Spider-Man No Way Home – SPOILERS – First View Reaction – 411 From 406 (Episode 62)

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CHEWIE:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is the 411 From 406, and my name is Chewie. How are you this evening?

You know what—normally I start these episodes by saying it’s been a little while, because typically my recording schedule is pretty awful. But that’s not the case today.

I recorded an episode just the other day. In fact, I posted two episodes to the feed recently. Then Pip and I got together last night and recorded, and now I’m coming to you again the very next day. So there is a lot of content coming to the 411 From 406 feed in very short order.

The reason I’ve got some time: it’s December 17th as I’m recording this. It’s a Friday, and technically today was my first day off for the rest of the year. Yesterday was my last day in the office.

I’ve got some vacation time that I would lose if I didn’t use it, so I’ve stockpiled it and I’m taking the rest of the year off. I say “technically” because I’ll still be checking my email at least once a day. The role I serve at work doesn’t have a ton of backups, so I need to make sure nothing falls apart in my absence.

That said, it’s going to be a very slow couple of weeks—which is awesome, and exactly what the holidays should be about. Relaxing, recharging, and spending time with family and friends. I’m really looking forward to it.

COVID is absolutely running rampant again. In the last solo episode, I talked about my experience with the booster. I had a rough 24 hours—it really knocked me out—but then I felt fine the next day.

That being said, COVID is absolutely surging again. I’m in the Cleveland area, and hospitals are close to capacity with COVID patients. They’ve stopped doing elective surgeries.

I mentioned on a previous podcast that a friend of mine had a family member scheduled for a quadruple bypass surgery that got pushed back. Another friend’s son had shoulder surgery pushed back. That same friend’s father had major back surgery delayed.

Things are getting very bad again.

Even my Cleveland Browns are dealing with an outbreak. Something like 18 to 20 players were in COVID protocol—including Baker Mayfield, our head coach, and key players. The team was completely decimated.

They were scheduled to play the Raiders, and the NFL pushed the game from Saturday to Monday evening. I’m not sure what two extra days really does, but maybe it gives some players enough time to test negative and get back on the field.

It’s just crazy.

We’ve got three boys in three different school districts. My oldest finished finals yesterday and is already on break. My middle son’s school actually canceled today due to contact tracing and widespread cases. My youngest is in public school, and we got an email today saying that after break, they’re going virtual for the first two weeks of January. They already had a scheduled week off later in the month, so they won’t be back in the building until late January.

It feels like we’ve been down this road before—and it’s not one I’m excited to revisit. All I can really say is: stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe, and do what you need to do to protect yourself.

Now… pivot.

Earlier today, I took my oldest son and we went to see Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Let me give you a warning right now: I am going to talk openly about this movie. I’m not doing a formal plot review or summary, but I will talk about spoilers, characters, and major moments.

So if you haven’t seen the movie and want to stay spoiler-free, you should stop listening now.

I’ll give you a five-second countdown.

Five…
Four…
Three…
Two…
One.

Alright. Here we go.

Holy hell. This movie is awesome.

I was absolutely blown away by Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The entire movie revolves around the multiverse—the idea that there are multiple universes and timelines. Doctor Strange is heavily involved. Peter Parker wants him to cast a spell so that everyone forgets he’s Spider-Man, following the events of the previous movie when Mysterio revealed his identity.

Of course, things go wrong.

When the spell breaks, villains from previous Spider-Man universes start coming into the MCU. You get Doc Ock and Sandman from the Tobey Maguire era. You get Electro and the Lizard from the Andrew Garfield era. You also get the Green Goblin.

All of these villains end up in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man universe—and it’s incredibly well done.

If you saw the trailers, you knew these characters were coming back. What I wasn’t sure about was how they’d be integrated. How they’d look. Whether it would feel forced.

It didn’t.

The actors have aged, obviously, but none of them felt out of place. The story was compelling. The movie is long—well over two hours—but I was never bored.

It’s also really funny. A lot of the humor comes from the dialogue between Peter, Ned, and MJ. You have to remember: this version of Spider-Man is still a kid. He’s 17 years old. This movie revolves around him trying to get into college—specifically MIT—on top of everything else.

I was blown away.

And yes—when you have multiverse villains, you’re going to have multiverse Spider-Men.

There’s an outstanding scene where Ned opens a portal while looking for Peter. A Spider-Man steps through, takes off his mask—and it’s Andrew Garfield. It was perfectly done.

They introduce Tobey Maguire in a similar way shortly after, and both entrances land incredibly well.

I texted Pip while he was at the theater seeing it and told him it was outstanding. I described it as the Endgame of the Spidey-verse.

And what I mean by that is this: Endgame brought together a massive number of characters and somehow made it all feel cohesive. Nobody felt shoehorned in. Nobody felt out of place.

No Way Home does the same thing—on a slightly smaller scale—but just as seamlessly. It moves the story forward the entire time. Again, long movie, never bored.

I can’t say enough good things about it.

I’d be shocked if this movie doesn’t make a ridiculous amount of money. I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews so far. Sure, there will be people who want to be contrarian and negative, but that’s always the case.

I’ve only seen it once—this morning—but I’ve been buzzing about it all day.

I was a little surprised that, outside of Doctor Strange, we didn’t really get other Avengers cameos. You do get Happy Hogan. And there’s a brief but very cool cameo from Matt Murdock—Daredevil—when Peter needs a lawyer.

We also get a major character death: Aunt May.

Marisa Tomei is always great, and the scene is really well done. It adds real weight and gravity to the story. Green Goblin is responsible, and the moment matters.

I was also surprised we didn’t see Venom until the post-credit scenes.

There’s a mid-credit scene similar to what we saw in the last Venom movie. Eddie Brock and Venom disappear from this universe—but a piece of the symbiote is left behind.

That tells me Tom Hardy’s version of Venom technically exists in the MCU now. Will we ever actually see Venom interact with Spider-Man? Probably not—but the door is cracked open.

There’s also a final credit scene setting up the next Doctor Strange movie, which continues exploring the multiverse. That movie looks like it’s going to be really, really good.

I just wanted to jump on here for a few minutes and ramble about a movie I absolutely loved. I’m looking forward to seeing it again, and hopefully discussing it with Pip once he’s seen it.

If you’ve stuck with me this long, you either already saw the movie or didn’t care about spoilers.

Leave me a comment wherever you’re listening—YouTube, podcast apps, wherever. I’d love to hear what you thought about Spider-Man: No Way Home. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

That being said, my name is Chewie. This has been the 411 From 406. Please like, subscribe, and we’ll talk to you soon.

Thanks, folks.

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