By Jackson Wedel, Staff Writer
Spider-Man: No Way Home has almost certainly been the most anticipated movie of the year. The film not only continues the story of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, following a massive cliffhanger in the previous movie, but also features the return of several popular characters from previous Spider-Man movies.
The film needed to live up to the nearly-endless amount of hype, fan theories and speculation. In this situation, it would be easy for a movie to end up a muddled mess, overburdened by a desire to appease every fan’s wildest dreams. However, Spider-Man: No Way Home shockingly managed to be not only cohesive, but genuinely compelling.
It opens right when Spider-Man: Far From Home left off: Peter Parker, alongside friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), must deal with the repercussions of Spider-Man’s secret identity being leaked to the public. An attempt from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to magically shield Peter’s identity goes awry, summoning previous Spider-Man villains from their home universes.
On paper, the movie’s premise sounds like it sidelines Holland’s Spider-Man in his own series. It seems to be disregarding the emotional build-up established in the last movie by bringing in completely unrelated supervillains. However, this plot choice is played out phenomenally.
Tom Holland gives perhaps his best performance yet as Spider-Man in No Way Home. He still embodies the same youthful, reckless spirit from the previous movies, but also manages a genuinely emotional performance. Despite the fact that the plot seemingly revolves around completely unrelated characters, his character arc is put at the forefront of the movie. Every major story beat is driven directly by Holland’s actions and their consequences, turning what could have been a mess of surface-level references into an emotionally-satisfying narrative. Furthermore, it also addresses key criticisms of this incarnation of Spider-Man carefully, making him into a much more well-rounded character.
The returning antagonists are also a highlight of the movie. They are very entertaining characters just because of how well they match their original characterizations, but they are also interwoven into the underlying themes and moral conflicts in an engaging and satisfying way. In particular, the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe, reprising his role in 2002’s Spider-Man) is a standout, retaining his eccentric yet menacing personality from the original movie.
The movie balances maintaining the existing motivations and personalities of the 5 returning villains with keeping an internally consistent narrative. While that does mean that a few of the antagonists are given less screen time and focus than in their original movies, it is a worthy sacrifice to make to keep the story focused.
No Way Home has a markedly different tone than its predecessors, moving away from the “high school comedy” atmosphere from the previous Tom Holland movies and into a more generic “superhero” tone. Even though this tonal shift takes away from what made the Spider-Man movies unique, it also seems fitting that the movies get gradually more “mature” alongside their protagonist.
Furthermore, one thing I thought was particularly noteworthy in the movie was its humor (and, at times, its lack of it). The film is certainly not dour: there are quips and jokes throughout it – most of which land fairly well. It also shows restraint in its humor, allowing for certain sequences to feel much more serious and emotional. Marvel movies tend to have an issue with undercutting emotional moments with corny jokes, so No Way Home’s more consistent tone helped it stand out.
Possibly the biggest issue with No Way Home is the pacing of its storyline, which feels underwhelming. It feels as if the movie completely switches gears far too often: initially, the movie is about the public finding out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, but the focus takes a sudden shift towards tracking down the escaped supervillains. The film is only about halfway done when that plot is resolved, so the story swings in multiple other directions. By the end, the storyline tightens up, and all of the major plot threads converge in a poignant and emotional final act. But before that point, the movie feels slightly directionless, pushing from storyline to storyline with seemingly no rhyme or reason.
While most Marvel movies intertwine with each other in various ways, No Way Home takes the connectivity even further, linking both to other movies in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe and to the previous Spider-Man movie franchises. Thankfully, all the necessary details and connections are explained well enough that no previous movies are completely necessary viewing to enjoy No Way Home. However, the film is peppered with details and references to previous movies in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. The movie’s connectedness is a huge boon to it: there are enough details to reward longtime fans, but the storyline is still accessible to first-time viewers.
Overall, Spider-Man: No Way Home is both a thoroughly entertaining blockbuster and an emotionally-compelling journey for a beloved character. While it occasionally shows its imperfections, it is very rewarding for those invested in Spider-Man as a character.
The emotional stakes are among the highest in the series, and are handled very respectfully, while the fanservice and references scattered throughout are enough to please any longtime fan. Despite the movie’s seemingly-convoluted premise, it manages to succeed on almost every level.