Honest Trailers Roasts Spider-Man: No Way Home, and We Could Not Stop Laughing

We sat down to react to the Honest Trailers episode for Spider-Man: No Way Home, and it turned into one of our favorite reaction sessions in a while. If you are a fan of this movie, or of the wider Spider-Man saga across three different actors, this is the kind of trailer that pokes fun at exactly the stuff you noticed too, from the multiverse logic to the recycled villains.

Our overall verdict: the trailer is sharp, the jokes about the returning cast and villains hit, and even the moments that are meant to sting, like the callback to Andrew Garfield's fate in Amazing Spider-Man 2, still work because of how much affection we have for these characters even when the movies around them were not great.

The Awkward Silence Joke About Andrew Garfield Only Works in a Theater

One of the biggest talking points for us was the trailer highlighting that long, awkward pause moment in the theatrical cut, the one referencing Andrew Garfield's Instagram reaction. We noted that New Rockstars was the first to point this out with a clip of Garfield reacting. Our take was that the pause is a theatrical-only device: "it's one of those things where it only works in the theatrical experience," and that for the home release it should have been trimmed, since the silence is meant to be filled by an audience's reaction in a packed theater. As we put it, "there's no reason to keep that stall anymore unless you're gonna put in the laugh track." Watching it alone at home just feels like a stall, whereas in a theater you can fill in the noise with the crowd's own gasps.

We Compared No Way Home Nostalgia to Star Wars Prequel Apologists Getting Excited for Obi-Wan

We talked about why fans get excited for something even when they know, objectively, it might not be great. We used the Star Wars prequels as the example, noting that right after they came out there was already a hesitant excitement, then for roughly a decade people mostly agreed the prequels were not good, and eventually prequel apologists emerged. Regardless of where anyone stands on those films, we pointed out that people still got excited about Ewan McGregor returning as Obi-Wan Kenobi because it's part of their childhood. We applied the same logic to Andrew Garfield's Amazing Spider-Man movies: even if the films themselves were not the best Spider-Man movies, Garfield was still an excellent Spider-Man, and that's enough to make his return exciting.

We Actually Liked Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Thought Killing Off Gwen Stacy Was a Bold Choice

We mentioned recently rewatching Amazing Spider-Man 2 on the channel and coming away liking it more than expected, specifically praising the choice to kill off Gwen Stacy as a bold move that these franchises rarely commit to. We acknowledged the film had real issues but said the overall experience was still pretty good.

No Way Home Never Deals With the Consequences of Sending Villains Back to Certain Death

The trailer jokes about Spider-Man curing villains and portaling them back to the lives they've already ruined, and we agreed the film glosses over the fact that these villains are being sent back to universes where they are fated to die. As we discussed, the movie "isn't really about the consequences at all," and isn't concerned with logic, it's purely about the experience of having these characters back together on screen. We called it superficial but fun.

The Lizard's CGI and Throwaway Character Got Called Out, and We Did Not Disagree

We also reacted to the trailer's jab at the Lizard being kept out of sight to hide dated CGI, admitting we hadn't thought about how rough that character's effects looked since it had been so long since watching Amazing Spider-Man. We agreed the Lizard was such a throwaway character in No Way Home that nobody minded him being sidelined.

Sony Knew the Real Draw Was Molina and Dafoe, Not Jamie Foxx's Electro

Finally, we discussed the trailer's point that the appeal of No Way Home was always the three Spider-Men sharing a movie, plus the return of Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe. We noted that Jamie Foxx's Electro was present but not exactly a character fans were clamoring to see again.

Do you think that long theatrical pause referencing Andrew Garfield should have been trimmed for the home release, or does it lose something without a crowd?