Spider-Man Brand New Day Review: With Great Mutation Comes Great Responsibility.

Following Avengers: Endgame, I have grown pretty fatigued by Marvel films.
It has got to the point that I even find myself having little interest in watching the supposedly good ones, like Fantastic Four.
The exception to this is, of course, Spider-Man.
Excluding Batman, he is probably my favorite superhero, and I have enjoyed each of his films in the MCU.
So, I went into Spidey’s latest film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day with fingers crossed it would be just as good if not better than those films.
But, as someone who has not watched the MCU shows, could I connect with a film that has quite a few connections to those projects?
Thankfully, the answer is yes.

Brand New Day crafts a compelling Spider-Man story.

After Peter Parker (Tom Holland) had to erase everyone’s memories of him to save the world in No Way Home, he now has a lonely existence, protecting New York as the web-swinging hero.
However, when a powerful telepath begins terrorizing the city, Peter must put his feelings aside to protect his former best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), and especially his ex-girlfriend Mary-Jane (Zendaya).
Too bad a mysterious mutation is affecting Peter, forcing him to turn to other heroes like Yelena (Florence Pugh), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) for help.
Of the three, Frank has the most amount of screen time and serves as the comic relief of the film.
You would not expect the Punisher to work as a comedic foil but the script and Bernthal’s performance sell it.
His bond with Peter is also great, and we can see the two care about each other, despite getting on each other’s nerves every conversation (argument).

I would be up for seeing more Spider-Man and Punisher interactions in the future.

As for the spider himself, Tom Holland is once again excellent as Peter Parker.
Dealing with his loneliness, along with the unwilling evolution of his powers makes for a compelling arc that he sells well.
My favorite of the cast though is definitely Sadie Sink as… well, I won’t say.
What I will say is that her sympathetic, yet powerful performance got me interested in seeing a certain group of characters enter the MCU, which is more than I can say for any of the setup beforehand.

I am actually intrigued to see where the MCU goes post Doomsday now.

That being said, while I did love Sadie Sink in the role, I do think the writing around her was a little messy in terms of morality.
Nothing to ruin the film, of course, but I think it required a few tweaks.
What did not need to be fixed was the action, which is engaging and full of great shots.
Although I enjoyed the previous Spider-Man movies, they were lacking in the cinematography department, so it was a relief to see this was improved upon with Brand New Day.

There was clearly some inspiration for the Insomniac games with the way this was shot.

There was something that let me down though and that was the post credits scene.
You could pretty much just look up what happened after the movie and have the exact same experience as waiting to see it.
This and the slight messiness of Sadie Sink’s character are my only flaws with Brand New Day.
It is another fun Spider-Man film in a long line of them and it is justifiably making bank at the box office.
If you are a Spidey fan who has somehow not seen it yet, I would recommend getting your butt to a theater and expecting a good time.

The Odyssey Review: Adding New Depth to History’s Most Classical Story.

I have fond memories of studying Homer’s classics of The Iliad and The Odyssey in High School.
The two epic poems are perhaps the oldest surviving stories in human history but there have not been many big budget attempts to adapt them to the screen.
There was the Troy movie many years ago but that was more focused on being an action blockbuster than actually getting into the message of the story.
However, when I heard that Christopher Nolan would be adapting The Odyssey, I had no doubt that one of the greatest directors of our time would be up to the task.
The film follows the Greek Hero Odysseus, played wonderfully by Matt Damon, on his ten-year journey home following the Trojan War.

Odysseus’ quest to get home to his family is a timeless tale.

During his travels he must face monsters, potential mutiny from his men, and the wrath of the Gods themselves.
But even if the hero reaches his home of Ithaca, his trials will be far from over.
In Odysseus’ absence, suitors have taken over his home, planning to marry his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and usurp his son, Telemachus (Tom Holland).
These suitors are led by Antinous, who is portrayed through a delightfully scummy performance from Robert Pattinson.

Get ready to want to punch Pattinson in this movie. Although, that’s probably a bad idea since he is literally Batman.

Every actor in this movie, from those with large roles to minor, give it their all, which is quite funny given all of the casting “controversy.”
In the lead up to the film’s release, it was difficult to escape people complaining about Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Elliot Page as Achilles.
The latter complaint is especially egregious because, guess what?
Elliot Page does not play Achilles so all of that complaining was for nothing.

Elliot Page plays Sinon, a soldier from *The Aeneid* rather than *The Odyssey.*

Nyong’o and Page’s performances also only take up a few minutes of the film, at most, so it really goes to show just how disingenuous certain people were being.
Not to mention, the brief performances the actors gave were solid.
As I said, everyone in the cast does a great job, with my favorites being Matt Damon as Odysseus (of course), Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, and John Leguizamo as Eumaus in what might be the best performance of his career.

John Leguizamo is excellent as the faithful swineherd.

But enough about the performances, what about the rest of the film?
Well, the cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema and soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson are expectedly also fantastic.
Nolan shot the movie entirely on IMAX 70 mm (the first feature film to do so), and filmed on location across the globe, resulting in jaw dropping visuals.
There was also plenty of camera trickery, which added to the otherworldly nature of The Odyssey’s mythical monsters.
This was most apparent with the Cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwin), with the way he was filmed reminding me a lot of the original King Kong (1933).
Speaking of the Cyclops, his scene is nothing short of absolutely horrifying.
The same goes for Circe (Samantha Morton), where Nolan tries his hand at body horror, which resulted in me wincing into the back of my seat.
There’s the Laestrygonians, the trip to the Underworld, and many more unsettling moments.
Honestly, I would be very excited to hear it if Christopher Nolan’s next movie was a horror film.
I cannot imagine how scary such a movie would be.

The Cyclops and Circe scenes are probably going to haunt my nightmares for a while.

Nolan wrote the script for The Odyssey, adding new twists to the age-old tale.
I particularly liked how the events of the Trojan War drove Odysseus’ actions in this movie, along with how it led to his interactions with Athena (Zendaya).
There is also one particular scene with Odysseus’ dog and, as someone who lost their own dog last year, this moment made me tear up.

Although, the writing is not completely perfect because, as you may have noticed from the trailer, all of the characters speak in a modern dialect.
This does create a few moments where I was brought out of the film because of how modern everything sounded.
Also some of the creatures Odysseus faces go by pretty quickly, which makes sense given how packed the film is, but it felt like they should have either been given more room to breath or cut entirely.

Granted, this movie is already so long that extending it might have been a little much.

Otherwise, Christopher Nolan definitely lived up to expectations in adapting The Odyssey.
The performances are excellent, as are the techniques used to craft the film, and Nolan’s writing adds plenty of thematic weight to an already rich tale.
I expect The Odyssey to be nominated for a lot of awards by the year’s end and, should it win these, it will be very well deserved.
Do not listen to the biased detractors and go see this movie.
Just make sure not to drink too much water beforehand, otherwise you may be in need of a toilet break halfway through, because this a long one.

Spider-Man: No Way Home Review: A Nostalgia Film Done Right.

I quite enjoyed the first two MCU Spider-Man films.
Homecoming was a great example of a more grounded MCU film, with a fantastic antagonist, and while I did not like Far From Home as much as the first, I still thought it did a great job continuing the story of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.
Well, after seeing the third film, No Way Home, I can say that this one is easily the best movie of the three.

I thought it would be hard to top *Homecoming* but *No Way Home* did it in spectacular fashion.

Directed again by Jon Watts, No Way Home follows the events of Far From Home where Peter’s identity as Spider-Man was revealed to the world in a final act of vengeance by Mysterio.
With a conspiracy theory based witch hunt now invading every part of his life, spearheaded by J. Jonah Jameson (J.K Simmons), Peters goes to Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to request that he erase everyone’s memories of him being Spider-Man.
However, when Peter begins to add conditions to the spell, wanting M.J (Zendaya), Ned (Jacob Batalon), and his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) to remember, it causes the spell to go haywire and draw in any villain who knows Spider-Man’s secret identity from other universes.
Peter quickly finds himself under attack from these villains, most notably Norman Osborn’s Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and Otto Octavius’ Dr Octopus (Alfred Molina).

There are many old Spider-Man villains in *No Way Home* but Dr Octopus and the Green Goblin are by far the standouts with great performances from the returning actors.

And so Peter and Dr Strange must capture these numerous villains and send them back to their own universes before they cause too much chaos in their own, only for conflict between the two heroes to quickly follow.
With so many villains from previous Spider-Man films being in this movie, it would have been extremely easy for this film to just devolve into mindless nostalgia with no intelligence.
However, I think that No Way Home is a perfect example of a nostalgia film done right.
There are numerous quotes from the earlier films, including memes created from them, and these somehow work entirely.
What works even better is Tom Holland’s fantastic performance as Peter.
I have liked him in the role in the previous MCU movies but his performance in No Way Home is definitley his best so far.

Peter goes through a lot and grows a lot in this movie.

This film is essentially the end of the Spider-Man origin we did not know this trilogy was.
I would even call it one of the best MCU films, with it definitely being in my top ten, if not my top five.
No Way Home is the perfect example of how to do a film with nostalgia as a major focus.
December was a great release date for it because the movie’s numerous great callbacks and easter eggs make it feel like a Christmas present for Spider-Man fans.
Speaking of which, be sure to have a Merry Christmas.

Spider-Man: Far From Home Review. Good Film With Incredible Mid-Credits Scene.

Every so often, I will hear that the latest Marvel film has the best post or mid-credits scene in the entire cinematic universe.
However, when I eventually see the film, and the scene, I am almost always left disappointed.
Coming into Spider-Man: Far From Home I had heard nothing about its mid-credits scene, which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find it is my favourite in the entirety of the MCU.
There are two great twists and an amazing cameo that make this moment more than worth the wait.

London spider.jpg — The mid-credits scene of *Spider-Man: Far From Home* is the best in the entire MCU because of the implications it has for future Spider-Man films.

The post-credits scene is good too and, happily, so is the rest of the film.
Directed by Jon Watts, Spider-Man: Far From Home sees Peter Parker (Tom Holland) on a school trip overseas, where he plan to confess his feelings for Mary Jane (Zendaya).
However, his plans change when Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) ropes him in on a mission to save the world by helping a hero from the multiverse named Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal).
Now, although I said the film is good, it is a bit slow going at first and does have a few rushed moments.
For example, the growing friendship between Peter and Mysterio’s Quentin Beck felt like it happened too quickly, with an absurd level of trust built between them in such a small amount of time.

Even though Gyllenhaal and Holland do great jobs with their performances, the friendship between their characters feels very rushed.

Then there is this big exposition scene that could have been a lot better and is saved only by Gyllenhaal’s charisma.
However, after this exposition scene, the film goes full throttle with explosive action, culminating in a great third act.
Along with this, the comedy is also very good with Happy Hogan (Jon Faverau) and Peter’s friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) being particularly funny.
Then there is the relationship between Peter and M.J, who both have fantastic chemistry in their scenes, which are well performed by their actors.

peter and mj.jpg — Peter and M.J’s relationship is a focal point of the film and it is handled well.

Overall, I would say Spider-Man: Far From Home is another great addition to the MCU.
It is not quite as good as Home Coming but still very enjoyable.
Just be sure to sit through the credits to watch the amazing mid-credits scene.