Peter Parker: Hi. My name is Peter Parker. You don’t remember me, but we used to know each other. Something bad was gonna happen, and the only way to stop it was to make everyone forget about me. Because I’m not just Peter Parker. I’m Spider-Man. And sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing, even if it breaks Peter Parker’s heart.

So here we are. Dealing with the fallout of Spider-Man: No Way Home. The world knows who Spider-Man is, but no one remember Peter Parker. What could possibly go wrong?

On top of that, we have the government settling in to run a bit of Damage Control. We’ve seen this building since Captain America: Civil War, if not longer, but it’s really getting obvious now that governments are certainly not always on the up and up in this world. So once again, what could possibly go wrong?

Oh, and there’s a mysterious villain flitting around, jumping from mind to mind. Looking for something, with little regard for who gets hurt along the way.

You know the drill.

Oh. And we also have Frank Castle/Punisher, but for some reason not Daredevil? His relationship with Peter is actually pretty solid though, so it works out.

Spider-Man: The hell, Frank? You just hit me with a van!
Frank Castle: Quit your whimpering.
Spider-Man: We’re not doing that again, Frank.
Frank Castle: You goddamn right we’re not. This time you’re gonna get the hell outta my way.
Spider-Man: You mean, instead of saving your life?
Frank Castle: You gonna talk about that Staten Island bullshit again?
Spider-Man: Well, you said it, not me. Look, man, you can’t just shoot your way out of every situation. Innocent people get hurt.
Frank Castle: What do you think’s downrange of that tank, dum dum?

Overall, it’s a great movie. It’s fun (at the very least interesting) after seeing this Peter Parker building up a life over his previous movies to have that all torn away and to spend years basically all on his own. Both seeing him deal with that–and not deal with that.

The plot around our mysterious villain (I went in knowing who it was, but I think it works either way) is tense enough and I think just morally grey enough to work. They’re not a good person and they’ve hurt (probably even killed) people. So they don’t get a pass. But in a world with superheroes and the fallout/collateral damage from them, that’s kind of the point.

I really enjoyed this. I see (even more) seeds of what they’re setting up for Doomsday. I hope it all works out. That’s going to be one heck of a movie! Or quite the flop…

Onward!