took some mushrooms and watched this because i was hoping the spectacle would melt my face and give me a glimpse into the howling void at the heart of capital. the spectacle was mediocre, not nearly as mind-scrubbing and horrifying as watching the last star wars movies on a similar dose. what i got out of this experience is that hollywood is now using nostalgia as a formal element. it’s fucked up and seems to represent a significant innovation in the technology of the american empire, especially compared to star wars. which was not as good as incorporating nostalgia into its narrative as a direct formal element, but just relied on the general atmosphere of nostalgia suffusing in order to get butts in the seat and update the franchise for the woke age…but i was really hoping for something more visual.
also i will say that alfred molina and willem dafoe were hilariously incongruous in this film. both doing A+ top notch jobs, willem genuinely frightening; meanwhile, the spider-men are sucking each others’ dicks to see if the web comes out of the peepee hole.