I’ve heard it said that Garfield was the best Spider-man, Maguire the best Peter, and Tom Holland a mix of both. I’d agree-Garfield was good in his movies, but they were pretty meh. Tobey is always serviceable. Holland is usually great.
A few thoughts about this film (not all my own):
Does this mean Ned never gets to explore his magic?
They should have swapped out the Lizard for Paul Giamatti Rhino. (sorry, you were a sub-par baddie. No offense to Rhys Ifans ). And bring back Mysterio-Holland never really got to fight one of his bad guys. Not that he has any yet…
Maybe Zedeya as Venom? Think of that fight. He has to take her out without letting her know who he is and why it’s so emotional for him. And if the symbiote knows and twists the truth in explaining it…
I wish their suits were a little more different at the end. Parker 2 & 3 were a little too similar.
Personally, I thought Garfield was better than Maguire as Spider-Man, and Maguire was better than Garfield as Peter, but Holland was better than either at both.
Maybe? It’s not at all clear how the “Forget Peter Parker” spell works. Personally, I’m with @Push_You_Down:
So, he might have some memory of interacting with Doctor Strange and learning to use a Sling Ring, but he’d just kind of glide over the bits with Peter, and because Magic!, it wouldn’t even seem weird to him. Or he might completely forget it. Whatever works for the particular story he’s next used in.
That does make sense. A little snippet of him in the Sanctum would have been nice, though. And I wonder if Strange remembers-or did he blank his own mind, too? I can see an argument for either side of that one.
ISTR it being mentioned that he would forget as well. Which is going to make the upcoming Doctor Strange film interesting if he’s meddled in the multiverse in a big way and doesn’t remember doing it.
Yeah, the whole mess was created in the first place by trying to add exceptions to the Forgetting spell. No one, including Doctor Strange, remembers Peter Parker.
I suspect that in his movie, Doctor Strange will remember having meddled with the Multiverse, and that whatever multiversal crisis is happening is at least in part due to his hubris, but both his memories and the movie itself will just glide over the details.
But Rhino was from the same movie as Electro, leaving out Lizard would have included no one from the first Garfield movie. The selection of villains was meant to include one from each pre-Holland movie.
I’m looking for style, not substance! Do you want Paul Giamatti in a Rhino suit and a terrible Russian accent in your movie or not?! He can break into a liquor store with Thomas Haden Church!
A bit late to this. I thought it was alright, and probably the worst MCU Spiderman movie. I did enjoy the jokes about different spidermen, but I thought the villian performances were not great and the fight scenes were also very generic. Tom Holland and Zendaya have good chemistry for obvious reasons.
I’m also confused about the spells. Spell 1- everyone but MJ, Ned, Aunt May, and Happy forget that Peter Parker is Spiderman… then Spell 2 is that everyone forgets Peter Parker altogether. Dr. Strange explained it but I guess it didn’t register.
It’s funny that you say that because for me one of the weakest aspects of the MCU Spider-Man films is that Peter and MJ have absolutely no chemistry at all. It is especially evident to me in Far From Home.
The first time, it was a spell to make everyone forget that Parker was Spider-Man. Except he kept adding riders to it (except May, except friends, except…) during the casting which eventually tangled it up to the point of making him a multidimensional beacon for the other Spider-Man villains (and Spider-Mans). The second time was a more nuclear option of just making everyone forget who Parker was which canceled the multidimensional thing but also meant his friends, Strange, Happy, etc all had no idea who he was any longer.
Pragmatically, the first spell gave an excuse to bring in all the previous Spider-Man cast and the second spell gave an excuse to wipe the Avengers out of Holland Spider-Man’s continuity in case Sony wants to make non-Avengers connected solo SM flicks.
I understand everything you wrote. I don’t understand why the second spell had to be different than the first one. I mean, it’s fine, “a wizard did it!”, but it didn’t seem to make sense in the movie continuity. Your meta-explanation does make sense though.
As I remember (saw it in theaters), it had to do with the whole impending dimensional collapse – lightning portals in the sky, yadda yadda – and not having time to screw around with what was maybe good enough to work. Clearing Parker completely off the psychic books was the fool-proof option that was going to prevent it in the few minutes they had left.
The way I took it was when the first spell broke, it started bringing in people who knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man, until Strange stopped it. When it exploded, it started bringing in everyone who just knew Peter Parker so they had to do the more drastic spell.
He can break into a liquor store with Thomas Haden Church!