Reviewed by Hannah Spencer.
Director: Jon Watts, Columbia Pictures, 2021, M, 148mins.
The third and final installment of “everyone’s favorite neighborhood spider-man” takes a deep dive into the spidey-universe.
For long term fans of the hero, there is lots to get excited about.
One of the most heavily adapted comic book figures, there have already been two prior franchises with Alfred Molina/Toby Maguire’s Spider-Man and Marc Webb/ Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing- Spiderman, plus the 2018 animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse which won an Oscar.
No Way Home reprises the 2018 movie’s concept of the “multiverse” with infinite parallel universes allowing our favorite villains to reprise their original roles in a boundary bending, web slinging adventure.
With the aid of some de-aging special effects, Willam Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus’s iconic villains are back to their manically evil ways.
The film picks up where we left off in Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man’s identity has been revealed to the world causing more than a few issues for Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and his pals MJ (Zendaya, Dune) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), not to mention their hopes of getting into college.
Peter Parker, desperate to fix the mess he has landed his friends in, turns to local Avengers alumni and master of the Mystic Arts, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, Power of the Dog).
A spell to wipe everyone’s memory of “Peter Parker” goes catastrophically wrong, drawing in Spider-man’s least favorite acquaintances from across parallel universes.
Doctor Strange takes up the mantle of exasperated father figure for Peter now that Tony Stark (Iron Man) is sadly no longer around.
Their quippy banter and occasional fights make for great entertainment however, don’t measure up to the comic relief of Robert Downey Jr.’s Stark which has been a highlight throughout previous Marvel movies.
There is plenty of action and the digital effects are particularly outstanding in one city twisting, Inception like scene with Doctor Strange.
Spider-Man: No Way Home delves into the different iterations of the Spider-man character from both Marvel and Sony.
The two prior franchises have had their fair share of criticism, but this movie shows the unique versions of each character and their commonalities: self-sacrificing, a little bit nerdy and you guessed it, that “with great power, comes great responsibility”.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man continues to hit the mark as a scruffy, New York kid with a goofy smile, overflowing with sincerity.
After a run of promising Marvel films that sadly failed to impress (The Eternals, Black Widow), Spider Man: No Way Home opens a slew of avenues for the powerhouse studio.
The film delvers on the action whilst being genuinely heartwarming.
As always with Marvel films, it pays to stick around for some juicy post credit scenes.
3 out of 5 stars
In cinemas nationally.
