Spider-Man: No Way Home – Film Review
The hype for Spider-Man: No Way Home has been insane for months and I’m not surprised, given all the speculation and fan theories surrounding the film. The weight of anticipation meant my expectations were pretty high and it thankfully met them, which is an impressive feat!
*THIS IS A NO-SPOILER ZONE*
The film picks up literally where Spider-Man: Far From Home left off; when Spider-Man was unmasked and revealed to be Peter Parker (Tom Holland), making his identity known by the world for the first time. He is also accused of murdering Mysterio – Jake Gyllenhaal‘s baddie from last time – and he, his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) are turned down for MIT due to the controversy surrounding them. Peter turns to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and asks him to cast a spell so everybody will forget he’s Spider-Man but his interruptions cause the spell to backfire, which isn’t good news.
There is so much speculation surrounding this movie and who may be in it that it would be unfair of me to confirm or deny the rumours and spoil it for anybody. That’s no fun and I want you all to enjoy it just like I did so rest assured that this is a spoiler-free zone.
Jon Watts‘ first Spider-Man movie, Homecoming, had a John Hughes teen comedy vibe and felt quite contained. The films have got exponentially bigger in ambition and scale each time and it’s all been working its way up to this. Watts has so many characters, plot moments, action scenes and general content to pack into this film and he rose to the occasion and succeeded, for the most part.
He has created the most emotional and meaningful Spider-Man movie out of the three, and certainly the most moving of all eight live-action films. I did not expect to shed some tears at a Spider-Man movie!! It really explores the personal toll being the web-slinger has on Peter and his loved ones and is very serious and heartfelt in places. It sounds like the film is a bummer but rest assured, there’s still plenty of the trademark Marvel levity and quips throughout, though perhaps not as many laugh-out-loud moments as the previous two.
There are so many moments I loved in this film. Soooooooo many! They made me so happy I could burst with joy and made the whole audience whoop and clap. However, I found the overarching plot quite weak. I didn’t think the villains’ trajectory throughout the film completely worked and only one of them was particularly effective (I’ll get into this in my upcoming spoiler special). The film is very long, the pacing was iffy at times, and it had the classic Marvel issue of a messy CGI battle at the end. It was impossible to follow so I zoned out a bit. I’ll take the micro character moments over these action sequences any day.
Holland’s Peter has always worn his heart on his sleeve and this is the most apparent in this film. He gives a performance that is both very emotional and physically impressive. Zendaya also brought the goods and levelled up her performance as MJ, who also has emotional heavy-lifting to do. Batalon is a solid addition as the funny third wheel and Marisa Tomei finally gets more screentime as Aunt May.
While Spider-Man: No Way Home isn’t perfect, the fact it has met expectations when they were ridiculously high is impressive in itself. There are so many effing cool moments that fans are going to go nuts over and talk about for weeks. I’ve never been to a press screening with so much cheering and applause throughout, which says it all really.
In cinemas from Wednesday 15th December