On Sunday morning I memorized the ninth verse of "J'ai pas d'regret" I've No Regrets) by Boris Vian. There's just one verse left.
For song practice I played a few of my regular songs but added some that I don't usually play, including the dark verse of "We Three Kings" which is the only good poetry in the entire oeuvre of Christmas carols. I wonder why people don't consider The Crucifixion by Phil Ochs as a Christmas song.
I weighed 84 kilos before breakfast. I had an egg with three strips of bacon and a toasted Montreal style bagel while watching Spiderman No Way Home.
The story begins in the aftermath of the previous movie. Mysterio faked his death and left evidence that Spiderman murdered him. He also told the world that Peter Parker is Spiderman. The lawyer Matt Murdock, who we know is secretly Daredevil gets Peter's charges dropped but the court of public opinion is another story.
Peter, his girlfriend MJ and his friend Ned were all slated to go to MIT but are rejected because of negative publicity. Peter goes to Dr. Strange to ask if there's a spell to make everyone forget that he's Spiderman. Strange starts the spell but in the middle of the conjuration, Peter keeps naming people that should still know who he is. Strange stops the spell and contains it in a special box. Later Strange is very pissed off when he learns that Peter hadn't even gone through the MIT rejection appeal process before asking him to give the world's population amnesia.
Later on the Brooklyn Bridge there is an attack by Doctor Octopus. He knows Spiderman and calls him Peter but this version of Spiderman does not know him. They fight and Spiderman is trapped by Otto's mechanical tentacles, which take on the Stark nanotechnology from Spiderman's suit. Spiderman's mask comes off and Otto realizes this is not the Peter Parker he knows. Also now that Otto's arms have the nanotech from Spiderman's suit, Peter is able to control them and contain him. Suddenly the Green Goblin attacks, who Otto recognizes but this Peter doesn't.
Just before the Goblin reaches him Peter is teleported to Dr. Strange's sanctum where he already has Octopus contained and The Lizard. Strange explains that the spell he botched caused a portals to open that drew in people from other universes that know Peter is Spiderman. Peter has to go out and find the others so they can be contained and sent back to their own universes. He retrieves Electro and The Sandman. When he finds the Green Goblin he has already reverted to his good personality of Norman Osborn and he comes with Peter willingly.
But Peter learns that each of these villains were about to be killed by Spiderman before they were brought here and he wants to fix that first so they will live when they return. Strange says that is not our problem. Peter steals the boxed spell and traps Strange in a mirror dimension while he figures out how to cure the villains. Peter takes the villains to Happy Hogan's apartment where he uses Start technology to help Octavius regain higher brain function so he won't try to kill anyone and be killed when he returns.
But before Peter can help anyone else, the Goblin takes control of Osborne again and he leads the other villains to escape. But before he leaves, the Goblin kills Peter's Aunt May.
With Doctor Strange detained, Ned has Strange's magic ring and discovers that he can open portals. Through two of them arrive the previous two versions of Spiderman as played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. They team up with the Spiderman of this world and the three Peters all work to develop cures for the rest of the villains. Then they lure them to the Statue of Liberty.
Most are cured with the help of Octopus but the Goblin unleashes the spell, which opens a crack through which everyone that knows a Spiderman from all possible universes is coming through. Strange arrives to try to hold them back. Peter asks Strange to wipe everyone's memory of him and that will solve the problem. Peter goes to say goodbye to MJ and Ned and promises he will locate them after. When he does come to see MJ where she works he is a stranger to her and he can't bring himself to tell her.
In the end we see a version of Eddie Brock from another universe in a bar in Mexico getting drunk with his Venom symbiote inside him. As Strange's spell is cast he disappears but a piece of the symbiote remains behind.
One funny moment in the movie comes when the Peter of this world mentions that he has team experience because he was in the Avengers. The other two Spidermen don't know the Avengers so they ask if it's a rock band.
I weighed 83.6 kilos before lunch. I had a jerk chicken meat pie and a beer.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride. I wasn't sure how far I would go because yesterday the bike lane had been slippery. But this time it was fine and so I went all the way downtown and back. If it doesn't snow overnight I'll call Top Cuts tomorrow to find out if Amy is in and if she is I'll ride up to Yonge and St Clair to get a haircut. Maybe on the way back I'll buy a new backpack.
I weighed 83.6 kilos at 17:30.
I got caught up on my journal at 19:50.
I heated a curried meat pie with old English cheddar on top, spinach and feta puffs, and a few french fries. I had them with two beers while watching Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
This was a very bad copy of the movie and sometimes there were vertical lines of light on top of images that blocked them out. I guess it was shot with a bad camera in a theatre. I think most of the movies I've watched lately were also copied with a camera but they were all fine.
The story begins with a version of Doctor Strange running with a teenage girl through a crazy dimension that looks like it is breaking apart. They are being pursued by a demon. They are cornered and this Strange begins to take the girl's power from her even though it would kill her. He says he can use it to save the multiverse because he she can't control it, while she can. But while he is making the transfer he is mortally wounded and the girl is grabbed. In panic she uses her power which opens up a portal to another universe, bringing along the now dead Doctor Strange.
But this is a dream that the Doctor Strange of this world is having. Strange goes to the wedding of his ex-lover and during the reception a giant one eyed octopus type creature is attacking on the streets of New York. It is after the same girl that Strange saw in his dream. Strange and Wong fight the monster and finally Strange uses giant floating hands to grab a lamp post and use it to poke out the eye of the creature.
The girl tries to get away from Strange and Wong but they intercept her. Strange wants to know why she was in his dream and she tells him it wasn't a dream. She explains that dreams are windows to other universes. She says the monster was not trying to kill her but to capture her on behalf of someone who is trying to get her power, which is the ability to travel through the multiverse.
She says the other Strange was trying to find the book of Vishanti. Strange says it doesn't exist but Wong says it does but it can't be reached. She says they reached it just as the demon attacked.
She says her name is America Chavez. They ask her to come to Kamar Taj. Wong notes that the monster had rune markings and so it was not created by sorcery but rather witchcraft.
Strange goes to see Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. Before he arrives Wanda wakes up from a dream in which she is happy with her two children. When Strange comes and asks her what she knows about the multiverse. She suggests they bring America to her and then she realizes that he hadn't mentioned her name. The cat's out of the bag and she admits that she's the one who's been pursuing America to take her powers so she can go to a universe where her sons exist. Strange sees that she's been reading the Darkhold, the book of the Damned and that it has corrupted her. She warns strange to turn America over by sundown.
Wong prepares Kamar-Taj for attack and every student must become a warrior. Wanda attacks but all of Strange's, Wong's, the teachers', and the students' magic is not enough to hold her back. She begins to drain America's power but America opens a portal and Strange goes with her through it.
They travel from Strange's universe 616 through several universes to arrive at the one called 838. Strange suggests finding this world's version of her to see if she can control her powers but America says there is no other version of her and she knows this because she doesn't dream. They head to look for this world's Doctor Strange. Strange almost gets hit by a car because on this Earth they go on red. America says, "Rule number one of multiversal travel. You don't know anything."
America steps on a memory platform and we see that on her world she had two mothers.
In front of this world's sanctum is a monument to the late Doctor Strange and the sorcerer supreme is Strange's enemy Baron Mordo, who in this world appears to be a good guy. He welcomes them into the sanctum but drugs them and they wake up contained in a facility run by the Illuminati that includes that world's version of Captain America but called Captain Carter and with a Union Jack on her shield, Mr. Fantastic, Black Bolt, Captain Marvel, and Professor X. They are not worried about the Scarlet Witch and consider any version of Doctor Strange to be the greatest threat to the multiverse.
Their Doctor Strange had tried Dreamwalking between universes and caused one universe to be destroyed. So they executed him with Black Bolt's voice.
Wanda forces Wong to take her to Wundagore where she uses the Darkhold to Dreamwalk in the body of the Wanda of universe 838. She attacks the facility to get America. Four members of the Illuminati fight her and die.
Mordo attacks Strange and Strange wins. Wanda comes for America but Professor X confronts her. She kills him but finds that America has escaped. It turns out America also has super strength she hadn't known about.
Strange finds America and that world's Christine and Christine leads him to the Book of Vishanti. Just as Strange gets it Wanda attacks, grabs America, and destroys the Book of Vishanti. The Dreamwalked Wanda uses America's power to open a portal and push Strange and Christine into the universe being destroyed by the Dreamwalk, and America back to Earth 616. where the Scarlet Witch is waiting.
Strange goes to the Doctor Strange of the dying universe and finds he's been corrupted by the Darkhold. They fight and the other Strange dies.
Wanda begins draining America's power. Strange uses the Darkhold to dreamwalk into the corpse of the Dr. Strange that came with America to universe 616. Strange is attacked by the souls of the damned that defend the Darkhold but he channels their power against Wanda. They hold Wanda off long enough for Strange to free America. She thinks he's going to take her power like the other Strange tried to do but he tells her that she always had control over her power because every place they went supposedly accidentally was the right place.
Wanda breaks free and takes America but America says, "I'll give you what you want." She and Wanda appear in the living room of another Wanda in front of her boys, who see the Scarlet Witch strangling America and call to their mother for help from the witch. The other Wanda comes but the witch knocks her aside. The boys throw things at the witch and she screams for them to stop. They run from her and say, "Don't hurt us!" She starts to cry and says she would never hurt them. They run to their mother. The other Wanda tenderly reaches out to the Witch. America sends her back to Wundagore in 616. Wanda destroys the Darkhold in every universe including the temple on Wundagore, collapsing it on top of herself.
America becomes a student at Kamar-Taj.
In the end Strange winds up with an eye on his forehead from having messed with the Darkhold. In the comics that's called the Eye of Agamotto. This copy didn't show the post credit scene but I tracked it down on YouTube. Clea, the other-dimensional sorcerer comes to summon Strange for a mission. In the comics she was an escaped servant of the Dread Dormammu, Strange's greatest enemy. In the comics she becomes Strange's lover. She was played here by Charlize Theron.
Wanda was played by Elizabeth Olsen, who is the younger sister of the famous twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. She first appeared at the age of four in TV movies starring her sisters. Her first film appearance was a starring role in Martha Marcy May Marlene, for which she earned critical acclaim. She then starred in Silent House. She co-starred in Red Lights, Liberal Arts, and Kill Your Darlings. She starred in "In Secret". She co-starred in the 2014 version of Godzilla, "Very Good Girls". She first appeared as The Scarlet Witch in the post credits scene of Captain America: the Winter Soldier and then was in every Avengers and Captain America movie from the Age of Ultron until Endgame. She co-starred in I Saw the Light, Wind River, Ingrid Goes West, and Kodachrome. She produced and starred in the web series Sorry for Your Loss. She co-starred in the mini-series Wanda Vision, which I probably should have watched to understand Doctor Strange 2 better.
For the fourth night in a row I found no bedbugs.
