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Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Not a 9 in general, but an easy 9 in the context of the MCU
Absolutely spoiler-free review.
The general hype for this movie for months and months on end was unreal. The elephant in the room being whether or not Tobey and Andrew would appear. Whatever happened, I was confident that Jon Watts and the writers would do an excellent job given the past movies, particularly the first one.
I was incredibly relieved and indredulous when managed to sit in the local IMAX, which was near full, day after the premiere, with no spoilers having made their way to me. And I can only say it was one of those rare cinema experiences that I'm absolutely thrilled I've had.
What really struck me the most was the pacing, the writing, and the perfect balance between excellent comedic moments (done in a much more realistic and candid way, never ever out of place) and drama that really absolutely punches you in the gut, all interwoven incredibly well.
The writing not only respects Peter Parker as a high school teenager, but also portrays that aspect in a very realistic and sincere way that's not common in big films at all, let alone a MCU entry. And the personal and more grounded personal connections and communication between Peter/MJ/May/Happy/Strange feels so very real and relatable, it was a joy to watch from beginning to end.
After (imo) mediocre and passable entries like Black Widow and Eternals, and the (imo) okay-ish Shang-Chi, I was feeling almost angry at Marvel for not managing to keep a minimum standard of quality, especially after IW/Endgame. Yet, I left my seat so incredibly happy to have so been blown away, it's been 48 hours since I did, and I'm still thinking about the movie and absurdly hyped for it.
To me, this was an incredible breath of fresh air in the whole superhero movie scene. I would put it up there with Infinity War in terms of what was achieved with this entry. If you follow the MCU, go see it asap before getting spoiled. Again, this is one of those rare experiences you need to have in the theater for full context effect.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
Dangerously bad
As someone who didn't think the original was decent by any means, it was still, ultimately, a fairly entertaining watch for the most part. I went in the theater thinking "well, surely this won't be a good movie, but I'm at least expecting to be a tad better than the prequel".
My god, how wrong I was. This felt like an absolute disaster to me. I don't know how Sony greenlit this, it just melts my mind. Awful writing, dreadful 'comic relief', nonsensical editing and pacing, a bunch of story quickly shoehorned in (yes sometimes you have to do that to fit these things in a <2h runtime but you don't have to make it so obvious), and overall a cringy experience.
When I say 'dangerously bad'... I mean that this movie is already doing great in the box office. And any new sequels will continue to do great even if they're absolutely cringy and soulless experiences. I went in expecting a 'maybe slightly decent' movie but I came out feeling ashamed for the money I left in the cinema.