Undoubtedly the most anticipated film of 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home (henceforth referred to as No Way Home) has finally landed in theaters. Rounding up the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)'s first Spider-Man trilogy, Tom Holland reprises his role as the titular wall-crawler, with this film being the latest release in Phase Four. Picking up right where we left off with Spider-Man: Far From Home (henceforth referred to as Far From Home), Spider-Man has to deal with the fallout of having his identity revealed as well as getting himself into severe multiversal mayhem. This film had a ton of expectations riding on it, with rumours and leaks abound, so how does it hold up? Let's find out.
REVIEW (SPOILER ALERT)
Introduction: Far From Home ended with Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) revealing Spider-Man's secret identity to the world and framed him as a criminal, really messing up Peter Parker's life. Everyone close to him, his best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and even Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) are dragged into this web of chaos (no pun intended). In a bid to set things right, Peter enlists the help of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), asking the sorcerer to cast a spell so that his identity becomes secret again. When Peter's repeated interference causes the spell to go horribly wrong, not only does his identity remain public, but beings from other universes are dragged into the MCU, creating huge problems for our web-slinger. With the fate of multiple universes at stake, Peter must work together with Ned, MJ and Doctor Strange to bring everything back to normal. This is the general gist of the film and there's a lot more to it but I won't bore you with all the details right now.
Pros: Right off the bat, No Way Home is the best MCU product of 2021, hands-down. The story is engaging, the plot is tight and cast performances are excellent. Tom Holland is an amazing actor and with the amount of stress that Peter is put through in this film, Holland really pours his heart and soul into his performance. This isn't anything new, since he's done really well in the role before, but I think it's even more apparent now because of the stakes. When this powerful acting is translated to his character of Peter Parker, you really feel for and empathise with him, making him a hero you root for.
With a great hero, you also need a really good villain and we get that with Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn aka Green Goblin. This is the same Green Goblin from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (Earth-96283), sent to the MCU moments from his death in his universe, and boy, is he just as menacing as before. Even with the huge amount of villains in this film, Osborn is clearly the main antagonist, riling up the rest and wreaking the most havoc. Dafoe portrays this psychotic and deranged madman perfectly, bringing us back to the past with his excellent performance. This provides a great wave of nostalgia for fans of the older films but also lets younger viewers who may not have the same attachment to previous films get a taste of this wonderful villain. Something else I really liked is how No Way Home depicts Osborn as more of a physical threat than in the Raimi films. Granted, he did throw down with Spider-Man back then but this time round, his fight scenes are a lot more brutal and really brings across his power. It also adds a lot to the character's craziness, making him a villain you love to hate.
A lot of people have said in the past that the MCU's Peter Parker isn't really Spider-Man because he doesn't experience consequences. While that statement is totally untrue from the character's very inception, No Way Home definitely seals the deal here because Peter is really put through the wringer here. Apart from what I mentioned earlier about his life being turned upside down with his identity reveal, but Aunt May dies in this film. Yes, you heard me right, in one of the saddest moments to come out of the MCU thus far, she literally dies in Peter's arms, succumbing to wounds inflicted by the Green Goblin. This is a huge turning point for Peter because May only wanted to help the multiversal villains by "curing" them before sending them back to their universe. Peter agreed with her and defied Doctor Strange, going against everything right because he wants to save everyone. Unfortunately, that desire is what gets May killed and of course, Peter's guilt swallows him up.
Captain America: Civil War heavily implied that in the MCU, Uncle Ben's death was indirectly caused by Peter (just like in the comics and older films), and now with Aunt May added to the mix, our hero simply can't catch a break. One of the biggest aspects of Spider-Man's character is his selflessness and ability to rise above personal adversity, no matter the cost, and No Way Home demonstrates that perfectly. Peter finally understands that "with great power, there must also come great responsibility", and at the end of the film, he makes a huge sacrifice by telling Strange to wipe everyone's memories of "Peter Parker". Not a soul on the planet knows who Peter Parker is, not MJ, not Ned, not Happy, and Peter is now a nobody. He moves into a run-down studio apartment, makes his own (very comic-accurate) suit and resumes his superhero shenanigans, ready to carry on despite everything that's been thrown at him. I'm not going to say that Tom Holland's Spider-Man is the definitive Spider-Man but he certainly ticks a lot of boxes.
Beyond the great plot and story though, No Way Home is chockful of fan service and it works very well. All 5 villains are 100% confirmed to be the same characters from the Raimi trilogy and the The Amazing Spider-Man duology (known as Earth-120703 and henceforth referred to as TASM), with the aforementioned Green Goblin, Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus, Thomas Haden Church's Sandman, Rhys Ifans' Lizard and Jamie Foxx's Electro all being plucked from their own universes. Although some were more underutilised than others, it was still great to see all of them. Apart from the villains, we also got to see the return of none other than Matt Murdock aka Daredevil, with Charlie Cox reprising his role from the Netflix series. This isn't new news, since there were leaks about this but it was still awesome to see it live on the big screen. While Murdock doesn't have much of a presence in this film other than being Peter's lawyer and helping to get his charges dropped, we do get a little hint to his radar sense when he catches a brick thrown into the Parker residence without even looking at it.
But even then, nothing else comes close to the absolute unit of the elephant in the room. Ladies and gentlemen, the leaks were completely true because Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield both reprised their roles as Spider-Man. I can't stress just how hyped I was seeing them back on the big screen and their interactions with each other as well as Holland's Spider-Man were (chef's kiss). Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I really liked how they weren't just throwaway characters and were very much involved in the final arc of the story as well as in the MCU's Peter's character development. In short, with the exception of the Daredevil cameo (which really was just that), the rest of the fan service in the film was done so perfectly and added a lot to the film without detracting from Holland's Peter. This is still very much a film focusing on the MCU's Spider-Man.
Cons: While No Way Home is one of the best MCU films yet, it does feel a little slow around the end of the 2nd act. The conclusion of Aunt May's death leading up to the three Spider-Men teaming up took a little while and even though it gave us some great character interactions, I do think it could have been cleaned up just a little. I also found it a strange creative choice that Ned was given some form of magic proficiency. After getting Doctor Strange's Sling Ring and waving his arms around by accident, Ned finds that he has the ability to open portals, which he uses to summon Maguire and Garfield's versions of Spider-Man. Granted, he clearly isn't very proficient and he can't control it very well, but I just felt like it was a pretty random plot point to throw in there.
Miscellaneous/little touches: As usual, this will serve as my Easter eggs and references section, so strap in folks because there're a couple of them. First off, the memes, they are plentiful. This is especially true for Raimi's trilogy, which gave us the "I'm something of a scientist myself" statement from Norman Osborn in Spider-Man as well as Maguire's Spider-Man complaining about his back pain after falling from a great height in Spider-Man 2. The first meme rears its head in the Sanctum Sanctorum, where a captive Osborn offers his scientific expertise to Peter when the heroes brainstorm methods to send the multiversal intruders back home. The second meme isn't as obvious but we see Maguire's Spider-Man lament about backaches before the climactic final battle, which could be a reference to how the character is indeed older but I thought it would be funnier if it was a reference to the meme. Interpret it how you will.
There're also a ton of nods to the events of Raimi's trilogy and the TASM films, such as Maguire's Spider-Man talking about catching his Uncle Ben's killer as well as fighting Venom, and of course Garfield's Spider-Man mentions being unable to save Gwen Stacy and fighting Rhino. It's also worth noting that while the villains were transported to the MCU moments before their deaths, both versions of Spider-Man are taken after the events of their respective series. Maguire's Spider-Man has worked out his relationship with Mary Jane ever since their reconciliation in Spider-Man 3, and Garfield's Spider-Man laments about how Gwen's death jaded him and turned him into a more brutal vigilante.
Lastly, we can't NOT mention the first time that the MCU has finally mentioned the classic saying that everyone associates with Spider-Man. "With great power there must also come great responsibility", or more popularly known as "with great power comes great responsibility", you get the picture. Something most people think came out of Uncle Ben's mouth, the first time this was mentioned in the comics is actually in a narrative caption box and was later retconned to be Ben's words. In No Way Home, Aunt May says it to Peter right before her death and by observing how their interaction, it seems as if she's telling him something Ben used to say. I don't know, it's a powerful moment.
Connections to the MCU's past and future: Interestingly enough, despite the fact that No Way Home's stakes are through the roof, it ties a nice little bow on the story of the MCU's Spider-Man. While this likely won't be the last time we see him, the film wrapped things up super nicely, probably in case the Sony-Marvel Studios deal falls apart. Even though Spider-Man's story is "over", the multiversal fallout is going to be insane. We know that No Way Home's events directly tie into 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with the multiple multiverse-spanning spells that Doctor Strange cast having severe consequences. Something to note is that No Way Home is the first time since Captain America: The First Avenger that an MCU film has had a teaser for the next film as a post-credits scene. In that teaser, we see that things aren't going well in the MCU and the fabric of reality is tearing.
Strange has no choice but to approach Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) for help, asking her if she knows anything about the multiverse. As we saw from the end of WandaVision, the Scarlet Witch has definitely gained some multiversal insight after reading the Darkhold so pretty excited about that. The teaser also showed us a tentacled one-eyed being who we only know as Gargantos (identified through a Lego set) and reintroduced us to Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who's still on his mission to rid the world of sorcerers after the events of 2016's Doctor Strange. Most importantly, we see what appears to be an evil Doctor Strange, very similar to Strange Supreme from animated Disney+ series What If...?. However, I highly doubt that this is the same version of the character since Strange Supreme demonstrated benevolence at the end of the series but only time will tell.
While on the topic of the Sorcerer Supreme, it's revealed to us that Wong (Benedict Wong) is actually Earth's new Sorcerer Supreme. After Doctor Strange was Snapped away in Avengers: Infinity War, Wong took on the mantle during the 5-year gap and still maintains that role. This would make total sense as to why Wong is starting to pop up all over the MCU, having appeared in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to recruit the titular hero in that film, as well as having some interaction with Abomination. We're bound to see more of Wong heading into the future, especially in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness so I'm looking forward to that. Anyway, since we're talking about magic, I'm also quite curious to see if Ned's magic capabilities will be expanded on or if they were just a one-off for No Way Home.
Enough on the post-credits, let's talk about the mid-credits scene, where we get an uncredited appearance by Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock aka Venom. Reprising his role from the Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), we last saw Brock get transported to the MCU in Venom: Let There Be Carnage's mid-credits scene. It's heavily implied that the symbiotes' multiversal hive-mind allowed Venom to recognise that Peter was Spider-Man, even though the SSU doesn't have a known Spider-Man. This is also why Eddie and Venom were transported to the MCU since they were privy to Peter's identity. Of course, they end up heading back to the SSU with Strange's last spell but not before a piece of the symbiote remains in the MCU. Of all the possibilities, I could never have expected that this is how the MCU gets its Venom. I don't know where this plotline is going to go but I'm definitely looking forward to it.
To wrap up the multiversal thread, let's talk about No Way Home's final act. When multiversal cracks appeared in the sky, a bunch of white silhouettes were reflected, indicating that there were many others on the verge of entering the MCU. Of these silhouettes we saw Rhino (although it's not clear if this is Paul Giamatti's Rhino from TASM 2) and Scorpion (who could be from Earth-96283, since a version of the character exists in that universe, albeit in the video games). Audiences have also said they saw Kraven the Hunter (who'll be portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson in his upcoming solo film) and Black Cat (who is part of a series currently in development over at Sony) so tons of little nods to Spider-Man's rogues gallery. Maybe some of them slipped through the literal cracks and ended up in the MCU?
Finally, we have to talk about that Daredevil cameo because my goodness does it mean a lot. The canonicity of the pre-Disney+ MCU TV series has been heavily debated over the years and I'm in the camp of them being canon. The appearance of Daredevil in No Way Home only adds weight to my case and with Vincent D'Onofrio also reprising his role as Kingpin in Hawkeye, I'm really hoping these are the same versions of the characters from the Netflix series. I can't stress just how happy I am that Marvel Studios is finally acknowledging the presence of their older TV series and I want this trend to carry on for the other series. But again, only time will tell if these are complete reboots or not. What an exciting prospect.
Final thoughts: I think many people were worried about Spider-Man: No Way Home and understandably so. People had a ton of expectations riding on it and thankfully, these expectations were met. A lot of people have criticised Phase Four for being too woke and pandering to minorities but there's no way that No Way Home falls into this trap. Bringing us a good character arc for Tom Holland's Spider-Man, respecting the older films and using fan service well, as well as creating a ton of possibilities for the future, this film is undoubtedly something that you need to see in theaters. This is easily one of the top 5 MCU films of all time.
I give Spider-Man: No Way Home a solid 9.5/10. Thanks for reading.
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