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MOVIE REVIEW
'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Is The Holiday Gift We All Deserve
By Sal LoCicero | December 20, 2021
The most anticipated blockbuster of 2021 has arrived this holiday, and is continuing to break a significant amount of records (despite a new variant) with fans all around the world coming together to see ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’.
With a ton of leaked spoilers hovering over this feature, ‘No Way Home’ had a lot of expectations to fulfill. Following the events of ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, Peter Parker’s superhero identity is released to the world. When this information begins tearing his personal life apart, he searches for a way to erase his identity from the world, which leads him into the multiverse. This was an interesting idea on both Sony and Marvel’s part, because no Spider-Man movie has really dealt with Peter Parker’s identity being revealed to the world - Spider-Man 2’s subway scene doesn’t count.
Adding Doctor Strange to the plot, as well as Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Electro, Sandman, and Lizard hyped up the anticipation up even more. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies have shown themselves to be worthy installments in the MCU, although this version wasn’t exactly true to the original source material; like Rami’s Spider-Man trilogy. With the original super villains showing up, it appeared that this third feature could go anywhere.
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is about giving fans what they want to see, and for the most part 'No Way Home' excels at that. It manages to give audiences all of what they want to see while staying on track with Peter Parker’s story. For a runtime consisting of 2 hours and 28 Minutes (same length as Infinity War), everything that is added here works thoroughly well. Each of the characters, including the villains, all share the necessary screen time given. It’s hard to believe that one director (Jon Watts) managed to direct this big movie all by themselves without any co directors joining in. This one hits differently than the two previous movies, whereas ‘Homecoming’ and ‘Far From Home’ was about being humorous and offering light entertainment. This time around there is more than just humor and exciting fun that is shown on the screen, there is drama, (intense) action, emotion, nostalgia and excitement. You could even say that it hits where ‘Spider-Man 3' (2007) missed.
Tom Holland continues to prove himself as another great Spider-Man, who actually looks like and depicts himself as a real teenager. The romance subplot between Peter and MJ is handled very well, and the chemistry with Peter, Ned, and MJ is perfect; especially in certain scenes. Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe are fantastic as they’ve always been in their infamous roles. Jamie Foxx, given a second chance, as Electro not only is presented with an upgraded look but his performance allows the foolish villain, from ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, to redeem himself.
The first act is the film’s weakest part, as it is quite messy and misses most of its targets. the (first acts) humor barely lands, some supporting characters overstay their welcome on screen, and the editing is rushed, uncontrollably. Luckily, it's both the second and third acts that make up for the first act’s messiness.
This is the first ever Marvel movie to have a December release, and for that, this may be the best holiday present to have arrived. ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is an exciting, wild, emotional, and fan pleasing feature that should make up for all the chaos that we’ve encountered these few years. With all that said, go out with friends or family, support your local theater, have a fun time, and most of all, be safe!
Grade: A-
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