"Spider-Man: No Way Home" review — Multiversal misadventure is entertaining, but unbalanced

“The problem is you trying to live two different lives. The longer you do it, the more dangerous it becomes.”

This review contains spoilers.

Peter Parker has it all: he’s entering his senior year of high school at an advanced science school in Brooklyn; he’s just applied to MIT with high hopes of getting in; and he’s the inheritor to the legacy of recently-deceased genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and Avenger Tony Stark. Elsewhere, Peter’s new romantic relationship with his crush MJ is starting to blossom. There’s just one small problem: his secret identity as world-famous superhero Spider-Man has been revealed to the world.

When the news broke that Jamie Foxx and Alfred Molina would reprise their roles as Electro and Doc Ock respectively in the then-untitled third Spider-Man movie, it became quite obvious that Spider-Man: No Way Home was attaching itself firmly to the legacy of the twenty years of theatrical Spider-Man films. As rumours about the film’s plot and contents were fueled by further returning characters from Sam Raimi’s trilogy and the Amazing Spider-Man duology and Holland speaking about the film as an end of his Spider-Man era, the film would need to deliver both a satisfying finale for Holland’s run and serve as the culmination of what has come before.

Understandably, No Way Home is a lot. It’s a massive movie with a big scope, good intentions, and a large ensemble of familiar and returning characters with each needing a compelling arc and resolution. Thankfully, the film is able to survive the enormous weight of its own ambition. The returning characters are given their due and the ongoing story of the MCU’s Spider-Man successfully brings the current chapter to a close. However, the film struggles to find a purpose beyond its base functionality. No Way Home is quite entertaining although frustratingly surface level. It suffers from the usual MCU-isms, has poor visual effects, and results in a thematically hollow experience.

The anticipation of No Way Home began two years ago when the preceding film, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), left audiences on a dramatic, unresolved note. As the primary suspect in the murder of the “superhero” Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), Peter (Tom Holland) finds himself on the run. The media, his peers, and the government are all after him as Peter helplessly watches the fragile world that his double-life created crash down around him. In desperation, he turns to the magician Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell to make everyone forget that he is Spider-Man so he can return to his normal life. Reluctantly, Strange agrees only for the spell to go wrong bringing a host of Spider-Man’s greatest enemies from across the multiverse to Peter’s home dimension each with revenge on their minds.

Tom Holland and Benedict Cumberbatch in Spider-Man: No Way Home. © 2021 Sony Pictures.

There’s a lot to like about Spider-Man’s latest multiversal misadventure. First, I had so much fun watching this film. It was an amazing theatre experience — I became aggressively giddy when Molina, Dafoe, and a special first act cameo first appeared — regardless of the film’s faults. Stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon knock it out of the park as they’ve done in the previous two films. Holland is pitch-perfect casting as Peter Parker and he delivers his best performance as the character here. As his future as the character is uncertain, it would be unfortunate to lose him and his place in the universe. There are a lot of great character moments between Peter and his allies. I appreciated the moments of downtime that the film gives to its characters, with two character-heavy scenes standing out in my mind. The first occurs in the middle of the second act with Peter and company stuck in an apartment and the second in between the second and third acts when Peter receives some much-needed help. Both provide much-needed emotional breathing space to the movie and prove just how strong the film’s characters are.

The returning ensemble of villains are all welcome additions to the film. Molina and Willem Dafoe kill it as they bring back everything that made their characters so excellent in their original appearances. The confrontation on the bridge between Doc Ock and Spider-Man and the mirror dimension skirmish are the highlights of the film’s action. The movie has a lot of love for the character of Spider-Man. No Way Home is the best entry in the MCU Spider-Man trilogy because it is willing to give consequences and serious hardships to the main characters. Spider-Man experiences loss and grief and has to make difficult choices that jeopardize him and his friends. Peter has, all this time, been able to manage his double life, but now the past is creeping upon him and he can’t escape it.

While this isn’t really a positive or negative comment, I would like to note that I am surprised that they didn’t bring back any of the villains from Holland’s era. I find this especially curious because one villain from each of the five Maguire/Garfield movies appears and that the film was one villain away from creating the famous “Sinister Six.”

The Green Goblin appears. © 2021 Sony Pictures.

There’s also a lot of things to dislike about No Way Home. The usual problems with most MCU films are just as apparent here as they’ve always been. The visual effects are atrocious. The images are overly processed with no depth or character to them. The lighting is flat and uninteresting. The action set pieces are atrociously directed as well. I blame that last element squarely on director Jon Watts. Watts, who has served as director on all three MCU Spider-Man films, has made no progress in learning how to direct spectacle and splendour. These elements are especially unfortunate when compared to the earlier incarnations of the Spider-Man character. Sam Raima’s three films, especially the first two, are built on practical effects and digital effects built around real-life locations and stunts.

The biggest tragedy is that the film wastes an opportunity to dive deep into the mythology and ideology of Spider-Man. No Way Home is built on giving longtime fans of the series what they think they want without actually thinking through the meaning of the material. The film remains superficial with its themes despite the profound storytelling potential in bringing the cross-section of characters from the multiverse. The film is built on fan service and, while so much fun in the moment, No Way Home ends up being a mixture of recognizable, vapid iconography crafted into a collage of nostalgia for a bygone era. I think I would be far more into this if Into the Spider-Verse didn’t do this same premise three years ago and do it so much better by interrogating the idea of Spider-Man and providing some interesting thoughts on what being a hero means.

Spider-Man and Electro. © 2021 Sony Pictures.

No Way Home manages to balance all of its pieces and craft a third act that, while not perfect, provides a truly satisfying and even emotional ending to the film and this stage of the character. The film’s gargantuan ambitions are executed remarkably well and it manages to strike a balance between the new and the old, the fresh and the familiar. Much of this is due to, and this is the biggest twist in the film, the return of Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire as their versions of Spider-Man. Garfield and Maguire are both such wonderful performers, Garfield being the highlight of the two, and tie the legacy of the series together. The closing moments between Holland, Garfield, Maguire, and Dafoe bring a wonderful final punch to the film. No Way Home’s finale resonates so emotionally is because it has clear consequences for the characters. 

When a studio produces three versions of the same series in less than twenty years, comparisons are inevitable. With a fan base as vocal as the Spider-Man fandom, those comparisons often grow hostile with divisions drawn fiercely between the three incarnations of the web-slinger that are still prevalent in the cultural conscience. As the fans of the character fight against each other, it’s nice to see this film bring them all together in harmony. As I mentioned earlier, it’s all because No Way Home has a profound love for the character in all his many versions. Sure, the film is not perfect and suffers from being dreadfully unthoughtful, but it is remarkably optimistic and its heart is in the right place. I still came to enjoy No Way Home because it loves its characters as much as the audience loves them.

The best thing that No Way Home does is it provides a sense of closure to what we’ve seen of Peter Parker. In the end, the film reduces him back to the essentials: a broke kid with a homemade suit just wanting to make his city a better place. “With great power comes great responsibility,” is the saying repeated throughout the series and No Way Home lives by those words. The film reminds us why we have come to love Spider-Man and why his story is so endearing.  As the bitter-sweet ending of No Way Home changes the trajectory of the character and his future, one thing is for certain: he’s always going to be our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

Score: 3

Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theatres.

Spider-Man: No Way Home Information

Directed by Jon Watts
Written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers
Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Jamie Foxx, Jon Favreau, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, with Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire
Released 17 December 2021
148 minutes