Spider-Man: No Way Home
Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Marissa Tomei
Directed By: Jon Watts
Rated: PG-13
After the cliffhanger conclusion of Spider-Man: Far From Home, we were left to wonder what would happen to Peter Parker after Mysterio revealed his identity as the web-slinging hero to the world. Using tricky technology he made Peter look like a traitor and everyone turned against him.
Spider-Man: No Way Home picks off at that moment. It’s a conclusion to a trilogy that’s a wild ride from beginning to end.
I can’t go too much into the plot because of spoilers, but Peter has to grapple with the whole world knowing his identity as Spider-Man. This leads him to the door of Doctor Strange, hoping that a little magic could help the world forget his identity. Everything goes perfectly well and the movie ends! Yay for a nice conclusion. Just kidding. Because this is a Marvel movie there have to be some roadblocks. Doctor Strange concocts a powerful spell that unleashes villains from Spider-Men's past including Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), and Electro (Jamie Foxx). Current Peter has never fought these villains so what are they doing here? That’s the looming question and getting them out of his world is going to be one of his toughest battles yet.
As he has throughout the other films, director Jon Watts still captures the high school atmosphere through Peter’s relationship with MJ (Zendaya) and his friendship with Ned (Jacob Batalon). The three are regular high-school seniors working on their college applications, but the stakes are much higher this time around. No Way Home feels much more intense than its predecessors. Watts knows his audience and that includes Spider-Man fans young and old. There’s a great mixture of nostalgia for the Spider-Man films of the past and modernity with Tom Holland’s fresh take on the character. What I’m saying is, if you love Spider-Man, you’re going to have a fun time with this movie.
The casting of these films is great. Tom Holland is a charismatic Spider-Man who clearly puts his all into the character. Zendaya is a wonderful MJ. The two have excellent chemistry.
On a personal note, Peter’s character choices really bothered me in this movie. Small plot spoiler. Peter believes he can cure the past Spider-Man villains and make them good. His intentions are great but as an audience member who grew up on the Tobey Maguire/Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films, you don’t just walk in and make the Green Goblin good in one day. Come on. His naivete was foolish. I felt like yelling at the screen “YOURE MAKING IDIOTIC DECISIONS!!” I actually did yell that at the screen. He was making me mad. After dealing with everything in Civil War, Infinity War, and the events of Far From Home, it seems like he’d be a better judge of character by now.
I’m going to be completely honest, some of this movie is too overstuffed. This is not uncommon for Marvel to throw a lot at the audience but it’s becoming more and more packed with each film. There are moments when it feels like you’re watching a couple of movies unfold at once. There’s Peter’s downfall from the public eye, his quest to get into MIT, the introduction of the past villains, the attempt to cure the past villains, and quite a few other plot points. The first act feels almost completely disconnected from the second and third acts. I’m not saying I wasn’t entertained because I certainly found the film fun to watch. I do feel that several plot points could be cut out or condensed because as it is there’s way too much happening.
Sorry Spider-Man faithful, but I had to be honest about what I didn’t like. But there was a ton that I did like about this movie!!! The action sequences were so much fun. There’s one action scene in particular near the end that was a blast to watch. I loved it! As I previously mentioned that this installment had higher stakes, there’s a lot more raw emotion in this film. It was really interesting to see it all play out. For all the times Marvel has faked a characters death or re-done a storyline, this film had some pretty affecting scenes.
Jon Watts Spider-Man trilogy captures Peter Parker’s high school experience as he balanced being an awkward teen and a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. No Way Home brought the trilogy together in quite a memorable way. Certain points of the script could easily be trimmed to make it less bloated. Overall, Spider-Man: No Way Home is a fun ride for Spider-Man fans with some great callbacks and truly exciting action sequences featuring the web-slinging hero.
My Rating: 7/10