Then, crucially - and unlike any of the other recent action-packed superhero movies –it answers those questions. It justifies the conceit, both narratively and thematically, by asking the right questions about what it means. What is refreshing about Everything Everywhere All at Once is that it gets the multiverse right. Even when two of the characters in the film become rocks sitting in the sand, they still have to struggle with the impulse to keep moving. There’s nothing lazy about this movie - to the contrary, one of its themes is that we’ve become so busy we are missing out on the simple pleasures, like giving ourselves permission to be lazy for a few moments. (Do you need an octogenarian from the original cast to pass the torch? Contract negotiations break down with your leading man? No problem, hire the kid, and the writers can mop up with the multiverse plot.)īut please don’t hold the multiverse plot against Everything Everywhere All at Once, even though the awesome star Michelle Yeoh is fresh from an extended parallel universe story line on Star Trek: Discovery. In the case of Spiderman: No Way Home and the Star Trek movies with Chris Pine, it’s also a suspiciously convenient way to justify reboots and otherwise awkward casting changes. Filmmakers have discovered that the multiverse provides an all-access pass to outrageous absurdities and trippy special effects bonanzas. The alternate timeline is an old science fiction trope, but it caught fire in recent years, perhaps starting with the excellent animated Spiderman: Into the Multiverse (2019). And soon Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will arrive. Everything Everywhere All at Once was released close to Spiderman: No Way Home. There’s a boomlet right now of multiverse movies. A scene from Everything Everywhere All at Once. This movie reminds us that if there is any meaning to life at all, it’s what you bring to it, not what it brings to you.

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