Spider-Man: No Way HomeGetting together with old pals can be a joyous walk down memory lane. But even a constant barrage of "remember when" moments can have you pining for something new. Spider-Man: No Way Home is a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) superhero movie crossed with Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU)...and it's all about Spider-Man (Tom Holland)...or really, Spider-Men, since it's a "crossover" movie, featuring assorted villains from the Sony Spider-Man franchise of films. Before long, this crossover becomes a tangled web heralding further Marvel misadventures into the multiverse.
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It's hard to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home and not feel like it is the most expensive piece of Spider-Man fan fiction (using the movies as source material) ever put on film. I get that Disney (now owners of Marvel...and everything else) want to get the most out of the three picture deal they have with Sony, but the whole movie feels like an overly sentimental sloppy wet kiss to a series of movies that, despite being blockbusters themselves, have regardless faded into obscurity for many, what with the nigh-constant barrage of superhero flicks that permeate cineplexes and streaming apps. And yet, clearly this is a movie that has enticed a massive swell of moviegoers, if its claim of being the "sixth-highest-grossing film of all time" is to be believed. So what makes this movie so appealing? Perhaps there is some nostalgia for those Spider-Man movies Sony made over the last twenty years, desperately doing so to keep that juicy license out of Marvel's hands for as long as possible. But money talks, and so we have the Tom Holland Peter Parker alongside the Avengers et al. In this film, those Avengers have largely faded into the background, although Peter still maintains ties with Tony Stark's erstwhile right-hand man, Harold "Happy" Hogan (Jon Favreau), whose "fling" with Peter's Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) has been "flung", as she puts it. (Sad face for Happy. And yeah, I don't really remember them dating, either.) And as a former Avenger, he also knows where none other than Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), former Sorcerer Supreme--a position now held by his colleague, Wong (Benedict Wong)--lives, so he can crash in when he needs something superhero-ey, I suppose. The movie starts pretty much right where Spider-Man: Far From Home left off, after Quentin Beck/Mysterio revealed Spider-Man's secret identity and framed him for his death in one fell swoop. All of a sudden, all eyes in New York are on Peter Parker, along with his unconvincing girlfriend, Michelle "MJ" Jones-Watson (Zendaya), and his best friend, Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon). And because we live in a society of tweets and tabloid media--with grinning media pundit, J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons) helming the crusade against the web-crawling "menace"--their lives are upended by the media deluge, including being denied from admission to MIT as a result of the "current controversy". Absolutely unfair--and a bit ironic and hypocritical of Disney (see: James Gunn)--so Peter does what any ex-Avenger does: begs Dr. Strange to rewrite reality. Multiverse hijinks ensue. (#NotSpoiler)
If Spider-Man: No Way Home feels a bit like a cartoon, perhaps that should come as no surprise given the popularity of the 2018 animated movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse...which concept-wise is kind of the same movie. But since it made a lot of money and got a lot of critical acclaim, Disney (in true Disney fashion) will bleed that idea dry as a bone. So the first act of this movie is really just a justification for building up to a massive multiversal (is that a word?) crossover for the MCU's "Phase Four" movies, which happens to include Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. (How many more times am I going to have to write the words "Spider-Man" or "multiverse" here?) Anyway, Dr. Strange puts it best to Peter after the altogether too distracting kid makes the wizard fumble his spell, when he tells him that he should have appealed his rejection with MIT instead of opting to rewrite the fabric of reality instead. And yeah, even if the "Bleecker Street Magician" felt sorry for Parker, he was asking kind of a big ask...and trusted a kid who was visibly too emotional to have around as he performed the complicated spell. So clearly they both have a lot to learn. But ultimately, this is what the entire rest of the movie hinges on after this happens a little more than a half an hour into it. And furthermore, all of the chaos and destruction that follows when assorted super-villains rampage through New York City is...well...Peter's fault. This hits the acme of tragedy when (and yes, spoilers coming) Green Goblin/Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) kills Aunt May, because astute audiences will also realize that this remains the inevitable progression of that one bad choice. But the tragedy in this scene loses impact largely because it feels like it was predictable, because Spider-Man always loses a loved one to crime. And after all, this is when we all have to hear that most tired of superhero mantras that Spider-Man is all too well known for: "With great power comes great responsibility", or some derivation there of. In a moment that should be meaningful and heartbreaking, having this phrase shoehorned into it makes it worth little more than an eyeroll, and drains all of the pathos from the scene.
Predictability becomes the name of the game for the rest of No Way Home, as do (ironically) an abundance of implausible twists and turns. Oddly enough, one of the few convincing twists comes in the form of the redemption of Doctor Octopus/Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina)--less as it concerns the MCU's Peter Parker "magically" using Stark tech to replace the malfunctioning AI than the character feeling contrite for the "voices in his head" which compelled him to lash out at Peter Parker. Of course, much of this believability has to do with Alfred Molina's rare combination of affability and menace, making him an excellent villain. (I say rare, but Willem Dafoe has this too...a trend not as pronounced in the films since.) So after Strange's spell goofs, all of the following action set pieces are essentially a collection of "greatest hits" battles. And the sole excuse for these happening in the first place is that there was a "tear in the multiverse", and "anyone who knew who Peter Parker was" starts pouring through. (Of course, this makes even less sense with the mid-credits scene featuring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, who did not know this, but why let logic get in the way of that fact?) Pretty much every one of these fights is built on a flimsy pretense. Doc Ock seems to magically show up on a bridge to lay waste to cars while Peter is (finally) pleading his case to the MIT admissions officer in transit to the airport...and then so does Green Goblin. And all of them get confused about who their fighting after Peter Parker takes off his mask...because apparently even though there are multiple Peter Parkers in the multiverse, none of them look like they are related to one another. It's like the only logic dictating how and why these villains show up is engineered solely for the convenience of the plot. And when another shows up at a power station, of course it's (guess who?) Max Dillon/Electro (Jaime Foxx), but sans the unpopular blue makeup this time. He's got Peter on the ropes...until Flint Marko/Sandman (Thomas Haden Church)--also "magically"--shows up to save him from being electrocuted. And let's not forget the wildly implausible moment where Ned puts on Doc Strange's magic ring, and is suddenly able to make portals just by waiving his hands around, summoning the Spider-Men from the Sony movies--Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield--into the MCU. Apparently, Doctor Strange isn't much of a talented sorcerer--he just has some fancy toys which any dope (and yes, Ned is a dope--comes with being comic relief) could wave his hands around to use. I get it, it's a "superhero movie", so suspending disbelief comes with the territory. But there comes a point where it just feels like all of these coincidences are just a little too...convenient...as though the movie was rushing to fulfill the obligations of a checklist of "must dos" for a Spider-Man crossover movie, from nods to prior Marvel Comics story arcs to the Sony movies themselves.
For the record, I like Spider-Man. My first comic book was an old reprint of "Spider-Man", where he took some bad drugs to "cure himself" of his spider powers and grew four extra arms instead. It also features Kurt Connors/Lizard (Rhys Ifans in this film), who is stuck in his lizard form, but retains his intelligence; the two of them have to battle Morbius, the Living Vampire. What's not to love? And I've loved many other Spider-Man comics, including many that dealt with the wonderful collection of villains from Spider-Man's rogue's gallery called "The Sinister Six", which clearly inspired No Way Home. But Spider-Man is an iconic hero, and his stories have varied dramatically throughout his extensive tenure as Marvel Comics's flagship superhero, in terms of quality and content. The problem with an iconic hero, however, is that it generally means that it restricts what you can do with the hero, because the character's own history becomes a bit of a burden for innovation--and that's exactly what happens here. And because Disney/Marvel (as they increasingly do) tries to appeal to everyone at once, what we get is a product that doesn't say anything original at all, another blockbuster destined to be forgotten as soon as the next new thing comes around...even if they have to sell it to us themselves.
Recommended for: Well...fans of all of the Spider-Man movies, I guess, and I mean all of them. Because unless you've been boning up on all of your Spider-Man lore before watching this, you're probably going to feel like the copious Easter eggs are whizzing over your head, making you feel like Spider-Man: No Way Home is a movie only for obsessed fans who care less about coherent plot or character development and just squee at length about every little nod to...whatever. (I'm done saying "Spider-Man".)
If Spider-Man: No Way Home feels a bit like a cartoon, perhaps that should come as no surprise given the popularity of the 2018 animated movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse...which concept-wise is kind of the same movie. But since it made a lot of money and got a lot of critical acclaim, Disney (in true Disney fashion) will bleed that idea dry as a bone. So the first act of this movie is really just a justification for building up to a massive multiversal (is that a word?) crossover for the MCU's "Phase Four" movies, which happens to include Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. (How many more times am I going to have to write the words "Spider-Man" or "multiverse" here?) Anyway, Dr. Strange puts it best to Peter after the altogether too distracting kid makes the wizard fumble his spell, when he tells him that he should have appealed his rejection with MIT instead of opting to rewrite the fabric of reality instead. And yeah, even if the "Bleecker Street Magician" felt sorry for Parker, he was asking kind of a big ask...and trusted a kid who was visibly too emotional to have around as he performed the complicated spell. So clearly they both have a lot to learn. But ultimately, this is what the entire rest of the movie hinges on after this happens a little more than a half an hour into it. And furthermore, all of the chaos and destruction that follows when assorted super-villains rampage through New York City is...well...Peter's fault. This hits the acme of tragedy when (and yes, spoilers coming) Green Goblin/Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) kills Aunt May, because astute audiences will also realize that this remains the inevitable progression of that one bad choice. But the tragedy in this scene loses impact largely because it feels like it was predictable, because Spider-Man always loses a loved one to crime. And after all, this is when we all have to hear that most tired of superhero mantras that Spider-Man is all too well known for: "With great power comes great responsibility", or some derivation there of. In a moment that should be meaningful and heartbreaking, having this phrase shoehorned into it makes it worth little more than an eyeroll, and drains all of the pathos from the scene.
Predictability becomes the name of the game for the rest of No Way Home, as do (ironically) an abundance of implausible twists and turns. Oddly enough, one of the few convincing twists comes in the form of the redemption of Doctor Octopus/Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina)--less as it concerns the MCU's Peter Parker "magically" using Stark tech to replace the malfunctioning AI than the character feeling contrite for the "voices in his head" which compelled him to lash out at Peter Parker. Of course, much of this believability has to do with Alfred Molina's rare combination of affability and menace, making him an excellent villain. (I say rare, but Willem Dafoe has this too...a trend not as pronounced in the films since.) So after Strange's spell goofs, all of the following action set pieces are essentially a collection of "greatest hits" battles. And the sole excuse for these happening in the first place is that there was a "tear in the multiverse", and "anyone who knew who Peter Parker was" starts pouring through. (Of course, this makes even less sense with the mid-credits scene featuring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, who did not know this, but why let logic get in the way of that fact?) Pretty much every one of these fights is built on a flimsy pretense. Doc Ock seems to magically show up on a bridge to lay waste to cars while Peter is (finally) pleading his case to the MIT admissions officer in transit to the airport...and then so does Green Goblin. And all of them get confused about who their fighting after Peter Parker takes off his mask...because apparently even though there are multiple Peter Parkers in the multiverse, none of them look like they are related to one another. It's like the only logic dictating how and why these villains show up is engineered solely for the convenience of the plot. And when another shows up at a power station, of course it's (guess who?) Max Dillon/Electro (Jaime Foxx), but sans the unpopular blue makeup this time. He's got Peter on the ropes...until Flint Marko/Sandman (Thomas Haden Church)--also "magically"--shows up to save him from being electrocuted. And let's not forget the wildly implausible moment where Ned puts on Doc Strange's magic ring, and is suddenly able to make portals just by waiving his hands around, summoning the Spider-Men from the Sony movies--Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield--into the MCU. Apparently, Doctor Strange isn't much of a talented sorcerer--he just has some fancy toys which any dope (and yes, Ned is a dope--comes with being comic relief) could wave his hands around to use. I get it, it's a "superhero movie", so suspending disbelief comes with the territory. But there comes a point where it just feels like all of these coincidences are just a little too...convenient...as though the movie was rushing to fulfill the obligations of a checklist of "must dos" for a Spider-Man crossover movie, from nods to prior Marvel Comics story arcs to the Sony movies themselves.
For the record, I like Spider-Man. My first comic book was an old reprint of "Spider-Man", where he took some bad drugs to "cure himself" of his spider powers and grew four extra arms instead. It also features Kurt Connors/Lizard (Rhys Ifans in this film), who is stuck in his lizard form, but retains his intelligence; the two of them have to battle Morbius, the Living Vampire. What's not to love? And I've loved many other Spider-Man comics, including many that dealt with the wonderful collection of villains from Spider-Man's rogue's gallery called "The Sinister Six", which clearly inspired No Way Home. But Spider-Man is an iconic hero, and his stories have varied dramatically throughout his extensive tenure as Marvel Comics's flagship superhero, in terms of quality and content. The problem with an iconic hero, however, is that it generally means that it restricts what you can do with the hero, because the character's own history becomes a bit of a burden for innovation--and that's exactly what happens here. And because Disney/Marvel (as they increasingly do) tries to appeal to everyone at once, what we get is a product that doesn't say anything original at all, another blockbuster destined to be forgotten as soon as the next new thing comes around...even if they have to sell it to us themselves.
Recommended for: Well...fans of all of the Spider-Man movies, I guess, and I mean all of them. Because unless you've been boning up on all of your Spider-Man lore before watching this, you're probably going to feel like the copious Easter eggs are whizzing over your head, making you feel like Spider-Man: No Way Home is a movie only for obsessed fans who care less about coherent plot or character development and just squee at length about every little nod to...whatever. (I'm done saying "Spider-Man".)