Spider-Man: No Way Home – Spoiler Review
I found it really difficult to review Spider-Man: No Way Home last week without spoilers because I had so much I wanted to say about all the spoilerific bits so I decided to give it a week and write another review.
I’m not going to write another traditional review because you can read my first one for that. Instead, I’ve split up my spoiler reactions into handy subheadings so I can break down what I thought about them.
The villains
I found the majority of the villains pretty pointless and that they were just there for nostalgia’s sake and to boost the numbers. Like, what did Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) even do? Lizard (Rhys Ifans) also barely does anything outside of the battle. Electro (Jamie Foxx) had slightly more to work with but again, he was mostly just floating in the air, soaking up all that sweet electricity. Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) had a great opening (which was ruined in the trailers) but he became quite toothless from that scene onwards and had very little to do at the end. The only effective villain was Willem Dafoe. Norman Osborn/Green Goblin has always been the OG and this solidified it. The moment he switched from Norman to Goblin was amazing and he required no VFX – it’s all in the face and evil cackle baby!
The Spider-Men
Seeing Tom Holland onscreen with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield made me geek out and feel so damn happy and I could tell that most people in the audience felt the same, the energy was amazing! We all knew it was happening but I genuinely thought their appearances were going to be like extended cameos – how wrong was I?! They are in this so much more than I expected. I spent a lot of time wondering if there were actually all there together though – there were scenes that did feel real while others were shot in a way that made me think not.
The moments of them all together were my favourites in the film and I want to watch it again just for those. They made me smile like such a nutter. I liked all of it – the fun character moments of them all answering to “Peter”, the emotional stories about the sacrifices they’ve made, Garfield sorting out Maguire’s back, catching MJ (Zendaya) and them working together as a team in the final battle.
I liked all of these actors as Spider-Man during their reign as the superhero. I never disliked any of them. However, this film reminded me how much I loved Garfield as the character. He was so good, charming, and captivating and it made me wish for more of his Spider-Man films. On the flipside, I thought Maguire (who hasn’t acted for a while) was stiff, awkward and wooden as hell and really didn’t bring it emotionally in comparison to the other two.
All the feels
I have been to some vocal press screenings in my life but this screening had the most applause and cheering I’ve ever witnessed. It was incredible and everyone was on such a high. Everyone cheered when Garfield took off his mask, same for Maguire, when they all answered to “Peter”, when Garfield saved MJ, and when they ran together to fight the villains. So many times! This film was also surprisingly more emotional than I would have expected. I had tears in my eyes on three occasions – when Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) died (I knew it was coming but it was still sad), when Peter told MJ and Ned (Jacob Batalon) that they would forget him and when he went to MJ’s coffee shop and didn’t reintroduce himself like he promised. I thought would be the perfect way for Holland to bow out as the character but Kevin Feige has already confirmed he’ll be back for more.
I should also mention the cameos from Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom and Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil but I don’t have much to say except they were cool!
This has been my favourite cinemagoing experience of the year. I know I didn’t love the story as a whole but it is filled with some unbelievable moments that made me very happy indeed. I’m tempted to see it again!