REVIEW #121 Spider-Man No Way Home (2021)

Spider-Man No Way Home is the final instalment of the Tom Holland trilogy, the film is directed by Jon Watts and kicks off straight from where Far From Home ended. The world knows Peter Parker is now Spider-Man and he enlists the help of Doctor Strange to help people forget. However the spell has unforeseen consequences and opens up the world to visitors from other universes. 

CAST & THE ACTING 

Tom Holland returns as Spider-Man and it’s fair to say it’s his best performance as the hero thus far. He brings a lot more grit and darkness to Peter Parker and finally he could really showcase his talents. The events of the film meant that he needed to deliver a lot more emotion compared to what we have seen in the first two instalments. Holland and Marisa Tomei’s performances in the scene where Aunt May dies hits really hard and that’s down to how well they both sold those emotions, there were people crying all over the cinema! We finally got to see the return of Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield and it’s everything I ever wanted. The chemistry between the three Spider-Men was fantastic, the humour they delivered seemed effortless. I hope this film forces people to finally respect Garfield’s Spider-Man and for me it’s cemented his place as my favourite actor to take on the role. Out of all the returning villains Willem Defoe stood out most, I think he delivers the best performance of any comic book villain ever, even surpassing Heath Ledgers Joker. That transition from the personality of Norman Osbourne to the Green Goblin was outstanding, from the tone of his voice, to his laugh and facial expressions, it’s almost like two different actors entirely.

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

The plot set up everything perfectly, there are so many different elements you can analyse. Not only does is introduce the characters to the multiverse and as a result allows us to see the return of iconic villains and heroes from the other Spidey universes but it also fixes every issue I had with the MCU Spider-Man. For me he was too reliant on Stark designed armour this meant he was virtually invincible and it ruled out any future battles with street level villains like Kingpin. However the final climax of the film meant that every person from every universe forgot who Peter Parker was, everyone! So this meant that Peter is on his own, he moves into his small apartment and reverts back to making his own suit, which debuts in the final scene of the film. It also provides his own journey of having to deal with letting MJ go in order to protect her, something that Maguire and Garfield both went through with their love interests. This has made me so excited for the next trilogy! We also saw Garfield’s redemption by catching MJ, which was amazing and extremely emotional, WHAT A SCENE!

There are some issues I have, I think Doc Oc was handled badly, it always seemed that he was at the brunt of a joke and that humour, for me, seemed cringy and forced. It also made Octavius seem not threatening at all, which was a shame. In typical Marvel fashion the film is filled with humour and 95% of it lands, however the other 5% just seemed forced at times and if they would have just left some out, the film would be better for it. We did see a more humanised Doctor Strange, which I enjoyed. There were rumours going into the film that perhaps he was not himself because the spell is not something he would do and he became sort of reckless. However it was actually because he had sympathy for Peter and there are many points where his raw emotion come through and it was far from the cynical and more pragmatic Strange we knew from Infinity War and Endgame. Ned now has magic powers, although this made sense for the film, I do think it takes the meaning away from Doctor Strange’s origins story and how he worked tirelessly to learn those powers, even struggles opening portals, but Ned could do it effortlessly with no help? So there is a couple of criticisms but the positives far outweigh the negatives.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

Some of the visuals in No Way Home are simply amazing, when Electro and Sandman were in the same action sequence I was blown away by how good that looked on screen. There are even a lot of scenes where they just used the scenic shots to create great visuals, for example when Peter is Swinging through the electric towers with the overcast sky! There are so many examples I can give, I do want to mention the scene just after May died, Peter is in the rain watching a large screen where Jonah Jameson is giving a monologue slating Spider-Man. This scene was perfect. Despite the fantastic job Marvel do at creating different worlds with their CGI, I can’t help but feel they always miss the mark with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man suit. They need to move away from the heavily CGI’d version and stick to more realistic shots where he’s wearing a real suit. Although I loved the final scene where we see the debut of his new suit, swinging through snowy New York, it did look like a cartoon pretty much and that just negatively impacts the scene. I hope they change that for the next technique for the next trilogy.

THE END CREDIT SCENES

Well we saw Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock in the same bar he was transported to in the Venom 2 end credit scene. He’s finding out about the Avengers in this universe and for the minute that this scene is on for, it was actually really funny. There is one plot hole I have with that, the reason characters got transported into the MCU universe was because they knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man, but Eddie, nor venom knew who Spider-Man was, so why did they ever get transported to that universe? Anyway it sets up the Venom symbiote in the MCU which is great news and it also means that Garfield could potentially reprise his role in Sony’s universe with Tom Hardy’s venom and Jared Leto’s Morbius!

The second was the trailer for Doctor Strange and that’s something else I’m really looking forward to. We saw the evil Doctor Strange from the What If? series and was that also a live action Captain Carter we saw too! I’d imagine we are going to see a lot of characters from other universes, maybe X-Men and Fantastic 4! Hopefully we get a bit more information in the next trailer.

OVERALL (9.5/10)

I watched the film for the second time last night and I could actually take a step back and take a closer look at the negatives instead of getting caught up in the immediate emotions I had with the first viewing. So I have changed the score from a 9.8 to a 9.5, it’s still a fantastic film and I absolutely love it! The return of Maguire and Garfield was everything fans dreamed of, the chemistry between those two and Tom Holland was outstanding and I enjoyed every moment of it. I wish we had an entire film just seeing these three versions of Peter Parker interact with each-other. The storyline was great, providing the opportunity to revisit old villains and heroes and boy did it showcase the talents of Willem Defoe! The cinematography was outstanding and despite the CGI on Holland’s suit looking a bit too animated, everything else was great. There was a fair bit of forced comedy but with every Marvel film we seem to get that, so it’s expected now. Let’s hope we get to see Garfield reprise his role in Sonys universe with Venom and Morbius! 

Thanks for reading!

Callan