Diop Tjejamba’s reviews

Peter is in a dark place for about the first half of the movie. He is struggling to deal with the after effects of the No Way Home ending which makes him lonely, leading to his evolution in regards to his DNA. His emotional state is the perfect playground for Jean Grey, who is our new "villain" for this movie. After some back and forth, Peter is forced to confront and acknowledge all the parts of who he is: him missing his aunt and friends and also to embrace the biological reconfiguration he's experiencing, to which he does towards the end. This a pretty good lesson about embracing all the parts that make us, us and also to understand that we can't be one without the other and that there is no harm in claiming the parts that we may think as "bad" as part of who we are at the core. They are to show us that we have come far and to celebrate that but also to be cognisant of what more we can achieve and the greater lengths we can go to in our constant journey of self discovery. Jean Grey and her sister, Sarah, are FINALLY here. Her character introduction was really good, with a powerful dispay of her abilities but yet quite dark. Her sister, Sarah, was abducted, tortured and then brutally experimented on to which she ends up dying as she wasn't powerful enough to endure the testing process. Where as for Jean, she could endure and when she finds out how her sister died? She completely looses it. Through her now hightened abilities due to her emotional state, she is finally able to reach Peter's mind. She finds a memory of him and Aunt May after she found out Peter's identity. She talks to Jean through Peter, reiterating to her that regardless of her extraordinary gifts and how powerful she becomes, she always has her loved ones to return to, to ground her and to let her know that at end of the day she is still JEAN GREY, superpowers or not. She and Peter than have a touching moment, forming a personal understanding for each other and part their ways. Ned and MJ were awesome as well. They clearly have moved on with their lives now. As for MJ & Peter, even though I genuinely wanted them to get back together, I'm actually glad it doesn't happen. I was completely shattered when MJ found Peter's letter. She understands and fully empathises with what MJ [pre-memory wipe] meant to her but MJ [post-memory wipe] doesn't remember him at all nor does she have that emotional connection that he feels for her. It was very sad man. I do like in the end how Ned end's up remembering Peter via their handshake, so I wonder what that will mean for MJ in the future. The storytelling was really good. I loved how they delt with the themes of loneliness, longing & anger. I feel like that was excuted well. The sound/music choices complemented the emotional beats pretty well. The writing was good. The dynamic between Peter & Frank were fun and when they had to be serious, they delivered too. The performances and chemestry overall were good as well, especially from Peter, MJ & Ned scenes & Peter & Jean scenes. The cast delivered good performances over all. I loved the cameos from Yelena, Bruce, The Hand, Scorpion & Tombstone. Some pretty fun stuff there. The movie accomplished it's mission of telling a raw, grounded and good Spider-Man movie and with that, I believe the character's have begun to find their brand new day.