Spoiler Free Spider-Man-No Way Home Movie Review

Talk about a great way to end a trilogy.  Director Jon Watts knows what he is doing.  Just lemme say it again.  Jon Watts knows what he is doing.  True fans of Spider-Man will understand this heart-enlightening and heart-wrenching world.  Sam Raimi and Marc Webb, the previous directors got it too.  Spider-Man was really the first superhero to live in the real world.  He didn’t live in Gotham or Metropolis.  He lived in Queens, NY.  And there were kids from Queens reading his adventures.  This movie’s mix of what real life is like, mixed with the high flying fun of superhero adventure, is striking.  The moral lessons that this movie so elegantly teaches are going to be teaching material for me for the next ten years.   

Spider-Man may be flawed but he has a good heart.  That is what matters.  The movie doesn’t go dark but is doesn’t sugar-coat either.  The writing is excellent, the music by Michael Giacchino is deftly applied to every occasion and suits every scene.  The VFX are as usual—Marvelesque and second to none.  The illustrious cast was so well chosen.  It’s cool to have Dr.Strange (who was created by Spider-Man’s co-creator Steve Ditko) as part of the team too, along with other beloved Marvel Characters who make an appearance (one of them who shows up in the film deserves his own cinematic debut). This light-hearted and emotional film is clean enough for kids and has all the feels and gives us a superhero your kids can look up to and learn life-lessons from.  Which by today’s standards is hard to find.  I think Spider-Man No Way Home is a great December treat that we have needed for a long time.

‘Nuff said. 

  

PSALM 2

 PSALM 2

Therefore, you kings, be wise;
    be warned, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear
    and celebrate his rule with trembling.
Kiss his Son, or He will be angry
    and your way will lead to your destruction,
for His wrath can flare up in a moment.
    Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

Be wise, therefore, and welcome JESUS as YOUR King.  Most people don't see HIM as someone who has "wrath" but He sure does when it comes to arrogance and pride that shuts out the reality of justice against evil.  He will being justice--He is the rightful KING--therefore, kiss the Son.  And those who take refuge in JESUS have nothing to fear.

Psalm 141

 PSALM 141

1 O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry!

    Listen when I cry to you for help!

I need help—some days I think I need it more badly—truth is that I need help badly every day.  I am human and fallen and weak and I need God to show up and help me make it through the day and to live in this broken world.  

If I don’t ask for help at the start of the day and during the day then I have slipped into self reliance—we ALL need help.

2 Accept my prayer as incense offered to you,

    and my upraised hands as an evening offering.

The offering that God accepts, the worship that He seeks is the authentic heart coming to Him and saying, Lord I need You, I hold my empty hands up to You and ask you to fill them with more of Your Spirit.  

My prayers are sweet to God because I am his child and He loves it when His children talk to Him.  Also don’t worry about the wording—“He fixes our prayers on the way up—“. He knows what we mean.  You don’t have to worry about editing your prayers and making them sound right.

3  Take control of what I say, O Lord,

    and guard my lips.

Now there’s a good prayer.   May the words I say please—Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you. 

4 Don’t let me drift toward evil

    or take part in acts of wickedness.

Don’t let me share in the delicacies

    of those who do wrong.

Drift and Delicacies—-two D words that are important and well chosen for us.  Slipping away from Christ is a drift—it naturally occurs—we must press on.  And delicacies is a good word for sin because it seems to taste so good—I like rich food but it tends to make one ill.  We need to be careful.  I am trying to stay away from sugar.  It is my kryptonite.  Sin is fun—it is delicious—it is stuff that we take in and take part in that will mess us up.  

Be careful.   The ones who want you to take part in sin with them will tempt you with the things YOU are susceptible to.  Satan knows what sins you are partial to—vulnerable to.  Don’t let the temporary highs of this world pull you away from your firm footing on Jesus.   

5 Let the godly strike me!

    It will be a kindness!

If they correct me, it is soothing medicine.

    Don’t let me refuse it.

This is important—make sure that you surround yourself with people who will ask you the real questions.  And give you godly advice.  It may not be what you want to hear.  But if they really love you they will tell you what you need to hear—not what you want to hear.

Don’t be offended when I tell you the truth about yourself and Jesus—I am just trying to save your life.  God loves you.  Christians love each other and speak the truth in love to one another.  

I pray constantly

    against the wicked and their deeds.  Praying against something evil is fighting it.  Is asking God to decimate the enemies of the cross and their deeds.

6  When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff,

    the wicked will listen to my words and find them true.

Pray that people headed for the cliff turn around—repent means turn around—and rethink life—may the people we know, including ourselves—turn around when we are headed in the wrong direction.  Right now the world is heading towards a cliff.  Sin’s champions are going down.  Don’t follow them to the grave.

7  Like rocks brought up by a plow,

    the bones of the wicked will lie scattered without burial.

What sin does to humans is it robs them of the image of God—and it demeans who we were made to me—and it robs us of our dignity and sin ends up making people like animals.  You and I were meant to live for so much more.  And the saddest sight to see is a human being lying in a ditch the victim of sin—God means for us to live eternally—with purpose, with holiness, with purity and strength and creativity and love and joy and peace.  Not to be part of the dog eat dog world and be at each other’s throats like competing crocodiles.      

8 I look to you for help, O Sovereign Lord.

    You are my refuge; don’t let them kill me.   Realise that there are people who will try and destroy you—your faith—your reputation—they will try to rob your joy and again, try to distract you.  There’s another D word for the day—don’t be distracted and step into a trap because you fell for the smoke and mirrors. 

9 Keep me from the traps they have set for me,

    from the snares of those who do wrong.

10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets

    but let me escape.

Lead me not into temptation—but deliver me from evil.  

Help me to see.

Help me, LORD not to DRIFT or be DISTRACTED by the DELICACIES of this world.

‘Nuff Said.

AMEN

Superman and Lois Review - Pilot Episode

Okay—lemme just say I didn’t have high hopes for the pilot of the new TV Show, Superman and Lois.  This is because with the Superheroes of the CW there are many hits and many misses.  Supergirl Season 1 and 2 were great.  The Supergirl Pilot is amazing.  This one is Super Amazing.  I know, I know, I shouldn’t have capitalized Super and Amazing.  But lemme tell ya!  This is something else.  The show runners have obviously sat down and given this series some real thought.  This is the first CW Superhero show that feels like it is taking place in the real world.  The show runners seem to have borrowed from Stan Lee’s genius and made Superman a hero with real world problems so we can relate to him.  I mean come on, which one of us dads and moms haven’t felt the ache of work pulling us away from our kids when they need us around and the hurt we feel when our kids are hurting.  Which one of us hasn’t had to move our kids where we think that it will be better for the whole family.  Which one of us isn’t stretched between having to put in overtime knowing that we need family time more—but the work is pressing and has to be done.  This is the reality that has been brought into Superman and Lois.  Christopher Reeve made Superman human and this show makes him someone who can be hurt without kryptonite.  

This pilot is movie quality.  It is cinematic and has the best VFX I’ve seen on a Superhero TV show.   There are twists and turns, deep emotion.  It has good values, great music and artful direction by movie maker Lee Toland Krieger. The acting is excellent and Clark Kent and Lois Lane are given depth by Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch.  The Kent’s twin teenage boys, played by Alex Garfin and Jordan Elsass are realistically portrayed.  The writing is grand.  They put together an intriguing supporting cast and even gave us a Smallville TV series moment near the end.  It was wonderful to see the streets of Cloverdale, BC become Smallville again.  Made my day.  One time I got to see Tom Welling and Kristen Kreuk film a scene in Cloverdale when Smallville was still on the air.  Very cool.

The only thing that might be a problem for these guys is that they have set the bar Super high with this pilot.  Here’s hoping that they can keep it up.  Two thumbs way up!    

If you missed it you can watch it for free on the CTV app or CTV.ca.