over to him as a distraction, but the scene’s rushed pacing prevents this beat from playing to any emotional conclusion involving Peter being tempted by, or rejecting, Beck’s offer of power. Peter’s climactic choice is preceded by a brief moment in which an illusion of Beck tries to hand E.D.I.T.H. The superficial difference, between these two instances of ceding power, stems from an incomplete reckoning with the power in question, thanks to the way the film deals (or rather, doesn’t deal) with the specter of Tony Stark. The only thing truly separating them is that in the first instance, Peter is manipulated and punished for making the morally correct choice, and then he isn’t when he makes it again, leading to over an hour’s worth of plot where this aspect of his internal journey is at a complete standstill. His story from the beginning of the film is about the way he bristles at this distinctly Iron Man-esque burden being thrust upon him, and both decisions have the same dramatic function for Peter himself. It works in isolation, as a reflection of his morality, but it stumbles when viewed within the film’s larger framework. Both decisions ultimately have the same result, vis-à-vis the character’s famous mantra: Peter doesn’t want the power of a legion of deadly drones, and so he makes what he believes is the more responsible decision instead. The former is rooted partially in a loss of self-esteem, which he regains by the end, but like his choices in Homecoming, it’s a distinction without a difference. over to Beck, and the plot’s conclusion, in which he decides to destroy the drones, is nominal from a character standpoint. The contrast between this early midpoint, in which he hands E.D.I.T.H. After accidentally using Stark’s drones and nearly killing his classmates, he makes the ostensibly correct decision to give up this power less than halfway through the film. Not only does this approach suck potential drama from the action, but it becomes compounded when viewed from the top-down, in the context of Peter wrestling with the great power passed down to him by Tony Stark. Holland’s Peter, on the other hand, is thrust into scenes where the likes of Ned (Jacob Batalon) and Betty (Angourie Rice), seated atop a flaming ferris wheel, are reduced to incidental cutaway gags, since saving them is contingent upon Peter following his mission exactly as he otherwise would if they weren’t in the picture. The film rarely affords him the option of agonizing over difficult choices, like those presented to Tobey Maguire’s Peter in previous films - for instance, when the Green Goblin stacks the odds against him by making him choose between catching Mary Jane and saving a cable car full of children. The set-pieces in Venice, Prague and London offer him singular obstacles despite their multitude of unfolding events, wherein saving one set of characters (like his friends and classmates) is usually a convenient ripple effect of stopping danger or destruction elsewhere. In a micro sense, his actions are often linear. Day 9: Spider-Man: No Way Home and Peter Parker’s Most Difficult Choice.Day 8: Spider-Man: Far From Home Fumbles Its Tale of Power and Responsibility.Day 7: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Explores the Meaning Behind the Mask.
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