I love Spider-Man, and I love Dr. Strange. In fact—and this is really weird—but I have had a Spider-Man poster beneath two Dr. Strange posters in my basement ever since the first Dr. Strange movie came out. In that way, I guess I was way ahead of the game. So, you have to know that I was pumped beyond belief when the first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home dropped the other day.
I’m still pumped! But… maybe not as pumped as I once was? It’s strange (no pun intended) since I got a lot of what I was anticipating with this new trailer. I got to see more of Dr. Strange, who we didn’t get to see in WandaVision. I got to see the continuation of what happened after Spider-Man: Far From Home, and I even got to see my man Otto Octavius, who I haven’t seen since Spider-Man 2. And yet, I’m still less interested now than I was before I had seen this trailer. Yes, it’s a tangled web I’ve weaved in my own head, but I have five reasons why I am less excited now for Spider-Man: No Way Home than I was before I saw the trailer.
I'm Thinking More About Dr. Strange Than I Am Of Spider-Man Since Strange Was Acting So Weird
First off, what is going on with Dr. Strange in this new trailer? Yes, I definitely wanted to see what Dr. Strange was up to since I knew he was confirmed for this movie, but I didn’t want to see him acting totally out of character. When he makes that spell so that everybody could forget who Spider-Man was, and then he messes up just because Spider-Man wouldn’t stop yammering, that is totally unlike the Dr. Strange we’ve gotten so far in the MCU.
The problem with this is that it detracts from the web-head. For a movie concerning Spider-Man and the multiverse, I want to primarily be focused on Spider-Man (It is his movie, right?). But, after I saw that trailer, which I’ve watched several times now, it only leaves me with more mystery concerning Dr. Strange. Is he a Skrull? Is it Mephisto? Is he Agatha Harkness in disguise? Is he trying to teach Peter a lesson? ARGH! I don’t want to be wondering about Dr. Strange in a Spider-Man trailer. I just want to focus on Spider-Man. Is that too much to ask?
It Looks More Like A Dr. Strange Movie Than A Spider-Man Movie
Another issue I had with the trailer was the overall look. When I started seeing those inverted buildings, and Dr. Strange knocking the soul right out of Peter, it even looked like a Dr. Strange movie. Now, I think all of that stuff is really cool, but only in a Dr. Strange movie. I don’t want this to be a Dr. Strange movie. I want this to be a Spider-Man movie. Seeing so much of Dr. Strange in this trailer almost makes this seem like a team-up film.
I’m not necessarily against a team-up film, but with this being the third Spider-Man movie, I was kind of hoping to see Spider-Man really coming into his own by this point. This might eventually happen in the movie, but I’m not getting a sense of that in the trailer. This kind of sucks, because the MCU’s Spider-Man has kind of always been an apprentice of sorts.
In the first movie, he was under Iron Man’s tutelage, and in the second one, he was under the wing of Mysterio, until he learned that he was a villain. This one makes it look more like it’s Dr. Strange taking Spidey under his wing, or rather, cape, and I don’t really want to see that movie, if that’s what this is going to be, which bring me to my next point.
Spider-Man Still Seems Like He's Learning The Ropes, And This Is His Third Film
What is going on here? I know a lot of people didn’t like that we got a younger Peter Parker with these MCU films, but I didn’t mind it. I thought it was kind of cool that Peter was working with Iron Man in the first film, since this version of Spider-Man felt very different from the other Spider-Man films we had gotten in the past. This was part of a whole universe of Marvel characters after all, so I loved that different characters were jumping into each other’s movie, a la, the comics.
By film number three, why does it still seem like Spider-Man is going to adults for help? What interested me so much about the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home was that it seemed like Peter Parker would finally have to grow up and take responsibility for his actions. But now, he’s going to Dr. Strange to fix his problems? Yes, I’ve seen the theory online that Dr. Strange is trying to teach Spider-Man a lesson with this spell, but if that’s true, then I think that’s even worse. It would be the equivalent of, it was all just a dream, which is rarely ever a good plot device. In the third Spider-Man film, I wanted to see immense growth in his character, but this trailer makes it seem like there has been some serious arrested development here.
There Was No Electro, So I'm Only Getting A Sense Of The Sam Raimi Spider-Man Rather Than The Marc Webb Spider-Man
Here’s a quibble. I know Electro is in this movie, and we may have even seen hints of him in one scene in particular with electricity. But, we don’t explicitly see him in this trailer, and that sucks, since I definitely get a Sam Raimi vibe from this trailer, but I don’t get a Marc Webb vibe from this trailer.
I didn’t even particularly like the Marc Webb Spider-Man movies. But, what initially excited me for this sequel was that it seemed like it had unlimited possibilities with the multiverse. So, I thought it was even possible that we could see the animated characters from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in this movie. We definitely still could, of course, but by only seeing villains from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man flicks, it kind of feels more limited to me, rather than as expansive as it should.
The Action Didn't Look All That Interesting
Lastly, the action doesn’t look all that interesting to me. This is more of a story-based trailer than an action-based one, but to go back to my point about Dr. Strange, all of the real action in this trailer is from Dr. Strange using his spells and Spider-Man reacting to them. We didn’t see Spider-Man doing whatever a spider can. He’s not really web-slinging or fighting anybody, and it’s just a little disappointing to me.
And yes, again, I know. The main point of this trailer is to have that little pop at the end with Dr. Octopus, and that was cool, I guess. Why does this trailer make me feel like this is a movie ABOUT Spider-Man, rather than it really BEING a Spider-Man movie? That’s what I want to know.
In the end, it will probably be pretty good since most Marvel movies are pretty good. What do you think, though? Do you like the trailer? Sound off in the poll below.
And, for news on the upcoming Marvel movies, the upcoming Marvel TV shows, the best Marvel movies, or just the Marvel movies in order, make sure to web swing by here often.
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