r/Spider_Man • u/Maha_Film_Fanatic • 5d ago
The Holland Trilogy Sucks
Spider-Man has been one of my favorite superheroes since childhood. Sam Raimi's trilogy was one of the reasons I fell in love with cinema, and I grew up consuming practically everything Marvel put out. So I don't make this argument lightly. I think the MCU's first three Spider-Man movies fundamentally misunderstood what makes Peter Parker such a compelling character.
My biggest issue with the Holland trilogy is how much it ties Peter's identity to the larger MCU. In Homecoming, he wants to prove himself worthy of being an Avenger. In Far From Home, he's struggling with the legacy of Tony Stark. And in No Way Home, the stakes escalate to the multiverse to the point where he needs other Spidermen to stand tall. But where is the ordinary guy who puts himself on the line for people who can't do anything for him?
To me, Spider-Man's defining quality isn't his ability to fight increasingly powerful villains. It's his willingness to help someone with a stolen bike, stop a robbery, or save a stranger, even when doing so costs him something personally. He's a hero because he chooses to be one, not because a bigger superhero has decided he's ready.
That's why I loved Brand New Day. It finally gives Peter the loneliness, sacrifice, and everyday struggles that make the character resonate. He's burnt out, isolated, and forced to watch the people he loves move on without him. For once, being Spider-Man doesn't make his life easier or more glamorous. It costs him something.
The film isn't perfect. But I think it understands something fundamental about Spider-Man that the previous films lost sight of, that Peter Parker's greatest strength is his humanity, and his greatest tragedy is that doing the right thing doesn't mean he gets to have everything he wants.
I'm curious how other Spider-Man fans feel. Did you feel that the first three Holland films underplayed Peter's everyday struggles, or do you think they were a worthwhile reinterpretation of the character? And does Brand New Day finally bring him closer to what makes Spider-Man special to you?
I wrote a longer piece about why I think the Holland trilogy falls short and why Brand New Day works for me:
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u/Excellent-Law816 5d ago
I feel like you fail to bring incisive and precise critiques of the first three films, mostly talking points and generalizations you hear on podcasts.
There was plenty of Peter's struggle in them, just not to such a wounding extent as the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield films. I think it was refreshing to see struggles that were, at first, mundane and increasingly got more intense.
In Homecoming, Peter was juggling being a hero, living up to his mentor's expectations, getting the girl he liked, discoving his powers, and doing the right thing even when Vulture offered him a way out. It's a spider-man just found at a different pointand in different circumstances in his life.
In Far from home, Peter just lost his mentor and has to reconcile the snap (just like we, as viewers, feel the trauma of Endgame), deals again with love problems, and works against a villain that attacks him in a vulnerable state. This is my least favorite of the trilogy.
Finally, in No way home, Peter finally loses May, is ostracized by society, and is suffering extremely, being pushed to the point of wanting to kill Goblin. This entire movie, he is put under stress, working to save his friends, his universe, and villains that hate him. In the end, he makes the ultimate sacrifice to be forgotten, and what is more spider-man than that?