In a theatre full of fans laughing, cheering, crying and applauding, I’m reminded of how lucky I am to live in a universe where moments of sheer joy like this exist.
Before you read any further, I need you to know that I intend to spoil literally every single part of this movie. If you haven’t seen it, now’s your chance to back out. Spoilers ahead.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (*****)
Spider-Man: No Way Home isn’t just a spectacular and poignant conclusion to the ‘Home’ trilogy – which, I need not remind you, is the first successful Spider-Man threequel ever. It also isn’t just a slate-wiping reset that paves the way for an exciting new chapter of Tom Holland Spider-Man stories – assuming Marvel and Sony find a way to keep making this mega-corporate-marriage work. Most of all, this film is a heartfelt celebration of the character of Spider-Man. It elevates three separate universes of Spider-Man films. It’s not just that they borrowed characters from other universes – it’s that by taking them, they got to take them further than they had gone before. It feels like the party after a milestone event like a graduation or wedding – everyone we’ve ever loved is here, and we’re all just happy to be here because we’re all here together.
I have honestly nothing but good things to say about this film. I saw it on opening night (Thursday) with my wife, and then the very next day with my three siblings. Both times were exactly the kind of cinematic experience that the movies were made for – packed-out theatres full of fans. I laughed loud and often at the quips and jokes that never interfered with the momentum of the story. I cried under my 3D glasses while my wife whispered, “Matt, why would they do that?” I cheered with the crowds when characters I’d grown up with appeared onscreen. There’s something so special about opening night for movies like this, and it’s something that a home viewing can never quite replicate. As the opening commercials wound down on my second viewing and the screen went dark, the audience erupted into cheers just out of sheer excitement for what was to come.
“Tobey Maguire’s the best Spider-Man!” someone yelled several rows back, which led to laughter and more cheers. I just don’t know how you couldn’t love an audience like this. The audience that knows when to scream just as much as it does when to fall silent. For two and a half hours, you’re the best of friends with complete strangers – like you’re locked in a roller coaster next to someone who’s just as excited to be there as you are. For me, that’s what cinema is about. Those moments in the theatre that take your breath away and make you realize you’re surrounded by friends you’ve never met before in your life.
The Devil of Hell's Kitchen
Alright, I’ve talked for a while without actually talking about the movie itself, so let’s dive in. One of the first remarkable moments from this film is the scene that brings an MCU favourite to the big screen for the first time – Matt Murdock, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. He’s only in one very small scene, and his role is so minor that the film wouldn’t have been much different if he hadn’t been there at all. Even so, I was so excited to see him. For one thing, it was affirmation that watching three seasons of Daredevil and that one season of Defenders mattered. Most of the Netflix MCU stuff isn’t anything that I’d recommend, but Daredevil was always the flagship show. He was great. So to have him onscreen here was a really special moment just on the basis of seeing him in the first place, but it was also exciting because who knows if he’ll ever get to go further. I certainly hope this isn’t the last we see of Daredevil on the big screen. Again, it’s not as though his presence added much to the film, but as an MCU fan it was just so nice to see him. In any case, the role he served was explaining that Peter Parker wasn’t going to be charged for the murder of Mysterio. Back at the end of Far From Home, it seemed as though the direction this threequel would have to take was one where Spider-Man was on the run from the law. Although that would’ve been a great story I’m sure, that’s not the one Marvel was interested in telling this time. And that’s just fine.
Getting used to a new world where everyone knows he’s Spider-Man turns out to be a lot for Peter Parker to handle, so it’s not long before he ends up making a visit to Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. I was surprised at first at how easy this was – Peter literally just walks through the front door. I wondered for a moment about how often random people just wander in, but reasoned that the door was probably magic or whatever and knew who to let in and who to keep out. Anyway, Strange serves as the means for bringing in characters from other universes, and it’s done in a reasonably believable way. He tries casting a spell to make everyone in the universe forget Spider-Man is Peter Parker. However, Peter’s constant interruptions mess up the spell and make it so that everyone who knows Spider-Man is Peter in any universe start to appear in the MCU. Is it a bit of a stretch? Maybe. But the payoff makes it so, so worth it.
The Return of Doctor Octopus
The next big character to show up is Doctor Octopus, arguably the greatest villain of Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man films. Part of what made the Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock fight fun was obviously just the pleasure of seeing Doc Ock again. But what really made it more than just fan service was the way it tied into the main story. Part of what makes Spider-Man so great across all of his films is how he’s desperately trying to navigate his life as Spider-Man alongside his average ordinary life as Peter Parker. And that’s exactly what makes this scene work. The reason Spider-Man’s on the highway where Doc Ock appears is because he’s trying to track down a university representative who might be able to give him and his friends a second chance to get into MIT. As the brief battle unfolds, the representative gets stuck in her car and is put in mortal danger very quickly – forcing Peter to leap to her rescue. It’s a classic Spider-Man moment, like so many others with similar premises:
· In Homecoming, Peter is forced to miss his decathlon tournament while hunting the Vulture.
· In Far From Home, Peter’s plans to tell MJ he likes her during their high school trip to Europe keep getting interrupted by Nick Fury.
· In Spider-Man 2, Peter misses MJ’s play because he stopped a carjacking.
For Peter, being Spider-Man is a constant interruption for his real life – and that’s what makes him different from so many other heroes. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Doctor Strange – they’re always themselves. There’s not much duality to their characters. They don’t have to worry about folding their own laundry like Spider-Man does, and that’s something we all love about the guy. So to that end, making Doc Ock’s return a moment where Peter’s superhero life gets in the way of his private life was a great choice.
Electro and Friends
Then comes the Lizard, one of the less important villains of this film. It’s not long before Electro and Sandman show up too, but Electro’s clearly the most significant of the three. Lizard and Sandman don’t have much to do in this movie, although they each get a few notable lines of dialogue that make you glad to see them again. Lizard remarking how Electro would look so much nicer as a lizard was great, and Sandman sitting on Happy Hogan’s couch was a simple but charming little joke. After Doc Ock and Green Goblin (who I’ll get to in a minute), Electro’s the next most featured villain. He’s had a dramatic shift in appearance through the inter-universal travel that can only be explained by Jamie Foxx not wanting to look dumb again. Though the film acknowledges this change with a joke, it’s a moment that you kind of just have to suck up and move on from. The result is that Electro comes off as way cooler and more threatening, and his newfound power that comes from an arc reactor was a great way to redefine the rules of his character. I particularly loved how these villains explained to each other how they each came to be villains. One of the defining qualities of the MCU has always been this self-referential banter between characters, and there’s so many fresh faces in this film that there easily could’ve been another ten minutes of characters sharing war stories and dissing each other.
The Green Goblin Arrives
Out of all the multiversal villains, though, there’s definitely one that steals the spotlight more than any other. Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin really makes you feel like not one day has passed since 2002. He’s just as sinister and menacing as he was all those years ago. One of the things that made Green Goblin truly great back then was how antithetical he was to Spider-Man. Spider-Man is about responsibility, but Goblin’s just about power. He challenges and mocks Spider-Man’s rules every step of the way – I think fondly of the moment in the original film where Goblin flicks Spidey in the head for saying that you should save people because it’s the right thing to do. He shares some traits with Batman’s Joker in that regard – it’s like he doesn’t want to just beat Spider-Man, he wants to educate him. He wants to change Pete’s mind and turn him into a Goblin of his own. There are several moments in this film that highlight Goblin’s polar opposite-ness to Peter, and how much he’s a villain unlike any other that Peter has faced. In particular, the scene where Peter is punching Goblin in the condo while Goblin just smiles and laughs wildly was so unsettling in the best way possible. Goblin has a way of making it personal, and I loved that.
That said, Goblin being Goblin isn’t new. Yes, it’s great to see him dish out deliciously evil lines of dialogue – my personal favourite being the part where he declares that Spider-Man is “Strong enough to have it all! Too weak to take it!” What elevated Goblin’s character beyond what we’ve seen before was the way Norman Osborn was depicted in this film. Norman’s battle with his inner Goblin was obviously a key element of the original Spider-Man film, but it was a battle that Norman fought – and lost – alone. Here, there’s a scene where Norman is in a homeless shelter and Aunt May is realizing just how lost he really is. It’s a scene that makes you go, “Man, this guy needs help.” It’s another defining feature of classic Spider-Man stories. Spider-Man knows that underneath the scary costumes and dark one-liners, his villains are humans who have lost their way. Norman seeks out help here instead of battling his demons on his own, and it’s hard not to feel pity for him in the same way you’d feel for a person with dementia or some other mind-altering illness. He’s trying to get help because everything he knows is gone. And over the course of the movie, Peter gets some time to get to know Osborn. That’s what makes Goblin so incredible in this film. In the original, Spider-Man didn’t learn who Goblin was until the very end. This time, Peter spends a big chunk of the film wrestling with his conflicting desires – one to save Osborn, and the other to kill Goblin. Not only did it make Goblin’s character feel as fresh as ever, it gave Peter massive emotional stakes to deal with.
Power and Responsibility
That’s as good a point as any to jump to the next big moment of the film, in which the Goblin plays a major role. During the showdown in the condo, Goblin stages a coup. Peter’s been trying to reverse engineer the various illnesses and oddities that the villains are experiencing. Essentially, he’s trying to turn the villains back into ordinary people in order to prevent them from facing death at the hands of the Spider-Men of their own universes. It’s a very cool idea – the notion that Spider-Man is trying to save these guys from himself, or at least other versions of himself. Doc Ock’s cure is a particularly poignant moment that reminds you of the good man underneath the mechanical arms. Spider-Man isn’t punching these bad guys into submission or throwing them off of buildings – he’s just trying to give them what they need to get back on their feet. I love that – it’s such a Spider-Man thing to do.
Anyway, not all the villains are totally on board with this plan of action, which is how Goblin emerges from Osborn’s psyche and turns the scene into a frenetic escape. Amidst the chaos, Aunt May tries jabbing Goblin with an anti-Goblin serum that ends up not working. In turn, he throws his glider at her before setting off some pumpkin grenades and flying off. At first it seems like May and Pete are battered but unbeaten, until May collapses in Peter’s arms. It’s such a devastating moment for a few reasons. Firstly, this version of Spider-Man never had that Uncle Ben death scene that the other two had, and it quickly becomes clear that this is finally that moment for him. Aunt May is just as significant a character as Uncle Ben was (if not more so) to the other Spider-Men of the past, so the reality of how much Peter was losing by losing her really set in for me. More than that, Peter can’t help but feel guilt for her death just as previous Peters did for Uncle Ben. If he hadn’t gone to Doctor Strange in the first place, or if he had just listened to Strange later on when a plan was presented to immediately send all the villains back, Aunt May would still be breathing. It had all the gravitas that a threequel should have. Most importantly, it made Goblin a true multiversal villain. He wasn’t someone else’s problem anymore. Now he’s Pete’s problem.
I have to applaud this film for being comfortable to linger in this moment. The MCU can sometimes sacrifice emotional weight for a quick joke – Gamora’s attempted murder of Thanos being a notable example – but here, we really get a few minutes of narrative darkness as Peter comes to terms with the loss that he’s just faced.
Remember the Lion King, where Simba collapses in the desert only to be rescued by Timon and Pumbaa? In a way, the next big moment reminded me of that. It’s the moment that we had all been waiting for – ever since those rumours started popping up years ago. There’ve been nervous interviews with celebrities, leaked images from set, full-on footage that was discarded as “photoshop”, and even excerpts from the film’s soundtrack that made it to the internet. Honestly, this next reveal may have been the worst-kept secret in movie history.
The Spider-Men are here.
The Legends of Old
One of the things that I was so thankful for in this movie was how much we got of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. It was virtually guaranteed that they were going to appear in the climactic battle, but if that had been it, we wouldn’t have had a lot of time for the characters to talk to each other. Instead, we got so many great moments of the Spider-Men interacting. There was the scene where Tobey and Andrew met each other, which was exhilarating in the theatre and hilarious in no small part because of Ned’s mom. We got the scene where all three Spider-Men met for the first time and shared what it meant to them to be Spider-Man in the first place, and it was such a magical moment. Then they got to do science together, compare differences in their universes, particularly the fact that Maguire’s Spider-Man has organic web shooters. It was absolutely wonderful, and all three actors did a terrific job of it. All of them were true to their original interpretations, but they also became more intriguing when faced with each other.
Tobey Maguire (46 years old) definitely was the wisest of the three Spider-Men. He had a calmness and a quiet confidence that was so emblematic of the almost-holy place he has in so many of our hearts. Andrew Garfield, who really doesn’t look as though he’s aged at all since his last outing as Spider-Man, has so many great lines. He’s a Spider-Man that feels like a loser. When the Peters decide to number each other off for clarity’s sake, he gets to be Peter 3 – a number he acknowledges in a way that makes it clear he feels he belongs to it. If anyone would be the third one, it would be him – at least, that’s the way his character feels. Not only does this make sense for his character, it makes sense outside the universe as well. Garfield’s films don’t have the same iconic status that Maguire’s do, even if Garfield gave a spirited and earnest performance in both appearances. Garfield was denied a third film, unlike both counterparts standing with him. His low self-confidence feels so right on every level, which makes the scene where Tobey Maguire builds him up all the more heartwarming. It’s like Garfield’s Spider-Man is suffering from imposter syndrome, but Maguire reminds him that he’s just as much of a Spider-Man as any of them are. I loved that.
Beyond the wonderful interactions we got between all three Spider-Men, one of my favourite moments in the entire film was when Garfield’s Spider-Man rescued MJ. I wasn’t the only fan who predicted this might happen when the trailers showed MJ falling from a great height, but seeing it play out was so satisfying and beautiful. For all the mess-ups for Garfield’s Spider-films, the scene where he loses Gwen was performed perfectly. It was the most heartfelt and emotional moment of either film. Sure, some viewers of No Way Home might not have seen that, but it’s made clear in this film that Garfield’s Spider-Man wasn’t able to save his girlfriend from death. So when he catches her, it’s a triumph not only for this universe but for Garfield’s as well. The moment could’ve been played for a laugh, but Garfield leans into the emotion of it and makes it one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen onscreen in a long time. He may not have been able to save Gwen – but he was able to save someone else’s. Honestly, I could linger on that scene for a very long time, but I’m six pages into this review now so I’ve got to keep moving.
As epic as a three-Spider-Man battle against Electro, Sandman, and Lizard is, the climax of the film was ultimately Spidey’s one-on-one fight with Goblin. It’s a scene that gets very quiet while Peter teeters on the brink of total darkness, drawn forward by the hatred he feels for Goblin. And as much as Goblin deserves to pay for his crimes, the movie’s worked hard so that we, the audience, remember it’s not just a villain Peter is beating up. It’s an old man who’s gotten lost. Peter’s rage keeps him from focusing on this fact, and it’s not until Tobey Maguire steps in the way at the last second that Holland finally comes to his senses. What makes this and every moment of Spidey-cooperation in this film work so effectively is the fact that very little has to be said. When Tobey looks Tom in the eye while holding back a killing stroke, no words are shared. The very fact that a different version of Spider-Man is in the way says it all. This is not who Spider-Man is supposed to be. This isn’t the you you were born to be. Maguire may not be the same Spider-Man as Holland, but he knows about rage and revenge. Who better to change Spider-Man’s mind than Spider-Man himself?
The End of Spider-Man
The movie ends on an unexpected note. I didn’t think they’d actually follow through with Strange’s spell in any way, but it turns out that we’re now living in a world where no one knows Peter’s identity. His only friends left in the world don’t even know who he is. It’s a steep price to pay for what’s been done, but it’s a powerful symbol of the principle that makes Spider-Man who he is. He’s the one who makes personal sacrifices so that others can have what they need. And before the credits roll, we see that although everything is changed, Peter is still Spider-Man. We get a final swing through the starry snow-speckled night sky, which is the first time we’ve had one since the days of Garfield. Where Spider-Man will go next is anyone’s guess, but he’s now finally a hero on his own terms. He’s not Iron Man’s protégé, and he doesn’t have the Avengers at his side. He’s just Spider-Man. But it’s enough.
Believe it or not, there’s so much of this movie that I didn’t talk about. There’s a million nods to the original films that inspired hooting and hollering in the theatre, and Ned and MJ are just as wonderful and relevant as they’ve always been. All the important characters from Holland’s earlier Spider-Man films are still here, and even his teachers get a moment on the screen to say hi. It’s incredible just how much they packed into this movie. I didn’t even talk about the battle with Doctor Strange! Maybe I’ll sum it up with this – I’ve seen this movie twice, and I need to watch it again. There’s just so much to love about every single minute of this film.
No Way Home may not be the best Spider-Man film of all time. Maguire’s Spider-Man 2 still holds that place in my heart, I think. But this is easily number two in my book, and it’s a crowning achievement for Marvel and Sony. It’s a masterpiece of popular culture. It’s a joyful breakneck-paced ride through the history of one of the greatest superheroes of all time, but it never sacrifices purpose for spectacle. Despite all the cameos, nods, and fan-service moments, this never stops being a movie about a kid struggling to balance the life of a high school student with the life of a superhero.
Thank you, Sony. Thank you, Marvel. Thank you, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire, Tom Holland, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Jamie Foxx, and everyone else who was a part of this movie. Once again, the MCU has made a dream come true.