Last night, the much-hyped trailer forSpider-Man: No Way Homefinally dropped.
Yepp,Alfred Molinareprises hisSpider-Man 2role of Doctor Octopus.
We hearWillem Dafoe’s trademark Green Goblin laugh fromSam Raimi’s 2002Spider-Man.
We, above all else, recognize the thing from before.
But, as they say in wrestling, it’s a cheap pop.
It’s empty calories.
Image via Sony Pictures
It’s not a great moment, it’s a plastic repackaging of a previous great moment.
It’ll get theEndgame-level reactions in the theater, but what’s next?
(Or, more accurately, how much better they think things used to be.)
Image via Sony Pictures
Iconic performance can’tbecomeiconic if they’re not allowed to stand alone in their time.
And it all circles back to Marvel’songoing reluctanceto letTom Holland’s Spider-Man star in his own Spider-Man movies.
This movie and the hype surrounding it don’t belong to its central character.
The question is, who will we seebesidesTom Holland?
Where areTobey MaguireandAndrew Garfield, two previous Spider-Men, one of which led a series we didn’t evenlike?
Is thatThomas Haden Church’s Sandman fromSpider-Man 3?
Is that half a second ofRhys Ifan’s Lizard fromThe Amazing Spider-Man?
Is that THE rolled-up shirt sleeves ofCharlie Cox’s Matt Murdock from Netflix’sDaredevil?
We’re all just sitting in a theater playing Where’s Waldo together.
We’re all having fun here.
But the biggest movies in the world aren’t telling us A-Z stories anymore.