The eighth live action movie starring our hero, Spider-Man: No Way Home is the third in Tom Holland‘s ‘Home’ series, and the first MCU film to delve into the Multiverse.
As this is a spoiler-free review, and many of the key parts of this film involve spoilers, this will not be a complete review. But, I’ll give as accurate a review with the non-spoiler elements as possible.
The Plot – Spider-Man: No Way Home
Picking up right where Spider-Man: Far From Home left off, ‘No Way Home’ is a direct sequel that starts with the reveal of Spider-Man’s secret identity.
Oscar Winner J.K. Simmons returns to the role he played in the original trilogy, J. Jonah Jameson. Only this time, Jameson is a conspiracy theorist blogger, instead of the Editor of The Daily Bugle Newspaper.
Needless to say, Peter Parker’s life, and those he loves around him, have their lives turned upside down.
Changed Life
Crowds surround Peter Parker/Spider-Man, MJ, and Ned whenever out in public. The trio even need police escorts to attend school.
Aunt May and Happy Hogan also face unwanted scrutiny, this time from the authorities. All based off of the lies from Mysterio and his Anti-Stark kabol.
Further complications threaten to derail all of their lives further, including the very futures of Peter, Ned, and MJ. That’s when Peter’s had enough, and calls for help from the Master of the Mystic Arts.
Doctor Strange
Mere months after their defeat of Thanos, Peter asks for some intervention of the magical kind. Doctor Strange is quick to oblige his new friend, maybe too quick.
Peter, still the teenager, can’t help complicating things further nitpicking the help he asked Doctor Strange for mid-spell. The results go as well as you might expect.
Rogue’s Gallery
Soon enough, the results of Peter’s meddling come home to roost. We welcome back some familiar faces from previous Spider-Man films.
Alfred Molina‘s Doc Ock is the first to arrive, followed shortly by Willem DaFoe‘s Green Goblin. Both show up and immediately attack Spider-Man. Except, this particular Spider-Man has no idea who they are.
Before long, five of Spidey’s greatest villains are together for a ‘Rogues Reunion’ of sorts. Thomas Haden Church‘s ‘Sandman’, Rhys Ifan‘s ‘The Lizard’, and Jamie Foxx‘s ‘Electro’ all back for more.
The Good – Spider-Man: No Way Home
The Storytelling
No Way Home takes a much darker turn than the previous Tom Holland Spider-Man films. And, Director Jon Watts does a terrific job pacing the film from broad daylight during Peter’s outing as Spider-Man to the literal and figurative darker scenes as the film goes along.
He also slowly takes Spider-Man from the advanced Tony Stark tech down to a more grounded, more basic level of technology. Nothing sudden, nothing jarring; just gradual changes for both as the film progresses.
Peter Parker
Through one Captain America film, two Avengers films, and now his third Spider-Man film; Peter Parker has been a kid. Peter Parker the high school student, Peter Parker the ‘ward’ as Doctor Strange refers to him in Infinity War.
While there has been growth in his character, at the heart of it, he’s still operating with a safety net, he’s still not fully responsible for his actions. And, Peter’s actions interfering with Doctor Strange’s spell are further that narrative.
However, as this movie progresses we see Peter finally start to grow up, finally start to take responsibility, finally start to put the ‘Man’ in ‘Spider-Man’.
The Bad – Spider-Man: No Way Home
Some Inconsistencies
Without going into spoilers, there are a few plot points in this film that seem inconsistent with ‘Far From Home’. The reasons behind these plot hole inconsistencies are done to further the plot without using too much screentime.
One involving Peter and one involving Happy Hogan especially stand out. Again, avoiding spoilers, but both characters suffer slightly from these inconsistencies.
One inconsistency that isn’t a spoiler is the inclusion of Sandman in this movie. In the trailers, it’s established that the Spider-Man villains appearing in No Way Home were all killed by Spider-Man. This is not true for Sandman.
In Spider-Man 3, we see Spider-Man and Sandman come to a detente/peace by the end of the film, without Sandman dying. Sandman’s introduction into this film matches that tone. Even if we assume he had been killed off camera, the tone of the introduction here would not make sense.
The Review – Spider-Man: No Way Home
No Way Home is one of the greatest character development films I’ve seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Kevin Feige always seems to find the proper tone for the central character in a film, and build everything else around that character. This time around, the focus is not only on Peter Parker/Spider-Man, but on the relationships between all of our main characters.
While the plot is solid and makes sense, the plot is merely there to serve the character’s relationships and character development in No Way Home. In addition, the action takes on a character development element, as well. Each action scene and fight is carefully designed to match the character and relationship developments.
While I don’t like that the film takes a darker than expected tone overall, I appreciate the skill with which Jon Watts executes the transition between tones, and how it has an internal logical consistency with the characters’ relationships and Peter Parker’s character development as a whole.
Spider-Man: No Way Home accomplishes the difficult task of being full of ‘Feels’, while at the same time taking the franchise down a darker path. This seemingly inconsistent pairing actually makes a ton of sense with what they are trying to do with Spider-Man’s journey.
AND, the spoilers provide some expected, some unexpected, but all satisfying additions to this movie.
Having seen this movie twice now, there were actual rounds of applause TWICE in each showing, and both times they were received the same way. The last time this happened was in Avengers: Endgame — a definite measure of success.
A must see for Marvel fans, and definitely worth watching in theaters.
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Score
Score
Review Nation Score
Tom Holland and Director Jon Watts return for their third collaboration in Spider-Man: No Way Home. This is a much darker, but still emotionally satisfying film.