Review: Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

 Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, some language and brief suggestive comments

Score: 3 out of 5

Spider-Man: No Way Home is pure fanservice for fans of Spider-Man. In many ways, it's probably the closest that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come to making a film like the classic Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, which I still maintain are the gold standard for adapting the web-slinger to the big screen, especially in light of certain plot turns later on. Kids will get a kick out of it, but this movie was really made for the slightly older fans who were kids or teenagers when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield played Peter Parker and are now taking their own kids to the theater. I should know; I saw this with two kids ages nine and seven, and while our enjoyment came from two different directions, we all had a good time.

And yet... at its core, this film's basic plot is one that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did just a few years ago, and did better. Not only is the central idea behind this film, an interdimensional oopsie causing different versions of Spider-Man's universe (in this case, the different cinematic universes he's inhabited) to start merging together, very similar to that of Spider-Verse in the broad strokes, but a lot of this film's central themes are, too. It's ultimately a double-edged sword, on that produces many of the film's best moments but also weighs it down at important points, seemingly more caught up in references for fans than in telling its story. Make no mistake, however, this film also does a lot right. Tom Holland is still a legitimately great Peter Parker, he has a great supporting cast around him, seeing him go up against Spidey's classic villains was very fun to watch, the film did quite a few interesting things with those villains (particularly its takes on Doc Ock and the Green Goblin), and without spoiling anything, the second half delivers some solid curveballs. It's far from the MCU's finest film, and I wouldn't quite say it "redeemed" The Amazing Spider-Man 2 like some fans have argued, but it's a movie that you'll enjoy even if you haven't seen the old Sam Raimi and Marc Webb movies, and will probably adore if you loved them.

Following on from the events of Far From Home, the film opens with Peter Parker's secret identity as Spider-Man being revealed to the world by J. Jonah Jameson thanks to Mysterio's final "screw you". Smeared by Jameson as a murderer while Mysterio's phony "hero" reputation remains intact, Peter's life is ruined, his dreams of going to MIT dashed by the potential liability MIT would face having Spider-Man on campus and his best friends MJ and Ned caught up in the blast radius. Seeking to set it right, Peter turns to one Dr. Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, to cast a spell that would somehow undo the revelation and make everybody forget that he's Spider-Man. Needless to say, the spell goes wrong in exactly the way that Strange tried to warn him about. Specifically, instead of making people forget who Spider-Man really is, it causes everybody from every universe who's ever known that Peter is Spider-Man to get pulled into the MCU, starting with Dr. Otto Octavius from Spider-Man 2 in the middle of a traffic jam and later including the "Green Goblin" Norman Osborn from the first Spider-Man, the "Sandman" Flint Marko from Spider-Man 3, the "Lizard" Curt Connors from The Amazing Spider-Man, and Max "Electro" Dillon from The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Now, Peter's attempt to find a quick fix for his problem has unleashed a much bigger one.

The central thing that made this movie work was Peter Parker himself. Not only do I maintain that Tom Holland was perfectly cast in the part, he gets an arc here that finally teaches him the most important lesson that Peter has ever had to learn throughout most iterations of the character. A common criticism of the MCU's version of Peter is that he's never really been somebody who tries to live by the code of "with great power comes great responsibility", relying instead on Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s technology and his own winsome personality to carry the day. This film was seemingly made by people who sharply disliked that tendency, or at least felt like responding to that criticism, because a large chunk of this movie is Peter getting put through a well-deserved hell for what he does. His mistakes kick off the plot and are directly responsible for the failure of Doctor Strange's spell, from the fact that he thought it was a good idea in the first place to how he managed to mess up its actual casting, and from that point forward, he keeps screwing up in ways that only make matters worse for everybody involved, not least of all himself. And the film directly calls him on it, with Peter's story being that of somebody who needs to learn how to be a responsible adult who can't just solve everything with Stark Industries' science or Doctor Strange's magic, but needs to own up to his mistakes head-on. A second-act twist that I won't dare spoil drives this home, showing Peter that there are ways in which things can get so, so much worse. In his third film, Peter finally has to grow up and be an adult, and his journey in doing so was compelling and made for a rock-solid anchor for this movie.

As for the rogues' gallery of classic bad guys that he faces, it's perhaps no surprise that the Green Goblin and Doc Ock, the respective villains of the two best non-MCU Spider-Man movies, get the most opportunity to shine. Doc Ock's journey as he tries to get home and face the "real" Peter Parker is one of redemption as he realizes the error of his ways after being decisively beaten by the MCU Peter's advanced technology, in keeping with perhaps the most tragic and sympathetic villain that Raimi's Spidey ever faced. Alfred Molina, reprising his role after seventeen years, was great as somebody trying to make things right, especially as it becomes clear that he was fated to die at the end of Spider-Man 2. Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn, meanwhile, is an unrepentant evil bastard who absolutely does not want to change his ways no matter how much Peter, MJ, Ned, and Dr. Octavius may try, his seemingly cartoonish villainy turning out to be something far more brutal and horrifying than the well-intentioned "D-FENS from Falling Down with a vulture suit" Adrian Toomes from Homecoming or the bitter, vainglorious Quentin Beck from Far From Home. This film was a reminder of why Dafoe is so great at playing creepy villains.

Unfortunately, the members of the rogues' gallery lifted from the lesser Spider-movies fell flat, coming off as little more than henchmen for the Green Goblin. I was especially disappointed with how Sandman was treated, as he too was a sympathetic villain in Spider-Man 3, a family man who turned to crime to pay for his sick daughter's medical treatments, and yet here was reduced to little more than a goon. The Lizard and Electro felt similarly wasted, and while I can understand why the villains from what are generally agreed to be the worst Spider-Man movies got short shrift, I still would've liked to see more done with them, especially given how this film otherwise directly calls back to and references plot points from all of those films. It felt like they were going for a villainous version of the team-up of alternate-universe Spider-Men that Spider-Verse featured, perhaps as an homage to the Sinister Six from the comics, but in practice, only two of the five villains here were all that interesting. (I did like certain other ways in which the universes interacted, though. But again, spoilers.)

As for the basic meat and potatoes, they were exactly what I expected after thirteen years with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These movies have their own style to them, and this one delivered exactly what you might expect, nothing more and nothing less. Exciting, effects-driven action is the name of the game here, and while it never quite goes above and beyond, it never fell into mediocrity and always kept me entertained, and Doctor Strange, of course, was always a reliable source for creative action scenes (especially one between him and Spider-Man that pretty well answers any "who would win?" questions). The cast was great, the editing kept it flowing nicely despite its length, and all told, on a technical level this is just a well-put-together movie like pretty much everything Marvel has made.

The Bottom Line

It may suffer in comparison to what other filmmakers past and present have done with Spider-Man and his world, but in his third outing, the MCU version of Peter Parker still delivers some good times that offer some interesting places for both him and the universe as a whole to travel going forward. Check it out.

(And on that note, the mid-credits scene was hysterical. And the post-credits scene... hot damn.)