So at this point, everyone who’s interested has seen the new trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home. Multiple times. (Lord knows I have.) For those who haven’t run across it yet, here it is:
Now, as I mentioned, I’ve watched this a few times, too, but the first time was on the TV in the living room via the YouTube app, while my wife was occupied with her phone. At least, until I squeed like a fanboy and poked her a few times.
Me: “They’re bringing back Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2! Do you remember Doctor Octopus?”
Wife: “I do, actually.”
Me (shocked): “Really?”
Wife: “Yes. Usually bad guys have big guns and they like to shoot things, or they like to blow things up, or they have big muscles and like to punch things. They’re not usually octopuses.”
So then of course I made her sit through the entire trailer just so she could see Doctor Octopus at the end. And then I made her sit through clips of a few Spider-Man 2 fights between Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man. And a few days later I made her sit through a few reaction videos of random people on the Internet who are not me screaming in glee when Doctor Octopus shows up. To be fair, there were also screams of glee when the Green Goblin’s grenade rolls along the freeway, but the cheers for Doctor Octopus were generally louder, because (a) You actually get to see him and (b) He’s one of the best villains in cinematic superhero history, and not just by my own admittedly-questionable standards.
“Screenwriter Michael Chabon understands the mythic appeal of the comic book tradition, and his touch is evident in the story’s depth, an example being Molina’s brilliantly played Doc Ock. He’s a villain for the ages, a man who shows us his real face so we can feel the struggle for his soul.”
Common Sense Media review of Spider-Man 2
I did once know, but have since forgotten several times, that Michael Chabon—one of my favorite authors—wrote the script for Spider-Man 2. That explains a lot about the quality of that particular movie. Will the new movie live up to the standards of the one in which Doc Ock previously appeared? Ehhhh, probably not.
But it’s got to be better than Spider-Man 3.
Viscosity 