Review: "Spider-Man: No Way Home"

Tom Holland's iteration has always been viewed in an indifferent light. While he captures the boyish-ness of the character, the way he has been written has always led people to believe he is more "Iron Boy" than the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. This is largely due to the fact that he has always received help from Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark in the form of his tech. The genius of Spider-Man: No Way Home helps eliminate that as in the grand picture of this "Homecoming" trilogy for this version of Spider-Man is one of a long origin story where a boy who wants to be an Avenger becomes a fully realized character who wants to do good. Tom Holland also does a tremendous job in the role and may have silenced his critics with just this one film.

The plot follows the aftermath of Far From Home in which Peter Parker's previous nemesis, Mysterio, announces to the world that Spider-Man is Peter Parker. This declaration puts Peter's life into a spiral but more importantly to him it negatively affects the life of his girlfriend Mary Jane (Zendaya) and his best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) as their relation to Peter puts them into direct conflict with potentially going to college. This forces Peter to make a rash decision to contact Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in hopes that he could reverse time and make people forget that he is Spider-Man. Eventually, Strange agrees as he knows of a spell that could wipe the memory of everyone in the world. However, the spell goes wrong as Peter wants MJ, Ned, and Aunt May to still remember his identity. As the spell goes wrong, every villain from every universe that had known Peter Parker to be Spider-Man comes pouring into their own. Strange explains to Peter that they must capture the villains in order to send them back to their own reality where they inevitably die fighting Spider-Man. This comes into conflict with Peter as having just killed Mysterio, he'd rather come to terms with these new villains and help them with their afflictions and be more heroic rather than an executioner.

It is hard to talk about this movie without diving into spoilers, and if you have an interest in seeing the film, I would advise you to stop reading now. For almost a full year now the internet has been driving the hype train on this film and filling it for rumors of returns for beloved characters. Those characters range from previous Spider-Men in the form of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as well as the inclusion of Netflix's own Daredevil. Charlie Cox makes a short appearance as a defense attorney for Peter Parker. Some of these inclusions are setting the stage for things to come within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the additions of previous Spider-Men always made sense considering their respective villains were known to be in the film. The scenes between the three different eras of Spider-Men are truly some of the best moments in the film as they all play off of each other so well and in an incredibly emotional film, the levity the three of them bring in scenes together is a welcome addition.

Until this point, Spider-Man films have always been a light-hearted affair but No Way Home has a lot of weight to it. Peter is struggling with his defeat of Mysterio still and doesn't again want to condemn a group of villains to their death. This decision by Peter is the core of character as he will always try to do the best for those around him and very rarely gives into the darker side of himself. However, when great tragedy meets him the darkness inside of him is forced to the surface and the elder Spider-Men are there to help him quell it in fear that this younger version would endure the horrors they have seen themselves.

Tom Holland does a fantastic job in the role and even more impressive is Jon Watts in the director chair balancing essentially three franchises into one. Not only does he balance these three different eras, but he helps make them all individually better. If you were to ask anyone years ago if this kind of film were ever possible, you would surely be laughed at but Watts proves himself to be rather capable. The pacing of the heavy film moves rather quickly for a longer film. It is an incredible credit to him that this film may just be one of the best Marvel films to date as well as one of the best Spider-Man films ever.