Spider-Man: No Way Home

I wrote this part before I saw it, because I wanted to see if it lived up to my hopes:

The trailers look great, but this movie looks soooo fanservicey. Normally I like fanservice, but there has to be something else there as well. I was greatly disappointed by the Arrowverse's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover. It had some really neat references, like showing Tom Welling's Clark Kent from Smallville, but the story itself was underwhelming.

So while I'm looking forward to seeing all the references to the pre-reboot Spidey universes, I really hope the movie is deeper than that.

Ok, so now I've seen the movie, here's my thoughts:

Wow, that's a good movie. (Possible spoilers ahead.)

Yes, it is full of fanservice. But instead of filling it with pointless cameos, this movie actually makes use of its resources. Sure, there are a lot of inside jokes. To get the most out of this movie, you will have to have seen all the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield movies. There's even a few fourth wall jokes.

But even with all these winks to the audience, there is a solid story here. The characters from previous movies don't just show up without effecting the plot, they are the plot. The story actually makes use of every character. As much as I love the animated "Into The Spider-Verse" movie, I have to admit that it got a little too much mileage out of novelty of showing us alternate Spider-people. But in "No Way Home", it doesn't feel like a novelty. It's more like a family reunion.

Best of all, "No Way Home" legitimatizes the previous continuities. One of the reasons people hate reboots is that they just throw out old continuity, and there goes any investment the viewer may have had in the series. But this movie's premise hinges on the fact that those other continuities are still canon. Alternate universes, sure, but they did still happen. These alternate versions of Spider-Man do exist within the Sony/MCU multiverse.

I was also afraid that "No Way Home" was going to end up being "Doctor Strange 1.5". While it does set up the plot of the next Doctor Strange movie, Strange himself doesn't have quite as much screen time as the trailers would imply. This is 100% a Spider-Man movie (sometimes 300%), that just happens to feature Doctor Strange as a guest character. And while the ending will have future repercussions for Strange, it ties up Spidey's story quite nicely.

I wonder where they'll go from here. Tom Holland says it felt like the final movie for that version of Parker, and wants them to move on to Miles Morales or other Spider-people. But he also sounds open to playing Spider-Man again, as long as he isn't still playing him in his 30s. Some fans are starting to clamor for Sony to finish out Andrew Garfield's trilogy. And the studios, of course, will do whatever they think makes them the most money.

Personally? I do think this is a good time for Tom Holland's Spider-Man to leave the MCU, and let Sony have the property. He's a great character, but he's had a good run. In a perfect world, I'd like them to finish Andrew Garfield's trilogy, but with an ending that passes the torch to Morales. I mean, if the "Amazing" movies are going to be canon, they should at least tie up the loose ends. 

But if they were going to cater to my wishes specifically? I want to see a live action Spider Gwen.