23: Spider-Man, Vivarium, and More
Gareth Higgins on SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME
Audiences were apparently overjoyed with the well-trailed but still delightful surprise in Spider-Man: No Way Home. It’s been out long enough that I can spoil the surprise: three Peter Parkers show up, in the form of the current wearer of the suit, Tom Holland, and his two predecessors in the role, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. It was a lovely moment in a massive movie, which now seems on target to be the highest-grossing film ever. People wanted to be reminded of the joy they felt at the previous Spider-Man movies, and they welcomed the presence of Maguire and Garfield like lost family members. (Much as they love Holland - a star who embodies an integrated masculinity: he’s physically adept but not a hulking monster, he’s got a diverse friendship circle, he loves his mother-figure and needs a father, he’s willing to give his life for the sake of the vulnerable, in short: he’s kind.)
But the most surprising thing about Spider-Man: No Way Home is not the reappearance of the early model Spider-Men, along with the villains he battled in the past. The least surprising thing is the fact that this most surprising thing has hardly been commented on at all. The villains, relished by Jamie Foxx, Alfred Molina, Willem Dafoe, Rhys Ifans and Thomas Haden Church, are all given a second chance. Instead of being destroyed, they are offered a path to healing. (One character even rejects the typical action movie invocation of how to get rid of your enemies, saying that we should cure some ass rather than kick it.)
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