Spider-Man: No Way Home

Composite Score: 85.81

Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, J.K. Simmons, Rhys Ifans, Thomas Haden Church, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Marisa Tomei

Director: Jon Watts

Writers: Chris McKenna and Erick Sommers

Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Superhero

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, some language, and brief suggestive comments

Box Office: $1.92 billion worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Spider-Man: No Way Home is the third film in Jon Watts’s Spider-Man trilogy, which stars Tom Holland as the titular webslinger. The film is also part of the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe as part of “Phase 4” and features characters from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films and Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man films. In addition to Holland, the film sees the return of Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds, and Zendaya as MJ from the current continuity of Spider-Man films, as well as Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong reprising their roles as Dr. Strange and Wong from the MCU and Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon/Electro, Rhys Ifans as Curt Connors/The Lizard, and Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man from The Amazing Spider-Man and also Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius/Doc Ock, Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman, and Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man from the 2000s Spider-Man films. The all-star cast that features award winners and nominees combines to tell a multiversal story that serves as the culmination of Holland’s Peter Parker’s high school saga, following up on his stories from Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far from Home. In addition to an Oscar nomination for Visual Effects, the film also sits at 172nd on IMDB’s Top 250.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                As with basically all superhero/comic book films these days, this film includes some “homework” that you need to watch to really make it sing. In addition to Holland’s previous five films in the MCU, fully appreciating this film also requires at least a cursory viewing of both of Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man films and all three of Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man films. That’s a ten-film minimum viewing in order to fully appreciate this film, not to mention the added homework needed to understand and appreciate the non-Spider-Man MCU films on the list, which could bump the whole thing up to over thirty films, if you let it get out of control. While I do appreciate and love this film, I also recognize that much of what I love about it stems from a combination of nostalgia and familiarity with the properties that it features. If we wanted to be really concise, you could probably get away with just watching the Jon Watts and Tom Holland Spider-trilogy and get a pretty solid effect in this film, as it does serve as a solid culmination of that version of Peter Parker’s hero’s journey (something that Tobey and Andrew never really got in their respective roles). There’s also the fact that (if you do all or some of the homework) this film feels like a really solid ending point to the story of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man – leaving things just ambiguous enough while still giving him wins and losses by the time the film wraps up – but we’re probably getting another one in a year or two, which will either negate the clean, if not perfectly satisfying, ending this film gives us or take us into Thor: Love and Thunder territory, forcing us to ask why they keep making these films after they’ve already given a character a full arc.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                If you’re like me and have done your “homework” for this film, Spider-Man: No Way Home feels like a near-perfect culmination of more than twenty years of Spidey-films, characters, and action without ever losing sight of its home within the Jon Watts trilogy. Bringing in all these villains from the past films could have simply been a nostalgia-bait play that got fans into seats, but instead, the film seeks to use its multiversal premise to offer these (mostly) memorable characters new endings and the opportunity to seek redemption as part of Holland’s Peter Parker’s quest to establish himself as Spider-Man. As Aunt May, and also his fellow Peters later on, remind him, Spider-Man is at his best when he’s helping people who need him, even (and especially) when they refuse to ask for that help – this is what makes a superhero. It’s a premise that should feel cheaply earned, but somehow, the writers and actors were able to make this work because, as much as the film features Maguire and Garfield and their respective villains, it remains a story about the current Peter Parker. This could have been a story about Peter saving some other villains from themselves and their own impending doom, and it would still be a great story because its bones are so good. The nostalgia and fan-service really are just the icing on this particular cake.

                It definitely helps that the new characters are played by some of the best actors of our time, including an Oscar winner (Jamie Foxx), three Oscar nominees (Willem Dafoe, Andrew Garfield, and Thomas Haden Church), an Emmy nominee (Alfred Molina), a BAFTA winner (Rhys Ifans), and a Golden Globe nominee (Tobey Maguire). They join an already stacked crew that includes Emmy-winner Zendaya, Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch, and Oscar winner Marisa Tomei to give us one of the most fun, emotional, and action-packed superhero films of the century. Foxx and Garfield get to shine with improved writing in their same roles, showing off Garfield’s emotional range as Peter Parker and Foxx’s comedic chops as a quippier Electro. Tomei continues her excellent work as Peter’s Aunt May in this film, finally delivering the “Power and Responsibility” speech that the trilogy has been missing at a truly impactful moment. Maguire, Garfield, and Holland play off of each other so well in their twenty or so minutes of shared screentime that none of it feels cheapened by cash-grabbiness (even if it is a cash grab). You can even see improvements in Holland’s characterization of Peter and Spider-Man that draw on his interactions with the character’s past portrayers. The real show-stealer and showstopper, though, is again Willem Dafoe in his reprisal from Raimi’s trilogy. His range and physicality are on full display as he returns to Spider-Man’s most infamous villain. It’s a joy to get all of these performances and moments together in a single film, and I can’t bring myself to be mad about any of it.

                What could easily have been a cheap attempt at using nostalgia to build an audience ends up being the powerful denouement of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker’s hero’s journey, accentuated by strong performances, fun moments, and gripping action that make Spider-Man: No Way Home one of the Best Films of All Time. As a sequel and culmination, it does require some buy-in to the other films that it draws from to make it really work for you, but for those who have seen its predecessors, this is a true treat of a film. You can currently stream it for free via DirecTV or can rent it on most other streaming services if you want to watch it in the near future.