Review of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) by Rebecca31 — 04 Feb 2022

I made a decision not to see any more Spider-Man movies after Spider-Man: Homecoming. The adaptations were clearly not aimed at me, they felt very kiddy and I was done. Well I think we all know why I’m back now to see this particular adaptation, I finally caved and went to see the new Spider-Man. No spoilers but if you’ve made it this far without knowing any major plot points then you must be living off the grid because by now the spoilers are everywhere you look.

Picking up immediately after Spider-Man: Far From Home with Spider-Man’s identity now revealed to the entire world, Peter (Tom Holland) looks to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help undoing this situation. Well the spell doesn’t exactly go according to plan and soon dangerous enemies from other worlds start showing up and causing havoc. Peter must then embark upon a journey to discover what it really means to be Spider-Man, “with great power comes great responsibility” and all that. It’s not a Spider-Man movie if you don’t have the responsibility quote.

Look my main issue with the Holland Spider-Man movies was that they never actually felt like Spider-Man movies but more like an Iron Man movie featuring Spider-Man or in this case a Doctor Strange movie featuring Spider-Man. At this rate Spider-Man is getting overshadowed in his own movies. I missed the more focused Spider-Man films in the Tobey Maguire era (not you Spider-Man 3). I liked the simple costume, one main villain and enough room to develop the characters. With each new adaptation of Spider-Man they became more overblown with mediocre villains. Well there’s plenty of villains to go around this time with one in particular stealing the show. Also it’s worth mentioning that J.K. Simmons played a character so well in the Sam Raimi movies that not only did they not even try to recast him for The Amazing Spider-Man movies but for No Way Home they just got him back as the iconic J. Jonah Jameson. He is one of the few on-screen characters that looks like he was 100% lifted straight from the comic book pages and onto the big screen.

It’s very cheesy and it had some great moments that I thoroughly enjoyed but let’s not pretend that Spider-Man: No Way Home didn’t just look at the success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and copy that format. One scene set in the woods particularly stands out and almost looks like a complete remake. There is a strong sense of paying fan service here and attempting to keep everyone happy. But as we all know, you can’t keep every group of fans happy but No Way Home was probably the best attempt so far. As I’ve said before, nostalgia sells and the opportunity here to get every single Spider-Man fan into the cinema to see No Way Home was too great to miss. At least it tried to fix some of the issues that the other films messed up on, I enjoyed it but nothing will ever come close to the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man films. Recommended for all the Marvel and/or Spider-Man fans.