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What can you expect from one of the top tier titles of the Marvel Disney cinematic universe? Not much as it turns out.
A note which could account for my disdain for this movie:
* The version I seen was the no frills, traditional screen - almost 4:3. So although the format did appear to be widescreen, there were black bars on the top and bottom, it seemed to have been somewhat cropped and zoomed in. Could this be a limitation of the hardware display or a ploy to usher more people into the much more technologically superior and larger IMAX, and what have you, screens?
Notwithstanding that, this movie seems half baked from the get go with what seems to be a redeeming up-tilt a quarter ways in, which then surely ebbs back into a dull doldrum. At times the footage seemed to be pre-production quality. Unnervingly realistic looking, no post-processing overlays or effects, every little lighting or color correction, just raw footage straight from the camera.
You'd often see this type of material on DVD/Blu-ray features which include previously cut scenes, which for obvious reasons would not have the polish and post processing done as that's just a waste of time and resources.
The overall cinematic imagery is woeful. The scenes seem to be almost first run throughs to probably get the lighting and sounding rigs set up properly. With cramped, zoomed in shots and awkward angles, composition seems to have not even been given an afterthought. This is especially perturbing when dramatic scenes have a tight, closed in focus on the actors face which only draws attention to the tepid dialogue. Mired into this is the equally dismal visual effects which was flat, poorly choreographed, lacked any dynamism and seemed gratuitously added to lengthen the run time.
The peppering of apropos jokes and jibs that Marvel uses to great effect in its other movies falls flat in this screeching, slow train car of a movie. The comedic timing, if any, is off and seems to be arbitrarily interspersed within the lackluster dialogue. Another movie which had this same issue was Captain Marvel.
The narrative has a tenuous, bumpy flow, with a plot that seems to have been strung together and improvised on the spot. This has all the makings of a made for TV movie by an outsourced, off-shore firm who've never worked with the intellectual property, nor the genre. Or even a made for TV show with all it's episodes glued together to make a full length feature film - Chimerascope if you will.
The movie is barely one dimensional in terms of its narrative, story and character development as well as, visuals and imagery. Ironic as the core theme is about the multiverse.
Cons - Weak script, poor, editing, mediocre character and plot development at best, C grade cinematics and direction.
Pros - Got me out of the house, when it ended.
Between the latest release of Marvel Spider-Man movies, for some odd reason I got the notion of Spider-
Man being in a some far away world or dimension. And at the time I assumed it was due to the snap that happens in Avengers: Infinity War.
Spider-Man: Far From Home seemed to be the ideal candidate, but no. It was just a trip to Europe, a rite of passage for any middle class, and higher, North American college student. The premise was meagre at best and didn't seem to offer anything except a side quest far far from anything worthwhile.
Neither that nor this latest release - Spider-Man: No Way Home - has our titular hero far from anything in the standalone series. Just far from unambiguous and inspiring titling.
Also with the recent Disney imbued Marvel releases being completely lackluster and insipid 2nd tier movies - I'm looking at you Shang-Chi and Eternals - I wondered if this would be good.
Being the first movie I've seen in a cinema (or cinema in the thee-yatre if yer British arrr matey) since Thanos' Snap, er I mean Covid-19 took the world stage, this still carries the traits of Marvel movies from the golden era. By golden ear I mean just the last decade or so since the first Iron Man.
It's not bombastic, instead has beautifully choreographed, visually gorgeous action scenes, mixed with a the subtle and well spliced comedic interludes that only Marvel seems to be able to execute flawlessly. Except for Captain Marvel, that was a train running on asphalt.
And to top it all off, it pays homage to the originals. A magnanimous tribute, a reconciliation of iterations, an existentialist untangling. Emotionally provoking, this movie (Britsh: film-picture with sound) signals that Marvel franchise is still cable of producing stellar movies, not just in terms of box office numbers but also of pure entertainment. Mostly because Sony owns the rights and somewhat allowed Marvel to step away from the white glove clutches of the House of Mouse from dropping another dud.
"GO WATCH IT"
- Martin Scorsese
Don't worry, Spider-Man: No Way Home did the thing with the Spider-Man Meme
Kirsten Dunst Teases Possible Spider-Man Return After Tobey Maguire's Comeback
Andrew Garfield Reveals Only People He Felt Bad Lying About No Way Home To
I was starting to wonder why I still have this blog up and running, apart from the fact it doesn't cost anything. It was supposed to be a low maintenance, and almost consistently update repo from my thoughts and musings. It's devolved from that somewhat in the last year or two and I also missed blogging for one year entirely - 2015. So with that it's kinda fallen by the wayside of a long standing blog. If it hadn't been for that one year lapse (I'd like to thank the academy, my non value adding job, part-time college I signed up for due that the aforementioned job and life for that one).
But anyway here is something I suppose is a short update - I got a Macbook Air, yes that's right, probably the No.1 hater of almost anything Apple has gotten a MacBook Air. In no short part due to the amazing M1 chips that were released about a year ago and also the fact that I needed something lightweight (which it's not quite) and powerful on the go. This one has that power and a battery life to drool over in spades.
So with much further ado, cue the unboxing video while I play and learn with this coy beast:
