Spider-Man No Way Home Review

    

 

 

    I wish Stan Lee was here to see this.

    The latest MCU film Spider-Man No Way Home has made over $250 million in its opening weekend making it the third highest grossing box office opening of all time. People came out in droves to see this version of Peter Parker's latest adventure and did it live up to people's expectations? I cannot answer that, but as for myself hell yes it did! Of course I didn't have any kind of expectation. That's not saying I thought the movie was going to be bad or anything. I purposely avoided all of the trailers, news, interviews, and TV spots for this movie so I wasn't ingrained into the hype until release. Despite doing all that though there were some things that slipped through that I didn't want to find out about on social media, but overall I came in pretty much blind.

    I'm glad I did because it was refreshing for once to go in knowing next to nothing about the film and not going "that's the part from the trailer," when I see a scene from the trailer. Spider-Man was one of the few superheroes I never really liked. I remember watching the Spider-Man animated series from the 90s and while I enjoyed it more than most of the 90s superhero shows I don't remember all that much from it and it still doesn't compare to the likes of Batman The Animated Series, X-Men the Animated Series or the Justice League cartoons of the 2000s. I enjoyed the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, but over the years it became to hard to go back their slow pacing and cheesy dialogue. While Andrew Garfield was a good Spider-Man his movies were just blegh and the second one was bad.

    Also, being a nerd I naturally some things about Spider-Man in the comics, but that just made me dislike him more. I always thought his jokes were unfunny and I did eventually end up buying and reading my first Spider-Man comic, but it didn't leave any kind of impression on me. It wasn't until Spider-Man was introduced in the MCU that I started to like the character. 

    John Watts version had a unique cinematic feel (especially Homecoming) and energy that the previous films didn't have. I appreciated how the actor they got to play Peter actually looked like a teenager this time while Tobey and the rest did not look like teens at all in that first Spider-Man movie. The pacing in Homecoming felt quick and snappy and I liked the dialogue a whole lot better. The diversity in the cast was also much appreciated. Having other MCU characters like Iron Man was fun too and I really enjoyed the twist that The Vulture was Liz's dad. I felt Peter's shock and fear when he opened the door and saw Vulture standing there.

    Far From Home I really enjoyed too mainly for the Mysterio illusion scenes. Those were fucking amazing! It also had the best cliffhanger out of all the MCU movies, well maybe second to Infinity War, but still with Infinity War I knew that everyone who got snapped were going to come back, but with them revealing Spider-Man's identity at the end of Far From Home I had no idea how they were going to handle that. Spoilers from here on out so I'm giving you all a heads up.

SPOILERS!!!!

    Spider-Man: No Way Home opens immediately after the mid credit scene of Far from Home where Mysterio reveals that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Calamity ensues as people surround MJ realizing she is Spider-Man's girlfriend and soon helicopters are on their tail. The beginning of No Way Home has you on the edge of your seat and it continues throughout the whole film. One of the best things about this is the fan service and we get one of the best ones in the whole film right in the beginning when Matt Murdock shows up as Peter's lawyer. My theater roared when he appeared on screen. People have been wanting most of the Netflix Marvel characters to join the MCU and they finally have. I can't wait until we see Daredevil in the next Marvel project, hopefully teaming up with Spider-Man. We also discover that F.E.A.S.T., the homeless shelter from the Spider-Man Insomniac games is in this universe. On further inspection it originated in the comics, but the game was the first time with me hearing about it. It is a relatively new addition though so it's cool they're adding in recent stuff as well.

    And of course the best fan service in this movie is when they bring in Andrew Garfield and Tobey McGuire from the past Spider-Man movies. When I tell the roof tore off that motherfucking in there, the roof tore off! I never thought they would actually do this in a movie. It's crazy! It's fucking crazy! They're introduction scene was phenomenal and the banter between all three Spider-Man was perfect and the kind of stuff you see in comics and then there's also the villains who serve for the catalyst of the story. The best thing about the fan service too is that it has purpose to the story and isn't just there for the fan's sake. Daredevil is a lawyer so it fit for him to be Peter's lawyer and Andrew and Tobey's Spider-Man helped with the growth of Tom's Spider-Man. After the death of Aunt May and Peter was feeling down and doubtful about his actions, Andrew and Tobey's Peters related to him and reassured him that he didn't make the wrong actions and even Tobey helped Peter to not become a killer in the climax. Just a fantastic job all around with the use of them. The banter between all three Spider-Man was especially good at the statue of Liberty.

    I want to go back and touch on the death of Aunt May. So when Norman comes in contact with Aunt May and she realizes Norman is suffering from mental illness and isn't responsible for all his actions she suggests helping these people instead of leading them back to their fates of death. If he saves these villains then basically he would be also helping those Peters in those realities/timelines in addition to dozens of innocent people who have lost lives and those that survived from experiencing traumatic incidents. People who don't really understand the superhero genre might not understand it, but it's quite common in the space. Most superheroes will take the opportunity to save lives whenever they can even if it's from a reality separate from their own. It's a philosophical standpoint. You can be a bystander and dismissively say it's not my problem or you could actively make a difference.

 

    Aunt May deals with the mentally ill all the time and I assume people helps out occasionally in this universe so it makes sense for her to have that stance and for Peter to go along with it though he was reluctant at first. While Peter is successful with Dr. Octopus, Norman's second personality The Green Goblin comes out and makes a catastrophe. The scene build up was excellent too. Things go quiet, the camera zooms in and there's a wide almost fish eye look to the scene as Peter's spider sense activates and he's trying to figure out who is the person at the cause of this. With some concentration he realizes that Norman is the dangerous one and soon a fight breaks out and maaaan Goblin was whoopin Peter's ass. Peter was getting his shit rocked! This scene was so intense and when the glider hovered in the air behind Aunt May I was so scared she was about to die like how Goblin died in the first Spider-Man movie. She still ended up dying though in a very sad scene. I was more sad for Peter than necessarily Aunt May herself. I mean Peter was going to have nobody. He lost his parents at a very young age. He lost Uncle Ben, and now he was about to lose his last known relative. At the end of this movie he is truly alone in the world. And man I almost forgot that Aunt May delivered the "with great power must also come great responsibility" line cementing that this was basically an origin story for this Spider-Man. I also didn't know that this was the original line how it was written by Stan Lee in the sixties. Everyone always drops the "must also" in every other media I've seen. 

So Aunt May's death is really catalyst for Peter moving forward in his hero journey. After that fantastic fight at the statue Dr. Strange had to cast a new spell to prevent everyone from remember who Peter Parker is entirely. This decision changed the whole of Spider-Man moving forward and since he decided not to tell MJ and Ned at the end he doesn't have any friends either. At Aunt May's grave the line "When you help someone you help everyone" is on her grave. That's a line from the PS4 Spider-Man game. I thought that was pretty cool. I just realized that after I decided to buy the game because this movie hyped me up on Spider-Man. So at the end we see him getting his own small apartment that others have noticed looks like the one from the PS4 game and he's made himself a new costume. It's a little bit too shiny for me, but we barely get to see it anyway, but man what an ending.

So this movie overall was fantastic! It made good use of all of its characters, the fan service hit, it had good humor, writing, and used sound and music composition well to sell the scenes. It also has great pacing, and a lot of Easter Eggs that makes it great for multiple viewings. I can't wait to see where they take Tom Holland's Spider-Man in the future. Hopefully, these films will stay in the MCU.