Courtesy of Marvel Studios
After months of anticipation, Spider-Man: No Way Home is finally available for the public to see in theaters. The hype for this movie has been unreal. With theories coming out every day it seemed like this film would be impossible to live up to the hype. Spider-Man: No Way Home not only lives up to the hype, it creates a new direction for Tom Holland's Spider Man that finally lives up to the character we all know and love. This will be a SPOILER review so if you haven't seen Spider-Man: No Way Home don't read the rest of this review.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is one of the best Spider Man films of all time. It is certainly the best Tom Holland Spider Man film and it's not even close. This film does everything a Spider Man fan would want. Tom Holland gives his best performance as Peter Parker/Spider Man. The range of emotions he shows in this film is impressive and especially during the emotional scenes. He earned his role as Spider Man in this film. Prior to this film I didn't know what to think about Tom Holland as Spider Man. It felt like he didn't fit the role to me, but after this film he truly is Spider Man.
The film starts where we left off in Far From Home. Peter is outed as Spider Man by Mysterio and J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) is back and hates Spider Man more than ever. This creates problems for Peter and everyone he knows and they soon get arrested. Luckily for Peter and his friends, he had a great lawyer Matt Murdock AKA Daredevil (Charlie Cox). Charlie Cox is back as Daredevil and is now a part of the MCU and I couldn't be more excited. His debut comes at an interesting time because we could be seeing him again in the finale of Hawkeye.
Peter is desperate for his identity to be a secret from the world again. He seeks the help of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell that no one will know his identity. Peter starts tampering with the spell when he wants MJ, Ned, and Aunt May to remember he is Spider Man. The spell doesn't work but Strange contains the spell. But he didn't contain the spell because Peter starts getting visitors from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Spider Man films.
The villains were a great part of this film. I didn't expect the film to go in the direction of wanting to cure the villains instead of sending them back to their own universes to die, but it was a welcomed surprise. The first villain we are introduced to again is Doc Ock (Alfred Molina). We meet him on the highway as Peter is talking to the head of MIT to try and get MJ and Ned accepted into MIT. Peter, MJ, and Ned were rejected into MIT because of their association to Spider Man. Doc Ock and Spider Man start fighting on the highway. Peter takes off his mask and Doc Ock says to him that he is not Peter Parker. Peter takes control of Doc Ock's arms using Stark technology and Strange sends him to his dungeon locked up.
We then see the main villain of the film, The Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). Seeing Willem Dafoe as The Green Goblin was awesome. It brought me back to seeing him for the first time in Tobey Maguire's Spider Man. The Green Goblin was as evil as ever in this film. His character was more gritty and real in this film. In the original Spider Man, his character was a little campy and seemed to come straight out of the comic books. In this film, he's darker than ever and not campy at all.
Electro, Lizard, and Sandman are the next villains introduced. Electro (Jamie Foxx) received an upgraded look that fit this film. Foxx brings his own swagger to Electro and his villain was the most improved from the previous film. Lizard and Sandman are kind of forgettable but it was still really cool to see them.
Peter captures all of these villains and Strange wants to send them home. Peter refuses and sends Strange through a portal using Strange's magic. Peter decides he needs to cure these villains from their evil side. Peter uses technology from Stark Industries as a way to cure the villains. Peter cures Doc Ock but senses some trouble in the room. He uses his spider sense to feel that The Green Goblin is back in Norman. Peter and The Green Goblin have an epic fight with WWE style moves. I saw a powerbomb and a spinebuster in this fight and it was epic. The other villains are not cured yet so they continue to do evil things. Peter and Goblin keep fighting and Goblin hits Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) with his glider. Goblin then throws a pumpkin bomb at Aunt May but Peter dives in front of it. Peter and Aunt May are both hurt as they try to walk it off but May suddenly collapses. Aunt May dies in Peter's arms. The death of Aunt May was upsetting but in my opinion it's necessary for Peter Parker's character.
MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) try to find Peter using Doctor Strange's magic. Ned opens a portal and sees Peter in the Spider Man suit. Spider Man enters the portal but it's not Tom Holland, it's ANDREW GARFIELD. Garfield is back as Spider Man and when he appeared on screen the theater erupted. Ned opens another portal to try and find their Peter Parker, but suddenly TOBEY F'N MAGUIRE walks through the portal. I lost my shit when I saw him on screen again. It was a dream come true seeing these two in this film. Watching Maguire and Garfield interact with each other was so awesome. I couldn't help but smile the whole time.
MJ and Ned find their Peter and tell him he has some friends visiting him. Maguire, Garfield, and Holland all on the big screen together blew my mind. They have a great scene of loss and grief. Maguire with Uncle Ben, Garfield with Gwen Stacy, and now Holland with Aunt May. Peter realizes he can still cure these villains and asks for the help of the other two Peter's. They agree to help him.
The next couple of scenes are the three Peter's bantering with each other and it is my favorite part of the film. Seeing them talk about the craziest villains they faced and how they make their web shooters was so cool. Everything about this just left a huge smile on my face. Seeing 20 years of Spider Man come together in one movie is truly astonishing. The 3 Spider Man have a plan to lure the villains to the Statue of Liberty to cure them. All of the villains are lured there and the fight was epic. Seeing all three Spider Man swinging together and doing their pose was sick. It brought out the little kid in me. All of the villains become cured in heartfelt moments with each Spider Man, except for one The Green Goblin.
Tom Holland's Spider Man fights Goblin and this time Spider Man is more aggressive. This is a different Spider Man that we have seen previously in Holland's movies. He's now angry from the death of Aunt May and takes it out on the Goblin. He tries to kill him but Maguire stops him but gets stabbed by Goblin. Garfield's Peter and Holland's Peter then inject Goblin with his cure and now he's sane again.
This is where the film gets more interesting and excites me for the future. Doctor Strange reveals there's more visitors coming in and Peter realizes the only way to stop this is to cast that spell. The spell is cast and now no one knows the identity of Peter Parker. The film ends with Peter moving into a new broken down apartment with a fresh Spider Man suit swinging around the city with no one knowing Peter Parker.
The mid-credits scene shows Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) drinking at a bar talking about going to New York to talk to Spider Man. Suddenly because of the spell, Eddie gets zapped back to his own universe but he leaves a symbiote in Tom Holland's Spider Man universe.
Spider-Man: No Way Home does everything correctly for a Spider Man film. It has great action, fun dialogue, good villains, and a heartfelt story. The surprises of Charlie Cox as Daredevil and the return of Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Jamie Foxx, Thomas Haden Church, Rhys Ifans, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield make this one of the best Spider Man films in a long time. The on screen chemistry with Maguire, Garfield, and Holland is magical and brought the 5 year old Thomas out of me again. I will never forget this movie and will watch it again as soon as possible.
Grade: A+
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