Review 644: Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home multiversal ambitions at times exceeds its grasp, but its strong cast and colourful fireworks celebration triumphantly balances 

Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) identity has been revealed, bringing his Superhero responsibilities into conflict with his normal life and putting those he cares about most at risk. When Peter enlists Doctor Stephen Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) help to restore his secret, the spell tears a hole in their world, releasing the most powerful villains who’ve ever fought a Spider-Man in any universe. Now, Peter will have to overcome his greatest challenge yet, which will not only forever alter his own future but the future of the Multiverse.

The plot builds on the ending of Far From Home in some very unexpected ways whilst also being a surprisingly heartfelt and thrilling tribute to the Web-Crawler's history on the big screen. Given that No Way Home ended with Mysterio revealing Peter's identity to the world, a plot featuring Peter on the run a la The Fugitive could've easily fueled an entire story yet it never comes to fruition. Never mind, the emotional fallout of that reveal on Peter and his loved ones is what matters and that segment is where No Way Home shines.                     

At the start of the film, Peter's life is seriously screwed up thanks to Mysterio revealing that he's Spider-Man to the world. Peter is immediately confronted with fame, notoriety and a mixed public opinion with the media breathing down his neck and he's struggling to keep his head down. Unlike his idol, Tony Stark, the fame and attention doesn’t have a positive effect on his life and those around him; on top of the public opinion of him, Ned and MJ can’t get into MIT because of their friendship with him and Damage Control harassing Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). The media, thanks J. Jonah Jameson (a returning J.K. Simmons), calls him a "vile" vigilante and his peers hound him with photos.

In terms of comic influences, No Way Home is clearly inspired by the “Spider-Verse” comic storyline which saw multiple alternate versions of Spider-Man that had appeared in various media as well as the One More Day storyline which also saw Peter make a wish to fix his life but under different circumstances.

More so than previous Spider-Man films, No Way Home deals with themes of Sacrifice, Responsibility, Regret and Redemption. Peter’s responsibility to the people of New York and those around him are now in conflict with what he wants. Initially, he’s all for going through just sending them home to eventual fates. But an encounter with Norman Osbourne/Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) cause Peter and Aunt May to take pity on him and causes Peter to exercise compassion and empathy and give him and the other misguided villains a second chance and give them an opportunity to decide their fate for themselves. Even if they choose to be bad, at least the choice rests in their hands and their hands alone. As he says to the villains "I can't promise you guys anything. But at least this way you get to go home and have a chance - a second chance." By taking this development, it poses the question: When do you take responsibility for not yourself and those around you but those you don't necessarily think about? Even those you might hate.

The title itself ties into the themes of the film about the weight of heroic decisions. Even the rights ones mean you may not be able to go home again. In this instance, whilst Peter makes the right decisions, nothing will be the same for him again.

The film can also be seen as a meta commentary on previous Spider-Man films, certain elements like Michelle being saved by one of the Spider-Men feels like a way of Sony Pictures trying to make right on their misses with past Spider-Man films.

Where No Way Home falls short is in some of its writing. Peter approaching Doctor Strange to make the whole world forget that he's Spider-Man is fine, but the film is essentially telegraphing that the spell will be botched through their own faults. I don't know, I have a hard time buying that Stephen and Peter would be this careless after all they've been through in the last two Avengers films and their own solo films. Peter is a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, he has no idea how spells work or the implications whereas Stephen is the expert, he knows firsthand that there are consequences to spells and they're dealing with some pretty dangerous magic.

Some of the humour also doesn't land at times, there were some moments like when Peter, MJ and Ned find Doc Ock's name funny and I'm thinking "I know that's supposed to be funny but I'm not laughing."

And the thing is, Stephen is right. If Peter had just sent the displaced villains home to die as they were destined to, there's a very real possibility that he would still have his normal life. To his credit, Peter's initial reaction when dealing with the displaced villains is to state "that's not my problem." And he's right! Not every villain can simply be cured because they're mass murderers who've theoretically passed the point of no return. Nonetheless, it's a great development that highlights the folly of youthful optimism and puts Peter's idealism to the test. It's a testement to his character but it also shows how fatally he's underestimated his enemies. I'm not quite sure if this movie is as smart as it thinks it is to balance out these characters idiologys and philosophys because unlike something like Civil War, the conflict is firmly one-sided with Peter and the screenplay forces the characters to act like idiots at various points.

Stephen is meant to be the responsible adult, the logical rationalist and to his credit, he applies that objectivity when he points out the villains must be sent back to their universes because their meare presence puts their reality at risk, his pragmatism is the only way to handle those high stakes yet the script constantly flies in the face of his idiologies.                                          

At the end of the day, Peter really shouldn't care about the villain's fates because it's not worth risking the fates of his loved ones as well as millions of innocent lives in the multiverse. No matter how hard you try, Spider-Man and Multiverse don't go together; the very essence of Spider-Man being a street level hero who looks out for the people gets lost in the chaos.

Ultimately, both are right. While most of the villains are indeed fixable, Gobby and Lizard are split personas, Sandy and Electro just need their respective substances taken away and Doc Ock is basically controlled by his arms, the spell is highly volatile and extremely dangerous and Strange's pragmatism does play a part in saving the day.

Personally, as a fan of the more standalone pre-MCU films, I'm not entirely sure if I need or want all this closure for these characters. But it bit the bullet and I imagine fans will be satisfied, maybe even moved.

Returning director Jon Watts' direction is unobtrusive, bringing a sense of scope of scale on par with Endgame to the proceedings. The cinematography is fantastic and captures the grandeur of New York City. The score by Michael Giacchino is thematic and exciting, and the action scenes are dramatic and visually pleasing. Of particular note is a battle between Doctor Strange and Peter inside the Mirrorverse making great use of the former's magic and the latter's intellect and a climax that feels ripped directly from the finale of Buffy (Season 5). This is where, however, I feel No Way Way pushes its luck with a tactical choice that is both bold and basically amounts to a cosmic deues ex machina. The production design is fantastic ranging from the elegence of the Sanctum Sanctorums to the high tech world of Peter's Condo. The costumes are tremendous and the effect of the closing swing is exhilarating and poignant.

Tom Holland delivers a franchise-best performance as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, the majority of his story is about applying more and more pressure to the needs and wants of his personal life and his responsibilities as Spider-Man and eventually those conflicts finally come to a head. Peter learns that he will be indirectly responsible for these villains deaths if he and Strange return them to their respective universes. He feels defeated, insecure and more pessimistic than we've seen him in previous MCU films as a result. He's faced with the dilemma of a man leading a double life. He thinks that he can have it all, both as Peter Parker and as Spider-Man, but ultimately realises that he just can't have it. It was frustrating but for the right reasons; I really wanted to see him catch a break after all he's been through. Peter went through many emotional highs and lows throughout the film including a particularly tear jerking moment with Aunt May and his meeting with his older multiversal variants. He also learns that while sometimes he'll have to pay the price for his good deeds, it doesn't mean he should stop trying. To their credit, the writers didn’t force a happy ending on Peter’s story but all the same, where he does end up at the end of the film I feel is too much of an overcorrection. 

Jacob Batalon and Zendaya are also playing Ned and Michelle Jones respectively. Now that Peter’s identity has been outed and their multiverse is at stake, their friendship is now more palatable and meaningful than ever. They've largely enjoyed the anonymity and close bond that came with keeping Peter's secret and are forced to deal with the pressures and pitfalls of stardom in a court of public opinion. The three made for a highly entertaining trio.

Marisa Tomei is, once again, fabulous playing Aunt May. May is the glue that holds Peter together, she encourages him to be the best heroic version of himself he can be inspite of the adversities that he'll inevitably face along the way as clearly shown when she encourages him to help the displaced villains before sending them home; she doesn't try to guilt trip Peter into helping the displaced villains but she does make him wonder if his motives really are altruistic for wanting to send them back to meet their fate. May continuously shows great bravery and compassion when helping Peter deal with the villains.          No Way Home shows that Peter has no stronger ally other than Aunt May.

Benedict Cumberbatch is his usual terrific self playing Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange. The dynamic between Strange and Peter in this film is very different from the mentor roles that he had with Tony Stark and “Nick Fury” in the previous two films because they’re more like colleagues given that they brought back half the universe and are both neighbourhood superheroes. Strange is one of many characters who serves as Peter’s voice of reason throughout the film. Whereas May encourages Peter to help the villains, Strange is more pragmatic and preaches the needs of the many for the sake of the Multiverse. Holland and Cumberbatch have a wonderfully compeling chemistry

Not only does the film bring back Thomas Haden Church, Rhys Ifans and Jamie Foxx as Sandman, the Lizard and Electro from the Raimi and Webb films respectively but also Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe as Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin. Unsurprisingly, Dafoe and Molina are the standouts with Dafoe's Green Goblin getting a surprisingly sympathetic treatment. Whereas in Spider-Man (2002), he willingly goes on with his Green Goblin persona, in this film he appears genuinely terrified and wants to rid himself of that persona. He's depicted as a flawed yet ultimately innocent man whose mind has been hijacked by a split persona.

The Green Goblin is also pretty fun commentary on the Multiversal Conqueror and villains who are evil purely for the sake of being evil we see in crossovers: because he wants to conquer and cause mayhem in the MCU itself, he hugely underestimates Peter to the point where he's ferociously beaten by him.            In addition, because he enjoys and wants to be in the MCU, he threatens the universe so much that it takes great sacrifice from Peter and pragrmatism from Stephen to put it right. Ultimately, he shows that having these types of characters in crossover events have dire consequences for the whole world. No Way Home frimly cements him as the Joker to Peter Parker's Batman because he seeks to cause indestcribable chaos and sees the MCU as a new sandbox to play in.

Foxx is also pretty good in the film as Max Dillon/Electro, playing him as a much more self-confident and snarky individual compared to Rise of Electro. His desire for recognition is carried over from The Amazing Spider-Man: Rise of Electro but he's not as blatant about it. He's not about being evil for the sake of it, he's an opportunist - he wants to be the guy that shines a little bit.   

It's almost impossible to talk about this film without revealing its pièce de résistance; No Way Home does see the return of both Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire reprising their roles as Spider-Man from their individual series. Only the smallest of details are revealed about them since the events of Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man: Rise of Electro but because they've all faced various variations of the same challenges, Garfield expertly filled the role of the "middle brother" of the three Spider-Man whilst Maguire's wisdom

No Way Home soars, 3.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.