Spider-Man: No Way Home

Image credit: axcinemas.com

I don’t know how this happened, but somehow it appears that I missed out on reviewing this movie after I went and saw it in cinemas. While that oversight is strange and disappointing, the silver lining is that I can review it now having actually sat down and watched it a second time. While I am a collector of movies and there are many that I go back and revisit, I have found that in the last several years, there are few films that I’ll watch at the cinemas, buy the DVD or Bluray, and then sit down and watch again. One of the few films that I have revisited within this period has been Spider-Man: No Way Home.

After Mysterio’s final stab of outing him as Spider-Man, Peter Parker turns to Doctor Strange for help. But disaster strikes as Peter attempts to rewrite the spell too many times and ends up creating a tear in the multiverse. Suddenly there are a handful of strange villains appearing out of nowhere and attacking Peter and his friends. While he’s never seen them before, they certainly seem to know him, or at least Spider-man, and soon it becomes apparent that not only is his city and friends in danger from these guys, but the whole multiverse. With great power comes great responsibility, and as Peter battles and plans how best to save multiples worlds, he learns what it really means to be Spider-Man.

One of the truly most emotionally moving stories about coming of age and finding one’s identity, Spiderman: No Way Home is a fantastic film that gently yet solidly allows audiences to come to grips with the multiverse, a confusing concept that has already been established within the franchise, but only really fleetingly and still rather vaguely. Translated by an insanely smart teenager, the whole thing becomes a lot less intimidating and this movie does a fantastic job of exploring the idea of the multiverse while having fun at the same time.

The story is emotionally gripping and heartbreaking while the action is captivating and memorable and there are fabulous pops of that classic comedy peppered throughout that gives this film its fun and rollicking edge. But the best, the absolute best, part about this movie is the appearance – or rather reappearance- of characters and their actors from the other Spider-Man movies. Our favourite villains are back on the screen with Jamie Foxx, Alfred Molina, and Willem Dafoe stealing every scene they’re in while Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield are swinging about and providing a lot of humour about the problems of being a slightly more mature superhero.

Image credit: spidermannowayhome.movie

Considering that there is a lot happening in this movie, it’s perfectly balanced and an absolute romp from beginning to end, with a beautifully handled scene of signature Spider-Man drama and realisation in the middle. Hands down, one of my favourite movies in the post-Avengers wave of Marvel films!

Director: Jon Watts, 2021

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jon Favreau, Benedict Wong, Jamie Foxx, Aldred Molina, Willen Dafoe, Marisa Tomei, Andrew Garfield, & Toby Maguire.