SPEAKER_01 0:00

As we speak, it's done one point seven billion dollars. That's right. It's it's predicted to be the top film again this coming weekend. So this is gonna go over two billion. It m may take out the endgame and Titanic records.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Yeah, it it's phenomenal. You're listening to the O Brother Podcast. Real Brothers, Real Talk. Welcome to the O Brother Podcast. I'm your host, Dan Smith, alongside me as always, my brother from the same mother, Mike Smith. Welcome back, Dan. We're back. We are long-awaited episode that everybody's clamoring to listen to, which is of course because they haven't seen it anywhere. They haven't seen the film, so they they they've got to know our thoughts on it. But the Spider-Man brand new day, Mike. This is the fourth installment in the Tom Holland Spidey series. And I I don't even know where to begin with this one because we it sounds like we both had experiences at the theater. So I don't know. Do you want to go first? Should we talk about just the ex the theater experience surrounding our visit? Or what do you mean uh Well, you talk about ticket prices. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

I um I got there, you know, asked for my ticket, and it was twenty-five bucks. Up from eighteen. This was not IMAX or anything, it's just a regular theater. Just regular laser light.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

No frills. In fact, you can watch it in 3D, and that's like another three bucks. So I don't know if they're just like, hey, people are coming back, let's gouge. Well that yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Or you know, that's a good point to talk about the the repeat customers because obviously you want to talk about the uh the the record breaking opening weekend and uh I went to a 1015 show, okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Normally it's only a few of us, and this is Friday night and it was jammed. 1015, it was jammed.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yeah, this is not a regular outing, though. So there should be no surprise.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

It's like going into the second week, I thought it'll lighten up a little bit. Because all movies drop 30 to 50 percent.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Not this. This is a whole different beast. It's a whole different Spider-Man we're talking about. Anyways, all right, let me let me get into some of this because I want to talk about my theater experience. We so this came out July 31st. I saw about a week after it it was released, and this is Mike, this is Destin Daniel Creton. Now we had done the first look on the trailers when that when those came out. And you know, just for those who may or may not know, um, Destin Creton who did Shang-Chi, one of your favorite movies. We we were on different sides of that one. We were definitely on different sides, but you know, that character's coming back per the Comic-Con announcement. In the Avengers, yeah. Yeah, so so and then I also saw Mike, he had a producing credit on Tokyo Vice, which is a series that we both enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Yeah, really good series. Yeah. And he did Wonder Wonder Man, I think it's called Wonder Boy Man or Wonder Boy or something. It's either Wonder Man or Wonder Boy. I think Wonder Man.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Yeah, and so, anyways, he's behind the camera here on this one, or you know, the director of this film. And then, of course, you know, as I said, Tom Holland back, Zendaya obviously is MJ, John Bernthal is in it as the Punisher. Not the first time he and Tom Holland have crossed paths, but And not his first rodeo in the MCU.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

He actually played a generic FBI guy or whatever in one of the Avengers movies, you know, and he had maybe one line. Was it John Burndhal? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

You're positive of that? Positive. Okay, because I just saw it. There's another actor from what was he in uh the the the Ryan Reynolds film where he's like in a video game. What was that one again? Uh free something. Free guy. Free guy.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Yeah, that the I actually and I wouldn't confuse him with the character he played in the accountant at all. Totally different vibe.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

John Oh, John Bernthal, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Yeah. So he's he's here as Frank Castle, the Punisher, Mark Ruffalo is, you know, Hollus Banner, Jacob Badlon's back is Ned. Uh Sadie Sink, we'll talk about is uh is in this one. Florence Pugh is in it, and then uh Tremel Tillman is is in it as well, uh another actor we've seen. Naomi Watts is the voice of E. V. Yeah took me a minute to put that together.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Me too. I saw her in the credits, and I'm like, I don't remember seeing her.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yeah, she was the voice of the the the AI assistant, basically, that that uh this Peter Parker is is utilizing in his apartment.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Yeah, which in other films the voice in his suit was Kerry Condon.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Kerry Condon, yeah, that's right. So how do set this one up? What's this story and how do we get here? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

We get here because the last Spider-Man, No Way Home, basically ended with Spider-Man going to Doctor Strange and saying, I you know, what happened was is J. Jonah Jameson Yeah, the little span's doing the little magic spell. But J. Jonah Jameson revealed his identity to the world. You know, and it ends with oh fiterally like that. F yeah. So we pick up four years after that event, and sure enough, when he first tried to do the spell, he screwed it up because Peter kept changing it. He kept saying, Well, can you make sure MJ remembers me? And Ned, Ned's gotta and it winds up, he brings the other Spider-Man men into the universe, Toby McGuire and Andrew Garfield. So that one had all three of them, and then this one starts out again by the end of that film, he fixed the spell. Nobody knows who Peter Parker is, nobody knows Spider-Man. Well, they know Spider-Man, but they don't know his identity. Right. And it's a much more adult tone because now they're literally graduating, Ned and um MJ from MIT. They're graduating MIT and he was supposed to be with them, but he gave that up and gave up his identity basically. And um you know, I think that pretty much sets it up.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

No, that that's a great that's a great summary in getting us back to to this film. You're right, it it is a darker tone. I mean, he's basically forgotten, as you said. He's he's living alone in his apartment, full time as Spider-Man. And um I I first, you know, when I got to the theater, because I I kind of got off topic here, I get to the theater, Mike, and it was a seven o'clock showing, so and I I saw it a few days before you did, so uh clearly it was going to be packed. Yeah. And we get in, it's one of these theaters that claims to be a luxury theater. And you've heard me talk about it before and complain about it before, and I've written like dad would be proud. I've written in and shared my comments and whatnot. So we get in and you get it, you see, and there's these buttons in the armrest where you push it, and that signals one of the servers. Well, no, no, no. Oh it signals for the server to come to your chair, and you can order what you want. Oh, okay. Guys, Mike guys and gals, Mike is not familiar with this experience. So this is all very foreign to me. Yeah, but you're very interested in what goes on in these theaters.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

I am. I mean, uh the sound of it I hate. Because, you know, people ordering stuff and distracting me. I hate the sound of it, but I kind of like it if it was just me. Sure. Sure. More of this, more of that.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah, it's like uh popcorn, madame. Coming to America. Wipers. You know, it's a classic. So we get as soon as I sit down, 7 o'clock, we get there right on time. I know there's gonna be 20 minutes of previews anyway, so I'm not stressing. Push the button, you know, guy comes, we place the order, all of that. It's like 8 20, and the food comes and the order's wrong. So it's like over an hour to wait for it. When it finally gets there, it's wrong. The only thing he got right was my adult beverage. That was the only thing that was right. The most important part. Right. So sent it back, said this is wrong, you know. Uh so he apologized, he goes back, you know. Another 20 minutes goes by. Mike, I swear it's almost quarter of nine. Like the film's gonna end at this point. I'm like, this is ridiculous. So now I'm like distracted with this whole situation. And I just couldn't help but the justice warrior that I am. I had to get up and go out to the lobby. So now I'm missing some of the movie. I go out, I summon the manager, is like, hey, Mr. Sullivan, it's happening again. You know, like the Simpsons characters, right? Yeah. Kid comes out, and I'll give him credit. The kid did the right thing. He comes out, he's apologize, apologetic. Yes, sir, no, sir. Uh yeah, all of this sort of stuff. And I said to him, you know, how do you have luxury in the name here when this is the service experience? He's like, Yeah, we'll comp everything, you know. So he was like immediately, well, maybe you're not going to pay for the food, etc. And what was funny is after you apologize, I said, okay, I appreciate it. And I said, I don't even care if the food comes at this point. I just I want my money back. So I go back to the, I go back to the seats. He comes a few minutes later, he comes walking up the aisle and kneels down. So again, now I'm taken away from the film again. And he goes, you know, I apologize again. Here's some vouchers. He goes, here's a voucher for a free popcorn and two icy's, which Mike, I don't think I've ever had an icy in my life, but I appreciated the gesture. Right. You know, that's Well what about movie tickets? Did he come?

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Movie tickets?

SPEAKER_00 11:18

You know, actually, now that you say that, I would have demanded that. I well, there'll be a follow-up to that, of course. But but but, anyways, so I'm sitting there and he leaves, and then I'm like, okay, I got my money back. That's fine, whatever, that's all I really cared about. Five minutes later, it's like roll credits, the food comes. Wow. And you would have thought, like, oh, I ate this meal like a Wolverine, like I was starving, and I was gonna, I wasn't not gonna eat it. So, anyway, so that I wanted to say it up front because I'm probably gonna get ripped a little bit for my my review here of the film, but in in full transparency, I wanted to put that story out there to say, I think to give it a really fair shake, I'm gonna need to see it again, which I will, and and not with all these distractions and this annoyance and everything. But that said, of all the Tom Hall and Spider-Man's, this is my least favorite. Totally agree. And so, you know, it's interesting because we can't deny the success of the film based on the box office and everything. And I'm not I'm not coming on here as we often say, and I'm gonna trash the film, but I have a lot of issues with this film. Me too. Me too. And and some that, you know, I may catch heat for, you know, we'll get some people in the comments.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

And that's fine. As we speak, it's done $1.7 billion. That's right. It's it's predicted to be the top film again this coming weekend. So this is gonna go over two billion. And it m may take out the endgame and Titanic record.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yeah, it it's phenomenal. And again, second highest opening ever. Right. And then it's interesting too, because if you look, you know, the international market, Mike, is really what drives this thing over a cliff. That's over a billion.

unknown 13:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

So that 1.7, a billion is international.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

And it's no surprise because you've got, you know, many more theaters and many more countries to display the film. So it's not really a surprise. But that holds true for pretty much you look at any of the, certainly the last several what we would maybe call successful films per the box office, it's the international take. You know, that's where that's where it's at. But anyways, domestically, this thing's a smash hit. Internationally, globally, it's a hit.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

And I didn't have any of the issues you had other than the price. But I'm not real thrilled with the movie either.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Like this is not what I was expecting. No, no, not at all. And and uh I'll just ramble off some of the things. And and there's there's things I like, so I want to talk about those first.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

And at the end of the day, I need to see it again. So that will tell you that the distractions and whatnot you were dealing with isn't the reason the film's a little foggy.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

And even on a second-third viewing, it's not gonna erase the things that I'm gonna comment on here. That, you know, it's just not. But okay, so here's here's some of the things I liked about it. Like I liked obviously Tom Holland. He's a likable guy, he's a great actor. Everybody loves Tom Holland, you know, men, women, a lot. Everybody loves Tom Holland. And and uh he's done great service to the character of Spider-Man. Right. I actually, and I'm ignorant to the Punisher character. I haven't seen the films. I didn't even realize Ray Stevenson, the late great Ray Stevenson, who was in, you know, one of the Star Wars series and sadly passed away in the Ahsoka series, he played an iteration of the Punisher character in the movies. I didn't know that. But I like John Bernthal in this character. In fact, his his performance in the film made me want to kind of check out that Netflix series and, you know, so I and I liked the interplay between the two of them. I actually thought that comic relief, that banter they had, it worked for me in this film, so I had no problem with those two characters. What I did have a problem with was there was way too many characters. It's it's a crowded story. Too many. I thought the Scorpion character was ridiculous. And we liked that actor. We liked the actor from Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, whatever. But I didn't like it. I didn't even like the look of it, Mike. It was like the CGI was funky.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

It was definitely funky and to a point where it was noticeable. It was noticeably smoother. Like, and I'll give you a perfect example when Spider-Man is flying with MJ. Okay. Now she doesn't know who he is. But he says, I you got to come with me. Your life's in danger. And she's like, Well, I guess I gotta go with you. And they're swinging through the streets, smooth as silk. Now, pair that with a couple movies ago when she did know who he was and he was taking her on a ride, she was freaking out and like, I never want to do this again, and blah, blah. Like little things like that.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Isn't he more advanced in his flying skills, maybe at this point or something?

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Yeah, but when you're carrying someone, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Right, right. It shouldn't have been that smooth. We should both say it's fine if this some of this stuff comes off as nitpicking. I'm totally fine with that. As we always say, I got to put the O Brother podcast disclaimer up. It's just our opinion on the film. And we're not gonna begrudge anybody that loved the film and has zero problems with it whatsoever. That's okay. But we're here to be a little bit more critical of it. And I want to say one more thing that I did like about it, and it and it actually was a was a progression and evolution with my ex with my viewing experience, which was Sadie Sink as Gene Gray, spoiler alert. Right. I really thought, you know, not until they revealed who it was, right? But after that, I really she's a good actress. I haven't seen Stranger Things, so I wasn't familiar with her, but I thought she did a really good job.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

I mentioned her in the first look. I mentioned her uh, you know, because I didn't know who she was playing, and I was shocked to find out who she was. It's a good pick, though. It's a good pick. Although I thought she was in it too much. I thought she's it was too much time spent on her because who's the villain in this film? Well, do you know?

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Well, exactly. I think you're saying that sarcastically or rhetorically, but it should be her, and it is her, sort of. Not really. Not when you get to the end. Yeah, right. But if it was just her against Spider-Man or just that again, it's too crowded a landscape of characters. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

So to your point, well, who's the real villain here? It's it's a thing called damage control, uh, an arm of the government that's basically using her as a pawn. And if you haven't seen it by now, then you wouldn't be watching this. But she plays Gene Gray, which everybody knows from the X-Men films. Yeah, Fam Control. Which you've seen all those. Yeah, yeah. And she's a telepath. You know, she can read people's minds, and she's it's really strong with her. And we find out she had a sister, which I don't that's probably from the comics.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Sarah.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

I don't know the sister Sarah.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Right. Sister Sarah.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

But she's basically being controlled by this damage control.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Which I mentioned Tremel Tillman, who plays William Mesker, who is kind of the one at the helmetist. Right. Not a comic guy. Again, in the comics, is a kind of an uh uh an enemy of Spider-Man. Right. Which he sort of is in this.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Right, you can argue.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

But you know, when you see a Spider-Man film, I think what makes them good is there's always great villa villains from Doc Ock to you know Green Goblin. Green Goblin to uh the Sandman. I mean, always great villains. And the last movie showcased all of the villains from the first five films.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

And that was way better than what we got here. Right. And I still wish, though, that there would just be one single villain.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

You know, and and you know, she wasn't a good villain. She didn't make a good villain. And again, she wasn't really the villain, she was being used. But there, you know, some department of whatever is is the villa no, that didn't work.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

VMAX, you know, this whole V Max storyline.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

And you know, it was mentioned in the last film because I was kind of watching it in and out a couple days ago, and sure enough, damage control is mentioned in the Peter Parker story. So it's obviously from the comics.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Right. And and we didn't even state that up front, uh, which is usually you making this statement, but I don't. This is another one of my gripes. Is so I've kind of those were those were three of the things that I liked about it. Okay. There's there's others, but those were the three prominent things. Now, some of the things I didn't like. I mentioned Scorpion, you know, Tombstone. Again, Mike, I don't want to have to be uh a student of the extended universe. I don't I I want to go back to when you can make a film. Maybe this was never true, people might argue, but I feel like there was a time where you could go in and see these films independent of the others and still thoroughly enjoy what you've seen. Right. And this, uh it's like all this inside baseball that I'm an idiot. I don't know if I don't know well, I'm not saying that, but like tombstone and just things like in the opening sequence, there's this big homage to all these famous comic book covers. Yes. I guess it's great Easter eggs for the diehard comic people or whatever, but that it's just I don't want to have to think about all of that stuff, you know? Right. And so here's I'm just gonna go right to what my biggest gripe was about this. Okay. And people are gonna say, Oh, you're jealous, you know, whatever they're gonna say. Okay. The what I'm gonna call the sexualizing of Peter Parker in this film, which I know is gonna sound like over the top and whatever. I don't care because my point in bringing this up is, you know, obviously Tom Hall, and we saw it in the trailer, he's but got all beefcaked out, he put on muscle and all this sort of stuff. That is not, in Stan Lee's own words, that is not how he envisioned the character. He's always been Peter Parker, the everyday guy. Kind of a nerd. Kind of a nerd.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Look at Toby McGuire. Look at Andrew Garfield. Stan Lee never wanted him to look heroic.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Yeah. Right? He wanted to just be this plain kid, neighborhood kid. But this and it's like, okay, fine, but it's like it just they went out of their way to get him in his underwear. And that like, what is this whole first of all, Florence Pugh in this movie? Okay, I that's all in. No business movie. No business movie. And and that sets up one of these bits where it's an excuse to get him in his grunts, his underwear, right? Because she is is hiding out in this bathhouse, her office as she calls it. It just got silly, and I just thought it was now if that was a female character, which Lord knows there's been tons of that in Hollywood over the years, but it just was unnecessary. What does that do to fulfill the story or move the plot forward or anything? Nothing.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

The only thing I think Florence Pugh was there to do was to claim she's the new Black Widow. Right. Because they refer to her as the Black Widow, which you know died in a couple uh a few movies ago.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Right. I just I just haven't found anything that she's been in to be that satisfying.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

I think I mean you know, I hate to be um so critical, but the new Avengers Thunderbolts, the name of it was Thunderbolts. Well, that was widely successful, wasn't it? Right. That was one of their turkeys that when it came to the annual meetings with investors, they kind of didn't mention. They just kind of skirted over it. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

And again, I'm not a prude. I I'm not envious. I've been that jacked. I i you know, and i if you got the access and the money and you eat well, like it's it's not that difficult, folks. Trust me. But I just I I that just kind of bugged me because of what I thought Peter Parker was supposed to be and how he was supposed to be portrayed in the film. So again, it's it maybe a nitpick for some people, and I don't care what the fuck is that.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Well, I think the look, again, it this wasn't the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. This was a more mature dude out there fighting people on the street.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Yeah. And as you said, with the darker. No, I didn't I didn't think so. I didn't think so. So that that bugged me a little bit. I uh speaking of that, you know, and then I I don't know. What what any thoughts on, and you probably don't even realize, but this product placement in the film with with Tom Holland's non-alcoholic beer line that he has, beer. I did notice it. It's it was so obviously shot in this convenience store. So I'm like, it drew my attention. I didn't know about it prior to, I had to look it up. It it's kind of like Tom Brady in wrestling. Really? Do you we need why is Tom Holland gotta put that in the movie? Right. For what purpose?

SPEAKER_01 26:17

On a positive note, I would there is some positives. I think this director, Daniel, what's his last name? Creton. Crite? Creton.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Yeah, destiny.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

He got the emotional beats right, you know, when there was an emotion between the three of them. I was even the two of them, and he didn't he didn't take the easy way out at the end, where MJ's just gonna like remember him and you're gonna fall in love again. No. So I thought that was well done. And there was times where the emotional stuff hit, but the action just didn't work. Um I don't know. I I don't know if it's I'm getting sick of the AI, you know, the how throwing them around like a rag doll.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Well, you know, I shoot we should give more credit to because there's actually they did a lot of practical things in the making in this film. So I do, you know, we should give due credit to the stunt performers. Tom Holland himself is is uh an incredibly talented, not only actor, but physical actor. Yeah, he's a dancer, with yeah, with his abilities, and so that lends a lot to this kind of thing. But they actually did a lot more practically than I realized. And you know, it's interesting. Charles Wood was a product production designer on this. He was also the production designer on Project Hail Mary, which we talked about.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

And there's even foot behind the scenes footage of the making of the film where they're using that similar ring uh device contraption that they created for Ryan Gosling and Project Hail Mary to kind of make him look like he's you know uh because they used real effects, they had to show a lot of this out in the universe, like on YouTube, because he was really riding down, you know, some street in New York on a tank.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

And if you don't shoot that real, that means you have to pay to shut everything down. And you know, they didn't do that. And you saw a lot of footage beforehand, nothing that ruined the movie, although I've heard that there's multiple iterations and characters that were excluded from the final cut. So this is one I'm really looking forward to the 4K and digging deeper to see, because I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna say I hated it. I'm not gonna say I loved it.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

I mean exactly.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

I liked it and but I'm still a little foggy.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Right. And I and I don't know we I don't think we've ever done this before and come back and reviewed a film a second time, but maybe maybe there's a first on the Yo Brother podcast here, because again, I'm with you. I didn't hate it by any stretch of the imagination. I did not love it, and I just I I maybe my expectations were too high, right? It's been a while, been waiting a while for this, love Tom Holland, like really what so I think that, and then as I described, my theater experience certainly did not help my viewing of it. So I have to be I have to be honest and point those things out. And and and and I will give it a second viewing. Now, I love what you say because you're you're putting out there the fact that, yeah, you are gonna own this film, as we both will, because we have all the other ones. So exactly.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

And I this I didn't like the last one very much. No way. I thought it was too convoluted with all the Spider-Man.

unknown 30:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

But I, you know, after watching it a couple of times, you know, after the fourth time, I I appreciated it way more. Well, you're hoping that happens with this one.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

You know, I I I'm we're sitting here reading critical and saying I love it. I think the value in that here is that Tom Holland himself has talked about in a lot of these interviews and how uh you know, it's somewhat uh jokingly about going online and looking at social media and different things and to get a vibe and a and a feel for what the fans wanted because he's very I appreciated, as I'm sure you saw, the opening bit of him before the film even starts, right? And he's comes on the screen and says, you know, we put our heart and soul into this film. We really hope you love it. And and I liked that, I appreciate that. I I do appreciate that. And I appreciate and believe that they did the best they could to give us the best Spider-Man film we've seen yet. And I don't know, it just uh so it if Tom is listening, which I'm sure that he's not, you know, if somebody can get this to him, then for the fifth one, which there will absolutely be, I don't care what you think, Tom Holland will be back in another iteration.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Interestingly enough, the Avengers Doomsday, which was all a rave at Comic Con, Toby McGuire is slated to be the Spider-Man in that film. Sure. And I'd be okay with that.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Love Toby McGuire. I've loved all the iterations. I think for me, Andrew Garfield, I've got a soft spot in my heart for his. And he only got two. He didn't even get a third film.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

He should have well, there was a fourth for Toby, there was a third written and ready to go that they just changed, they pivoted. But this one, this one is more successful than those combined, which is shocking. And I don't know if you had this experience, but I was walking out, and of course, they've got us trained like sheep, man, waiting for that end credit scene. This one was pretty dissatisfying. It was it was weak as far as post-credits go. It was weak. But I was walking out of the theater going, okay, because it had already made a billion by that point. Yeah. And I'm like, how is this the number one film of the year?

SPEAKER_00 32:26

I I was kind of shocked. That's I I'm like, wait, uh 1.6 billion for now. 1.7? But again, this cat this franchise in particular, hugely popular overseas. Yeah. So you've got such a much wider distribution, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of screens. And Mike, this is one where not us, although we will see it again, multiple viewings of people going back. I know people have seen it four times already in the theater. So it just has that appeal. And I credit a lot of that to the cast, and in particular, Tom Holland and Zendaya as well. They're both great actors. They both seem like really cool people in real life. I think like what you see is what you get. They seem to be self-deprecating and all these sorts of things, humble, you know, all the things you'd hope for and people that are in that stratosphere. And I think that that that's a lot of the reason of why these are so successful, because of them and the likability factability of them.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

And there's a half-hour show on Disney Plus right now that's you know something like From Homecoming to Brand New Day. Okay. And it it basically chronicles all the films in in a short amount of time.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

And sure enough, Tom Holland, you know, when he was shooting this one in New York and people were really on the streets cheering, he would get, you know, he would take time to get off the tank, go shake people's hand, take photos. You know, so you can't count out his likability.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

And I don't think anything we said is unreasonable in terms of the criticism. I mean, again, I might, you know, my my uh my stance on the non-heroic portrayal of Peter Parker versus what I saw here in this one. Uh, you know, that might be a little bit controversial. But but beyond that, you know, Mike, also um, if you remember, we were, you know, basically sitting beside the composer, Michael Giachino, who was at Shredding the Multiverse, we talked about on our Comic-Con wrap-up episodes. He was out there in San Diego with us. Yeah. And uh, he's back here with this one too. And you know, obviously had no issues with the with the score or any of that sort of stuff. But what what else is is is burning in your mind about your experience.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

You know, the my biggest issue was the villain. What it wasn't a good enough villain. It was kind of j some people are going to think Sadie Sink was the villain, but and the way they popped in and out of different bodies was kind of cool for about a minute, but on and on.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

I saw that in Fallen starring Denzel Washington, one of my favorite films that doesn't get enough love. And they did that in that.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

Yeah, with the movie with John Goodman, right? Correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

Love that film. Yeah, love that film.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

But you know, there needed to be a more defined villain. Somebody that I think that's fair. You know, from the comics or whatever, you know, that we might recognize because it just that that that was the biggest thing for me.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

Two other things I want you to comment on. Any any issues with the runtime here? Two hours and twenty five minutes?

SPEAKER_01 35:58

Uh like I said, I would have cut, and I love Sadie Sink, you know, I think she's a great actress, great young talent, but I would have cut half of her part.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

So yeah. And then what are your thoughts on, because again, we always talk about IMDB metascore and then Rotten Tomatoes. Now, Rotten Tomatoes, 90% rating from the critics, 98% from the audience, not surprising on either front. I was surprised to see, and there's not a ton, but you know, there's probably by now close to a hundred on IMDB, it's 66 metascore. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

I I wasn't stunned when I saw that. And I thought if I was writing a review for this, I would probably be somewhere in the 75 range. Did you read any of those? I didn't. No. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Yeah. And I think some of the things that we've pointed out are some of the things that you can find others being critical of. And uh again, call them nitpicks, call them what you want. But again, all that to say, once again, didn't hate it, certainly. Right. Many things I liked about it.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

Me too, owning this, and I hope they pack it with with extras.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

Yeah, and and does it ruin you know my uh affinity for the Tom Holland franchise? No, of course not. It's it's not it's not that at all. But I want to call out the things I liked, the things I didn't like. And even Mike, I'm looking, I'm OG, incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno fan, going way back. I still have the DVDs of the seasons. I don't like this hybrid Bruce Banner Hulk that we get with Mark Ruffalo. The voice was super goofy as he was not when he goes full Hulk. I love that. And it I thought it I thought that looked awesome.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Now, see, that was the thing. They gave us two versions of Hulk. They gave us Professor Hulk. Yes. And then the Raging Hulk. And if they should have just stayed with the Raging Hulk.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

And it's great. And he was like even bigger, and I love it. I think the CGI there was.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Colin looks at him and goes, I didn't know you were the could get that big.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Yeah. That whole sequence was good with him and again, John Burndhal and some comic relief. And he's really good. I do like him. He's sometimes he's a little hit and miss for me, but all in all, I really do like John.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

My only issue with him is I've seen him do that character like four times. And I I'm not talking about the Punisher.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Yeah, I I I know what you mean. It can seem like sometimes it's the same thing. But he's still a likable guy, likable actor, and and I thought he was fine in this.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

And I guess, you know, like would like to see John Favaro in it, but he was too busy working on Grogu, so we didn't get Happy Hogan in this.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

Happy Hogan, yeah. What about the suit? Any comments on the suit here?

SPEAKER_01 39:00

You know, it's an homage apparently to the other, you know, Toby's and and they basically took bits and pieces from all the suits to make kind of make an homage. They the one thing that was interesting that they really kind of didn't um go after as much is he started to shoot Webb organically. Yes. Which we found out, like Toby McGuire, it was organic. It came out of his body. And the other two, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland, were like, that comes out of your skin? Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Well, this is a big thing. Actually, I'm glad you brought that up because the whole thing of the arachnid DNA in this one taking over his human DNA, thereby making him a darker version of Spider-Man, brought on largely by trauma, right? Because he lost Aunt May. He's alone. He knows everybody for it doesn't, nobody knows who he is. All his best friends, his relationship, his friendships are gone. You know, that's a pretty cool underlying theme and message, I think, here, too. Um solitude, you know, the dangers of that. I mean, COVID, like we all experienced that in the COVID period. And so, you know, I I appreciate that. Um, I I love some really killer martial arts in this. You know, those stunt performers are just unreal with what they can do. Yeah. The way they can do these these spins and spirals in mid-air, is I love that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

And Tom Holland being a dancer, that special on Disney Plus, when he met Andrew Garfield, he backflipped into the Spider-Man pose when when he met him.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

You know, he can just like from a standing position to a backflip. Yeah. That's incredible to me.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Yeah, he's he's he's really highly, highly capable there, yeah. So yeah, again, a lot to really like. You know, but and then but there's some things, at least for us here at the Your Brother Podcast, to be critical of. So, you know, are we recommending you see it? Well, you've already seen it, so you don't need any recommendation from us on this one. This was really just to come on and talk about our our uh take on it. So, at like you said, I'm eager to see it again. I won't see it again in the theater, I don't think. No uh, but uh many people are continuing to do that because it's like you said, it's now at 1.7 billion. It looks like it's gonna continue on, and we'll see how high it can go.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

So will it break the record? And then what does that mean for Avengers? I mean, I gotta be thinking that's gonna top this.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

You gotta think so, because you're talking now, you're talking multiple lovable characters coming back in this you know, episode.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

And in that trailer we saw at you know, when we were at uh Comic-Con looked phenomenal to me. I love seeing Chris Evans back.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

Me too. So And again, it looks like Marvel's gonna be able to continue on with their ability to infuse humor into films that are also very dramatic at points, which DC just doesn't know how to do that still.

SPEAKER_01 42:23

Right. And this the balance was a little off. I think it was a little more emotional and humorous. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Oh, for sure. For sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, some of the scenes between, you know, he and MJ and Ned when they don't know who he is. And you know, it's funny, but but yeah, it's again overall a much more serious uh take here and story with with uh Peter Parker. So well, there you go. Uh that's all I had to say about it. I I again, there's some things that that definitely impacted my viewing experience. So we'll see. I don't know. We'll have to see if we end up coming back to do a follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

I mean, I yeah, you know, I think it's because right now, in my mind, this is kind of like on the bottom of the totem pole. And I wonder if I see it again. And, you know, although I didn't have the kind of issues you had, I want to see it and see if the story plays out a little bit better. Maybe there'll be a director's cut. I'm hoping there will be. And maybe we'll see a couple of storylines that might have got axed or changed.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

Yeah, I gotta believe that this one will get the royal treatment with the story. Given what it's made. On physical media, yeah. But yeah, this is gonna this is gonna continue on a while with streaming and you know, home viewing, so you still have that to go.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

Yeah, we won't see probably the 4K till maybe Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

Well, it's pretty it's a pretty good bet that we're gonna get a fifth uh installment here. I think so. Well, you've got Sony's got that to to keep up the contract and continue to have the rights, they've got to start production on a film at least.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:14

Every three years or something.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

So I was shocked that it'd been four years since the last one.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

Yeah, me too. Me too. But yeah, w without a doubt. But as you're what you said there with uh Toby Maguire coming back, that's pretty interesting. So we'll have to see. Again, this there's viewers and listeners far more educated on the the larger universe here, Spider-Man, the character itself, you know, whatever, all of that. I know there's people more deeply knowledgeable about the lore here, but we're just simply kind of talking about the experience of viewing this film.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

This film. Right. And this is the 38th film in the MCU.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

I was just gonna say all of them multiple times. Right. And you're much you've got a much better recall of the thread throughout these films, whereas I've always said, I'm a one and done. I go in, I get out, and I forget, with few with few exceptions, how it all threads together. I it's I'm just like, I want to go and see a really great film independent of whatever else is going on. That that I don't want to have to do, as you said, a whole bunch of homework to enjoy a film.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

I don't care what it is. And neither do I. I want each film to stand on its own merit.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

And tell us why this one is the best Spider-Man if you think so. Or tell us why if you agree with us, or you know, whatever your comments are.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

And I think it we might hear from folks supporting that it they do find it to be their favorite so far. So yeah, I would like to know that as well. And and certainly if you agree with any of the things we were critical of, let us know that as well. Um just be respectful in the comments. That's all we ask. But if you're uh not currently following us, make sure that you uh subscribe to the YouTube channel and like the videos. That kind of helps you know get the videos out to more and more folks. You can listen to the uh podcasts on all major podcast platforms. So if you prefer to uh consume them in that way, you can find us anywhere, Apple, Spotify, you you name it, we're there. Um and again, I always say appreciate people that uh take the time to comment and share their thoughts in a and again in a professional, respectful way, and and we're happy, we're happy to engage with those, or I'm happy to engage with those. And again, Mike, last thing I'll say is just really continue to appreciate people who are supporting us by you know either uh monetarily or you know, we've got some folks out there doing that. We deeply appreciate that, and also subscribing to the YouTube channel. Um that that's very, very greatly appreciated. And Mike, we roll on. Uh, we'll be back again next week with another episode. But that's gonna do it finally for the O Brother Podcast Spider-Man brand new day review. I've been your host, Dan Smith. Alongside me, as always, my brother from the same mother, Mike Smith, and we will see you next time. Bye, everyone.