West Side Story more like “Woke Side Story”.
The original 1961 musical won an Oscar for Rita Moreno, who was the only Puerto Rican actor in the cast, while the racism in the story was also turned down several notches so it didn’t upset those parts of America whose weekend hobbies still included pulling on white hoods and burning crosses.
For those who missed it, it’s a classic Romeo and Juliet story. The Sharks, a gang of Puerto Ricans and the Jets, a gang of white Americans, battle for control of a slice of New York. Tony, a Jet, falls for Maria, the sister of the leader of the Sharks. Can their love survive the battle, a series of emotional songs and sparkling dance numbers?
Obviously it was ripe for a remake that kept the dance numbers and peppy songs and added actual Latinos to a story that requires nearly half the cast to be Puerto Rican.
I thought that was brilliant. And having the Sharks and their families speak in Spanish also makes perfect sense for recent immigrants.
Except Spielberg has gone an extra step by refusing to add subtitles.
Spielberg gave an interview this week where he explained his decision: “If I subtitled the Spanish I’d simply be doubling down on the English and giving English the power over the Spanish,” he told IGN.
Whaaaat?
Maybe he needs his old mate ET to phone home and explain that getting the Twitter-verse orgasmic doesn’t translate to box office success.
Although naturally some sections of that are already turning on him by saying leaving the subtitles off is discrimination against the deaf and hard of hearing.
Seriously, you might as well try to reason with Jaws.
Anyway, so it seems you need to either learn Spanish, leave your Google translate on or try and guess what’s happening.
Here’s my handy suggestion guide. They look angry = fight scene approaching. They look happy = there’s a dance number next. They look constipated = there’s a love song coming up.
I have always felt that the dialogue in musicals was just filler to get you to the next song and dance number but this is a bit ridiculous.
A couple of months ago I saw The Suicide Squad in a cinema that hadn’t adjusted the picture properly, so the subtitles for the Spanish dialogue had fallen off the screen. I found that more annoying than the plot of the 2016 original.
Still, perhaps the machinations of Woke Side Story will be easier to understand than the evil plans of corrupt generals from a cartoonish Latino nation.
Or maybe not.
It feels like Spielberg may have backed himself into a corner that even Indiana Jones would struggle to get out of.
Still, there is one ray of hope in that regard. Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull may no longer be his most divisive movie after this.
Got a news or entertainment tip? Email weekendtele@news.com.au
Why new Bond has to go back to the beginning
Have you seen the final Daniel Craig James Bond film yet? If not, hurry up!
I’m not going to reveal the big spoiler at the end but suffice to say people either love it or they hate it.
I loved it and the way it wrapped up the Craig sequence of films. You can now see those as a self-contained series.
Best of all, it gave Craig’s version of the character a fitting send-off, something none of the others received.
The final scene we had with the other Bonds was usually them snogging the Bond girl, to the accompaniment of a rather laboured double entendre.
By the time Roger Moore wrapped up his run in View To A Kill in 1985, he was 57 and had more than a whiff of Creepy Uncle about him while seducing Bond girls young enough to be his daughter.
The biggest challenge facing Q (Desmond Llewellyn) was not how to create an exploding pen but how to make Bond’s hair dye job look natural.
What I loved about the ending of No Time To Die was the way it wipes the slate and gives the series a chance to completely reboot.
In some ways it compares to the Christian Bale Batman trilogy, which is a complete story arc and sit separately from any other Batman movie.
I think they need to take the series back to the 1960s and start it over. This also allows them to use some of the legendary villains from that era.
They don’t have to remake Goldfinger or Dr No or any of the others but they can use those characters as a starting point. And, of course, lose the casual racism and sexism that makes certain parts of the early movies awkward to watch now.
The 1960s also means technology does not play as large a role. That opens up the door for storylines where Bond has to save the day because he can’t order up reinforcements.
It also allows for intriguing storylines if – as I hope – they go for a black Bond.
In certain parts of the US in the 1960s, a black Bond would have more to fear from the police than he would from Soviet agents.
Yes, that’s bad news for the likes of Ralph Fiennes (M) and Naomie Harris (Moneypenny), who lose their gigs, but I always thought it was awkward having the main character change while the supporting actors stay the same.
Poor Lois Maxwell, who was the first Moneypenny, who was desperately in love with Bond, somehow never noticed that he kept changing his face and getting younger.
Having said all that, if they don’t take that chance to reboot the series and instead try to keep it going in the present day, I will perform a politician-style backflip and hate the ending.
MGM motion picture group president Pamela Abdy recently told The Hollywood Reporter that “very early preliminary discussions” had taken place over who would be the new Bond but it seems a decision won’t be made until next year.
That’s fine. But whoever it is, they need to set it in the 1960s because, for secret agents, that’s the time to die for.
Got a news or entertainment tip? Email weekendtele@news.com.au
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Modern Family star teases reboot
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