Secret Asshole
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A little over two years ago, I wrote an essay on a trend that was taking over Hollywood and media in general. A device known as 'subverting expectations'. Generally, this is done to 'surprise' an audience by giving them a 'twist' by people who think they're smarter than they are. While always being around in media and literature, it came to the forefront of pop-culture with Game of Thrones, Attack on Titan and perhaps most egregiously, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Now, I'm not going to rehash that entire thread, if you're interested you can check it out here: https://kiwifarms.net/threads/subverting-expectations-the-megathread.56952/
While this technique hasn't fully died out, as there are still plenty of creators who fucking hate their audience *coughs* Kevin Smith *coughs*, the entire writing device is rapidly losing popularity due to the massive amount of money, respect and franchise wrecks its left behind. That's one reason, but the second reason on the horizon is this. When I wrote my essay on subverting expectations, films had kind of slowed down, thanks to the oncoming pandemic. Considering that 2019 was when I wrote the article and now a new phenomenon was on the horizon, I figured to catch it by the balls.
And that is, Spiderman: No Way Home is the First Film Since 2019 to hit $1 Billion. Money has been shit out in the air for an absolutely fucking abysmal few years at the movies. Agendas are out the fucking windows. Its time for some FUCKING MONEY. But before that, we should discuss why Spiderman: No Way Home works in my opinion. Why Hollywood, games, books and other media won't learn and a suitable contrast to it. So we're going to do the good example: Spiderman: No Way Home and Matrix: Resurrections. Both have the benefits of coming out rather recently and have similar ideas. So we're going to do a comparison of why one works, why one doesn't and why, generally, this will probably be the only time it works.
So, fair warning, there will be major spoilers for both the new Matrix and Spiderman. I'm not fucking up the flow, so its in the subtitle and right here. If you're ok with this, lets fucking go.
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So, Spider-Man: No Way Home is a very good film that works in ways that it really shouldn't, especially it being a modern superhero film. There are several reasons why. So I'll go over them in no particular order:
The Last Spiderman Film is Actually the First Spiderman Film
This is probably the best reason why. Functionally, a lot of the complaints about the previous two Spiderman films is actually that Tom Holland is just 'Tony Stark Jr.' He gets to go on an adventure with him, gets a slick spider suit, gets access to all this Stark Tech and generally doesn't do anything on his own. There's no real parallels to him growing as a character, learning about sacrifice or consequences. That isn't the case here. With his identity revealed, he gets greedy and causes the very problems that result in the movie precisely because he doesn't understand. Spiderman's juvenile wish to have his cake and eat it too parallels the origin story where the guy stealing the money isn't his problem. Other people, the consequences of what he is doing, and his own greed brings about the entire situation he experiences.
Its actually brilliant, because we're used to origin stories being the first film, but truthfully its this one. Spiderman is greedy and wants everyone to remember who he is so he can keep his life identical while removing the consequences for someone he fought dying (which again, plays into the movie). This is a complete rehash of the Spiderman origin story, but in a way that's so fresh and original, you barely even notice until the iconic scenes hit you in the face. His carelessness and wanting his pie and eating it too result in an interdimensional rift which fucks up Strange's spell, so that other Spiderman villains come into this world.
Spiderman, still being naive, doesn't fully understand the ramifications. May herself starts a charity to help the mentally ill and disenfranchised, and low and behold William DeFoe (basically a schizophrenic) finds May and asks for her help. This leads to Spiderman trying to help all of the villians and cure them of their maladays. Meanwhile, Strange has a Mcguffin which will fix the spell and send everyone home (and to their deaths, as the villains). There's a fight, and Defoe ends up killing Aunt May, in a Parallel to how he was killed (impaled by the hover board). Here May insists that Peter was doing the right thing by helping the villains. That he wasn't wrong in wanting to not send them to die, and then she utters the iconic line: "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility".
While it could have been a shitty rehash, here it makes sense. Peter was acting responsible. He wanted to help these people. That was his responsibility, no matter how it ended up. The line serves the themes of the film. And it is also used differently. In previous films, it was an admonishment, a shaming. Here, its being used to uplift Peter in a way. So we're seeing it used differently and this is where we're seeing the development of Peter's Character for the first time. This is especially prevalent in the ending where Strange wipes the memory of Spiderman and Parker from everyone on Earth, effectively resetting him to nothing and being forced to rely on his own skills. We see him making his own costume and using his own resources for the first time, marking his growth and making him truly independent.
Nostalgia serves the Plot, the Plot does not serve the Nostalgia. See Also: Reversal of Meta
This is especially important. In the context and themes of the film there's the undercurrent of responsibility, consequences and the difficulty of staying pure. The villains dying in the previous films were basically the way hero movies were done. The villain simply dies, move to next villain, with no real pathos. Here, Anthony Garfield and Toby McGuire give their reasons as to why these villains died. Because they lost people they loved, they got bitter, stopped pulling their punches and they died because of it. And they themselves have regretted it ever since. Again, notice how Toby and Garfield's Peter Parker's play into the themes of the story: Responsibility and Consequence, as well as redemption. They're not just here to go "REMEMBER THAT", they're here because they're serving the larger themes of the narrative. And that they themselves are each individual characters with their own personality and motivations.
Redemption really is a big part of the plot. Like Garfield not being able to save Gwen Stacy, which haunts him. There's really a short touching scene where Holland isn't able to save MJ, but Garfield does and he has this bittersweet look on his face and he's about to cry. There's also a point where Holland is going to repeat the mistakes of the previous Spidermen and attempt to kill the Green Goblin, but McGuire stops him. Holland isn't perfect and he is about to be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the previous two, but is stopped. That redemption for all of them is important. Once more, the plot is served.
Meta but No Fourth Wall Breaks and the Multiverse Done Right
There's very little to take you out of this movie. There are certainly some meta jokes (Jamie Foxx mentions a black Spiderman, clearly referring to Morales and there's a little bit shitting on Anthony Garfield about how he never got a third movie in jest) but the important point is that they never take you OUT of the movie. The movie always wants you to be there. It wants you to remain focused, engaged and entertained. There's also very little exploration of 'what are they doing now', because the movie isn't primarily about the older Spidermen. Just a few cryptic hints, enough to be relevant, but nothing distracting. Mcguire and Garfield and serving the plot and their stories do not get in the way of the plot or themes with unnecessary bullshit.
The multiverse here actually feels real. That there are alternate universes with similar themes and different events. Of course there are a few little call backs and a nice couple of jokes here and there referencing the older movies but the important point here is that they're used very sparingly and only when important (Ned wondering if there's an alternate version of himself and asks Toby if he had a best friend and he gets kind of down when he says he did, and that he died in his arms) or Alfred Molina admiring the Arc Reactor in reference to the power source he was trying to create. These tidbits make you feel like the multiverse is alive and it isn't just forcing shit on you.
In the end: Why does it work?
Why this works is relatively simple: Everything in the movie is in service to the story and thematic elements. When major lines are used, they're done creatively, differently and done in important ways. Even DeFoe's "You know, I'm something of a scientist myself" isn't portrayed as humorous or anything, but has the same foreboding malice of the original delivery. This isn't nostalgia bait. This is a movie about learning that there are consequences to things, that you can't have your cake and eat it too, and sometimes even if you do the right thing, bad things will happen and you can't lose sight of the bigger picture, even if your emotions overwhelm you, or you will have regrets and do things that you will regret for the rest of your life. And essentially, Holland is still center stage. Its his story. Its both a conclusion and a beginning. Because he's matured, he doesn't need anyone, he understands his place and the nature of things and is fully self reliant.
As you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I think it is honestly the best superhero film since Infinity War (which I enjoyed more than endgame). It honestly destroys all current Marvel offerings and they're going to have to work REALLY hard to compete.
Now, I've went over why Spiderman works. Why does the Matrix not? I'm going to go over this briefly.
The Matrix Doesn't Work Because It is Pointless, Has No Plot, and is only created to make profit off of Nostalgia and Serves No Purpose. Its ideas are half realized and the story-telling is poppy dog shit.
There, that about sums it up. So where do I think things are going to go? I think that no lessons will be learned from Spiderman, and that nostalgia-bait and "REMEMBER THIS?!" will be done constantly. And now everyone, including Marvel and DC are going to try to ressurect old properties and films as nostalgia bait without understanding why Spiderman works. Its going to be a fucking hilarious disaster and another deluge of pure shit. Well, at least its better than the pseduo-intellectual 'subverting expectations' trash.
While this technique hasn't fully died out, as there are still plenty of creators who fucking hate their audience *coughs* Kevin Smith *coughs*, the entire writing device is rapidly losing popularity due to the massive amount of money, respect and franchise wrecks its left behind. That's one reason, but the second reason on the horizon is this. When I wrote my essay on subverting expectations, films had kind of slowed down, thanks to the oncoming pandemic. Considering that 2019 was when I wrote the article and now a new phenomenon was on the horizon, I figured to catch it by the balls.
And that is, Spiderman: No Way Home is the First Film Since 2019 to hit $1 Billion. Money has been shit out in the air for an absolutely fucking abysmal few years at the movies. Agendas are out the fucking windows. Its time for some FUCKING MONEY. But before that, we should discuss why Spiderman: No Way Home works in my opinion. Why Hollywood, games, books and other media won't learn and a suitable contrast to it. So we're going to do the good example: Spiderman: No Way Home and Matrix: Resurrections. Both have the benefits of coming out rather recently and have similar ideas. So we're going to do a comparison of why one works, why one doesn't and why, generally, this will probably be the only time it works.
So, fair warning, there will be major spoilers for both the new Matrix and Spiderman. I'm not fucking up the flow, so its in the subtitle and right here. If you're ok with this, lets fucking go.
------
So, Spider-Man: No Way Home is a very good film that works in ways that it really shouldn't, especially it being a modern superhero film. There are several reasons why. So I'll go over them in no particular order:
The Last Spiderman Film is Actually the First Spiderman Film
This is probably the best reason why. Functionally, a lot of the complaints about the previous two Spiderman films is actually that Tom Holland is just 'Tony Stark Jr.' He gets to go on an adventure with him, gets a slick spider suit, gets access to all this Stark Tech and generally doesn't do anything on his own. There's no real parallels to him growing as a character, learning about sacrifice or consequences. That isn't the case here. With his identity revealed, he gets greedy and causes the very problems that result in the movie precisely because he doesn't understand. Spiderman's juvenile wish to have his cake and eat it too parallels the origin story where the guy stealing the money isn't his problem. Other people, the consequences of what he is doing, and his own greed brings about the entire situation he experiences.
Its actually brilliant, because we're used to origin stories being the first film, but truthfully its this one. Spiderman is greedy and wants everyone to remember who he is so he can keep his life identical while removing the consequences for someone he fought dying (which again, plays into the movie). This is a complete rehash of the Spiderman origin story, but in a way that's so fresh and original, you barely even notice until the iconic scenes hit you in the face. His carelessness and wanting his pie and eating it too result in an interdimensional rift which fucks up Strange's spell, so that other Spiderman villains come into this world.
Spiderman, still being naive, doesn't fully understand the ramifications. May herself starts a charity to help the mentally ill and disenfranchised, and low and behold William DeFoe (basically a schizophrenic) finds May and asks for her help. This leads to Spiderman trying to help all of the villians and cure them of their maladays. Meanwhile, Strange has a Mcguffin which will fix the spell and send everyone home (and to their deaths, as the villains). There's a fight, and Defoe ends up killing Aunt May, in a Parallel to how he was killed (impaled by the hover board). Here May insists that Peter was doing the right thing by helping the villains. That he wasn't wrong in wanting to not send them to die, and then she utters the iconic line: "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility".
While it could have been a shitty rehash, here it makes sense. Peter was acting responsible. He wanted to help these people. That was his responsibility, no matter how it ended up. The line serves the themes of the film. And it is also used differently. In previous films, it was an admonishment, a shaming. Here, its being used to uplift Peter in a way. So we're seeing it used differently and this is where we're seeing the development of Peter's Character for the first time. This is especially prevalent in the ending where Strange wipes the memory of Spiderman and Parker from everyone on Earth, effectively resetting him to nothing and being forced to rely on his own skills. We see him making his own costume and using his own resources for the first time, marking his growth and making him truly independent.
Nostalgia serves the Plot, the Plot does not serve the Nostalgia. See Also: Reversal of Meta
This is especially important. In the context and themes of the film there's the undercurrent of responsibility, consequences and the difficulty of staying pure. The villains dying in the previous films were basically the way hero movies were done. The villain simply dies, move to next villain, with no real pathos. Here, Anthony Garfield and Toby McGuire give their reasons as to why these villains died. Because they lost people they loved, they got bitter, stopped pulling their punches and they died because of it. And they themselves have regretted it ever since. Again, notice how Toby and Garfield's Peter Parker's play into the themes of the story: Responsibility and Consequence, as well as redemption. They're not just here to go "REMEMBER THAT", they're here because they're serving the larger themes of the narrative. And that they themselves are each individual characters with their own personality and motivations.
Redemption really is a big part of the plot. Like Garfield not being able to save Gwen Stacy, which haunts him. There's really a short touching scene where Holland isn't able to save MJ, but Garfield does and he has this bittersweet look on his face and he's about to cry. There's also a point where Holland is going to repeat the mistakes of the previous Spidermen and attempt to kill the Green Goblin, but McGuire stops him. Holland isn't perfect and he is about to be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the previous two, but is stopped. That redemption for all of them is important. Once more, the plot is served.
Meta but No Fourth Wall Breaks and the Multiverse Done Right
There's very little to take you out of this movie. There are certainly some meta jokes (Jamie Foxx mentions a black Spiderman, clearly referring to Morales and there's a little bit shitting on Anthony Garfield about how he never got a third movie in jest) but the important point is that they never take you OUT of the movie. The movie always wants you to be there. It wants you to remain focused, engaged and entertained. There's also very little exploration of 'what are they doing now', because the movie isn't primarily about the older Spidermen. Just a few cryptic hints, enough to be relevant, but nothing distracting. Mcguire and Garfield and serving the plot and their stories do not get in the way of the plot or themes with unnecessary bullshit.
The multiverse here actually feels real. That there are alternate universes with similar themes and different events. Of course there are a few little call backs and a nice couple of jokes here and there referencing the older movies but the important point here is that they're used very sparingly and only when important (Ned wondering if there's an alternate version of himself and asks Toby if he had a best friend and he gets kind of down when he says he did, and that he died in his arms) or Alfred Molina admiring the Arc Reactor in reference to the power source he was trying to create. These tidbits make you feel like the multiverse is alive and it isn't just forcing shit on you.
In the end: Why does it work?
Why this works is relatively simple: Everything in the movie is in service to the story and thematic elements. When major lines are used, they're done creatively, differently and done in important ways. Even DeFoe's "You know, I'm something of a scientist myself" isn't portrayed as humorous or anything, but has the same foreboding malice of the original delivery. This isn't nostalgia bait. This is a movie about learning that there are consequences to things, that you can't have your cake and eat it too, and sometimes even if you do the right thing, bad things will happen and you can't lose sight of the bigger picture, even if your emotions overwhelm you, or you will have regrets and do things that you will regret for the rest of your life. And essentially, Holland is still center stage. Its his story. Its both a conclusion and a beginning. Because he's matured, he doesn't need anyone, he understands his place and the nature of things and is fully self reliant.
As you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I think it is honestly the best superhero film since Infinity War (which I enjoyed more than endgame). It honestly destroys all current Marvel offerings and they're going to have to work REALLY hard to compete.
Now, I've went over why Spiderman works. Why does the Matrix not? I'm going to go over this briefly.
The Matrix Doesn't Work Because It is Pointless, Has No Plot, and is only created to make profit off of Nostalgia and Serves No Purpose. Its ideas are half realized and the story-telling is poppy dog shit.
There, that about sums it up. So where do I think things are going to go? I think that no lessons will be learned from Spiderman, and that nostalgia-bait and "REMEMBER THIS?!" will be done constantly. And now everyone, including Marvel and DC are going to try to ressurect old properties and films as nostalgia bait without understanding why Spiderman works. Its going to be a fucking hilarious disaster and another deluge of pure shit. Well, at least its better than the pseduo-intellectual 'subverting expectations' trash.
