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All great movies should do 3 things. They should entertain you, they should move you, and they should make you think.

Everything about this movie is entertaining. This movie has a plot and action sequences rivaling the biggest budget marvel films and some of the most creative fight sequences ever imagined. The plot and its subsequent action sequences and dialogue is so inspired and endlessly inventive. The filmmakers took the idea of a "multiverse" and used it to craft one of the most entertaining (and hilarious) stories to ever grace the big screen.

Everywhere you look, this film is thoughtfully written with profound human experiences, deep, relatable characters and strong moving moments. Throughout the flashes of multiverse madness we are shown such a gripping and powerful story about family and relationships that is so brilliantly acted by a cast that is able to jump from one beat to another, broadcasting a spectrum of colorful emotions all while soaring through character arcs so wrought with emotion you may even find yourself tearing up.

All at once, this movie is profound. This movie is as deep and intelligent as it is bonkers and emotional. The centrifugal force pulling all of this together is the movie's philosophy. This is one of existential meaning; touching upon the surface of our daily interactions, all the way to our complex personal relationships, and even deeper down to our universal purpose and the meaning of every one of our actions. This movie is as much a dissertation of philosophy as it is anything else. There are so many movies and shows exploring the idea of "the multiverse" but by far this is the most critical and complex to date. It uses this theme to dive straight into a theory of everything, exploring the age old of why we are here.

I can't recommend this movie enough. It's so richly inspired and so delightfully fun, moving and thought provoking. This movie is Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.

In Spider-Man's fifth appearance on the big screen they chose a very different approach for his character and it pays off greatly. Peter Parker is a humble teenager who just can't wait to be a superhero. His conflict is that he has been deemed by his hero and mentor,r Iron Man, as merely a "superhero in training". Taking influences from John Hughes movies of the past, Marvel tells a teen movie as best they can. The only issue is that it is too "super" to truly embody the spirit of John Hughes films. Director/writer John Hughes films succeeded because he so well understood the ethos of adolescence, from teenage insecurity to high school hopes and ambitions, John Hughes had an innate sense of how teenagers ticked and how to make his teenage characters emotionally relatable. Its hard to tell a story that is emotionally relatable when its about a teenage boy who has been recruited for something so great. It may be relatable to the likes of Lebron James, who couldn't wait to be drafted to the NBA out of high school, but for most audience members Spider-Man's conflict could come off as less-relatable - or at least less emotionally significant. And therein lies the biggest issue with this movie: it seems to lack heart. Spider-Man is driven by wanting to be taken seriously, by wanting to be a real superhero. In climatic moments his emotional motivation is just to not let down his hero Tony Stark - rather than being driven by any deeper personal commitments to loved ones or any intimate personal reasons. Its a main plot that does drive character development, but its so lightweight of an emotional anchor it seems like it would work better as a subplot. In some ways this is a nice change of pace for a superhero movie, but there are some scenes in which the film tries desperately to drum up emotion and hearken to the heart of the film, and its these scenes that just feel empty and shallow. But for the rest of the film its light on its feet. It is charming and Tom Holland and his supporting cast of teenage friends are a joy to watch. My only hope is that going forward they are able to find a deeper, more relatable emotional heart for Spider-Man's story.