Spider-Man: No Way Home

When the trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home came out, it blew the internet away. Since the titular friendly neighborhood hero had iterations previously before the MCU came and acquired him, when the newest movie for Tom Holland’s version showed off past villains from those others movies, it made people go insane with hype and expectations. Not even a global pandemic could stop the public’s need for this film, as it became one of the highest grossing movies of 2021 and has already broken several box office records. People were desperate to watch the movie to avoid spoilers and after the reaction from all these deeply craving fans seemed to be insanely positive, it looks like this final part of this trilogy actually paid off this time. Picking up immediately after the last film, Far from Home, Peter Parker (played by Tom Holland) has his life turned upside down when his secret identity is exposed to the world and everybody knows he is Spider-Man, effectively crushing any sense of normalcy for him, his girlfriend MJ (played by Zendaya) and his best friend, Ned (played by Jacob Batalon). Hoping to escape this situation, Peter meets with Doctor Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and asks if he could create a spell that would erase everybody’s knowledge of his identity from the world. After the spell accidentally collapses, its discovered that the multiverse has been opened up, and now suddenly, multiple villains from other universe are leaking into his world, like Doctor Octopus (played again by Alfred Molina) and the Green Goblin (played again by Willem Dafoe). Faced with threats he has never gone against, Spider-Man has to suit up once again, and with the help of his friends, stop this multiversal threat and quickly realize the damage that comes with this line of work. At the moment of its release, Spider-Man: No Way Home is not only being considered one of the public’s favorite MCU films, but also one of their most beloved Spider-Man films.

This movie had so much built up before the movie was even fully announced, with everybody grasping at any straw they could get with information on the film as it got closer and closer to being released. It became a movement in itself with how much people debated what was a real spoiler and what wasn’t, and this feeling actually helps the film out a lot, because this is very different from its previous in the trilogy. This trilogy with Holland’s has suffered some flaws from being overly reliant on outside inclusions to be relevant as well as feeling shallow and underdeveloped from how Spider-Man should be portrayed, and this movie definitely takes steps into fixing those flaws. The main narrative for this movie follows the trend of the previous films in being very dissimilar from previous versions by tackling big new threads like Spider-Man being exposed to the world and the multiverse itself, it feels a lot bigger than the others which felt almost like basic ‘’Disney Channel’’ movies. That air of simplicity benefits this film when it dives into a lot more dangerous and permanent changes to the status quo; this film features serious consequences and provides a pathos for the character that was still being earned throughout the movies. The pacing for the movie is mostly handled pretty decently although it is a film where every moment isn’t flawless. The first act not only drags a little bit, but the heavy inclusion of the multiple villains makes the movie feel slightly stuffed and maybe a little too reliant on fan-service. It felt like it was more focused on wrapping up loose threads from previous films as opposed to furthering Spider-Man’s own journey. It was still done well, but it felt a little awkward. However, the second act includes a drastic shift that (without going to heavy into spoilers) greatly makes the movie feel more impactful than it was previously. The call-backs and references feel more earned and useful, the pace gets going, the stakes get a lot higher, and it closes the movie on a very different note that feels like a payoff for the previous film’s jovial nature. While the film is still muddled in places and is still struggling with its tone, this script is much better at capturing that needed sense of weight the character has sorely been lacking.

While the first two films were very comedy-centric, it meant that not a lot of weight and purpose had to be put into the performances (at least not from an emotionally gripping level). Thankfully, every actor in the previous films were incredibly likeable and engaged, and here its equally as impressive. Everybody in this film is performed very well and they take their roles to much greater heights than previous. Holland and Zendaya proved they can be very charming and likeable individually and as a couple, but this movie provides them not only with great opportunities to show off their chemistry, but also a more grounded serious portrayal of their roles which they do very well. With a movie as overstuffed as it is with villains, it thankfully doesn’t become nearly as overwhelming as it should be. Its not only great to see these iconic characters played by familiar actors again, but also gives them a chance to (essentially) have a final hurrah. It’s nice to see some of these roles given chances to improve upon their previous failures (like with Jamie Foxx as Electro and Rhys Ifans as The Lizard) and those that get to remind people why they fell in love with them in the first place (like Thomas Haden Church as The Sandman and especially Alfred Molina as Doc Oc). Probably the most realize of these portrayals in Dafoe as the Goblin. With better writing, a much better (and by that, it just means less ridiculous) look and an even crueler more deranged attitude that makes him truly hateable in the best way, its easily his best portrayal of the character and he’s a ton of fun to watch.

Even from Homecoming, these movies have never had very good effects. Whereas both of the previous Spider-Man franchises got really impressive special effects as they kept going, these film’s reliance on CG makes it look incredibly computerized and honestly pretty generic all things considering. This is how the movie starts off, with a pretty awkward looking fight on a bridge with some pretty noticeable shots. However, as the film keeps going, they get less distracting and while they never look fully convincing, they’re at least flashy and enjoyable to witness. It has always been a bright and poppy environment, so the action is at least clear to see in this film and occasionally, while not the most dynamic and engaging in terms of choreography, can be enjoyable once it gets going (mainly a very trippy fight in the middle of the film as well as the climax involving the Statue of Liberty). The movie definitely tones down the jokes on this one and really does try and give the movie that sense of weight and impact that Spider-Man requires to be his fully realize self and it does pay off in moments throughout this film as the actors, writers and even composers (with this film being composed by Michael Giacchino) really do their best in delivering something that can be pretty emotionally effective. The film’s writing has been a little too overly-forceful in the comedy department (due to writers’ Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers involvement in explicitly American comedy shows like Community, American Dad, and even the newest Jumanji films) and it really only has been as successful as it is due to how good the actors are in the movies, but it thankfully doesn’t take people out of any serious moment or feel tacked-on and ineffective like it has in other MCU films, and they have improved on the dramatic stuff.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is easily going to be one of the world’s most beloved Spider-Man movies. Whether or not people look at it from a technical or even critical standpoint, the movie’s inclusion of a past universe that many people would have grown up with will definitely tug at a lot of people’s heartstrings, and that really works at the film’s benefit and its detriment. As a pro, it has a lot of great scenes in it and it does technically remedy aspects of the past film’s here, but on the other, it’s yet another example of this Spider-Man not being able to stand by itself without being helped out by other included elements. This movie is so fan-service heavy that it makes it had to properly judge the film as despite a lot of the previous film’s faults, they stood on their own, whereas here people going in blind or unaware won’t react the same way as others do. They’ll still get a good movie with more weight behind its story, really good engaging actors, and some fun fight sequences, but it hard to really call this the best Spider-Man movie because of that. Its definitely the best of this trilogy, but as this one was still kind of finding its leggings, it isn’t that dramatic a shift. Go ahead and check out this movie before its inevitably ruined for you, and see if what you think will happen, WILL HAPPEN.