Spider-Man No Way Home Movie Review: Tom Holland’s Marvel Film Is a Multiversal Celebration of the Iconic Avenger! (LatestLY Exclusive)

Spider-Man No Way Home Movie Review: Going into Spider-Man: No Way Home, I had multiple fears. Seeing how the trailers just featured so many villains, more so than any other Spider-Man film, I thought it would be repeating the mistakes of Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Also the fact that the entire identity crisis thing was being regulated for a multiversal film, yeah, it just didn’t sit right with me. There were fears and boy, have I never been more wrong in my life! Spider-Man No Way Home Review: Tom Holland, Zendaya’s Superhero Film Is ‘Epic’ and ‘Emotional’, Feel Netizens.

Spider-Man: No Way Home sees Peter Parker’s life going downhill day by day after his identity was revealed by Mysterio. Seeking the help of Doctor Strange, he casts a spell that would make everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. After Peter ends up botching the spell accidentally by disturbing Strange, villains from different universes start entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What follows is Peter’s greatest battle yet.

Well, if you had any qualms with the MCU Spider-Man, then this film will drive all those criticisms away. The major criticism behind this version of Spidey was that he doesn’t really go through much in his movies, something that I generally do disagree with, but Spider-Man: No Way Home puts Peter through a vigorous amount of punishment. It really drives behind the message of “with great power comes great responsibility”, and that can be felt from the opening scene.

Peter’s characterisation over here is the best out of any MCU Spider-Man appearance yet and that’s all thanks to Tom Holland’s amazing performance. He really is a standout here. The script over here demands more range from him. He is truly amazing here and I think this film finally got Spider-Man right. Peter is just a kid from Queens who is trying to have a normal life but can’t and that’s what made him so appealing in the first place, and No Way Home finally gets that right about the character. By the end of the film it had me more excited about the future of Spidey than any other previous film did.

Not only Spidey, but the supporting characters also get to shine. Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), who didn’t have much to do in the previous films, was another standout character for me. Zendaya and Jacob Batalon also have so much more to do. Everyone here gets their time to shine and it was great seeing their dynamic with Spidey. Doctor Strange also was surprisingly quite a lot in this movie, and well, Benedict Cumberbatch is as good as he ever was.

Watch The Trailer:

Spider-Man: No Way Home also had me concerned on how these returning villains would be handled, and they proved me wrong again. I still have some minor criticisms with the inclusion of the Lizard and Sandman, like those were the characters that felt a bit more neglected, especially the Lizard. You could take him out of the film and not a damn thing would change, but yeah overall, the big three were done great. The big three being Doc Ock, Green Goblin and Electro.

Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus was like watching the same character from 2004 but just with better visuals to him. He didn’t disappoint at all. They even redeemed Jamie Foxx’s Electro here. He was one of the weakest parts about The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and they made the character better by letting him be more contained and relaxed instead of his originally campy nature. But the one that impresses the most here is Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin. It’s a shame they ever put a mask on that man’s face. His facial expressions alone sold the craziness of the Goblin.

Jon Watts also knocks it out of the park here with his direction. There is definitely a huge improvement in the way he tells the story here to how he frames the scenes. This has the best cinematography and visuals out of any MCU Spider-Man film yet, and the Sam Raimi inspirations with them are as clear as day. Can’t wait to see what he does with the Fantastic Four. Michael Giacchino’s score is also just the chef’s kiss here.

I went into Spider-Man: No Way Home also expecting a bunch of fan service and that’s exactly what I got. This for me is the best example of fan service done right. Like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, this film is packed with a ton of nostalgia. I know in films it’s like sour grapes and can be considered as a cheap way to evoke emotions out of audiences, but damn, did it make me feel like I was four years old again watching the original Spider-Man on my small TV. I just loved every second of it. Spider-Man No Way Home: Ranking All the Live Action Films of the Webhead in Anticipation of Tom Holland’s Next Marvel Film!

But I do have qualms though they aren’t that many. The CGI is just rough at times. It again suffers from the problem of Spidey’s suit looking fake. You already have a great practical suit, why ruin it by overlapping layers of CGI on it. There was this one moment where Holland was in his black and gold suit, and you could clearly see it clipping through his neck. Its moments like these where I felt that the CGI could have definitely used more time in the oven.

The first few minutes are also very choppily edited. Things happen constantly and the film jumps around way too much. The scenes just felt like a rush. Not enough time to process what you just watched and it gets a bit overwhelming. Maybe fleshing those scenes out would have helped the film in that department. It definitely has rough starting minutes. Also coming to the Lizard and Sandman, yeah they felt like background characters for most of their screen time. Sandman still had a few convincing scenes, but the Lizard just felt very much out of place sometimes.

Yay

Characterisation of Spider-Man

Side Characters are Great

Great Spider-Man Story

Top Notch Fan Service

Nay

Rough CGI

Rough Starting Few Minutes

Final Thoughts

Spider-Man: No Way Home was everything I wanted it to be and more. It pulled the best storytelling aspects from the original Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man films and gave us a movie that is basically a celebration of the character. Watching this felt like I was a child all over again, and this is one of the theatre experiences that will stick with me for a long time.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 15, 2021 08:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).