Movie Review: Spider-Man - No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home [2021]

Yeah, this review took me a while to write. I knew it was going to take a while, due to how impactful the Spider-Man movies had been to me as a younger child, but I didn't really know how much. It's no exaggeration to say that this movie really did cause me to delay almost all the preceding (and succeeding) MCU Phase 4 movies being reviewed on this blog by half a year or so. 

And... that's mostly because there was no way for me to talk about this movie without fanboying a lot. Which, I think, is what this movie is all about. It's just a love letter to Spider-Man's cinematic history, both before and during the character's tenure in the MCU. It's also a way of solving a bunch of character plot points that the previous movies never got to complete, while also giving the MCU Spider-Man character a soft reboot. Also, it has some of the funnest CGI action scenes we've seen in a while, and a lot of surprise cameos. 

In short: the actual most ambitious crossover movie.

We knew Infinity War and Endgame was coming. When Spider-Man: No Way Home was announced, and that it was going to feature some returning villains from the previous Tobey Maguire/Sam Raimi and Andrew Garfield/Marc Webb movies, I was... I was excited, but I didn't hold my breath. Then Alfred Molina's Dr. Octopus, one of my all-time favourite villains, shows up in one of the trailer! Willem Defoe's Green Goblin shows up after that! Jamie Foxx's Electro! 

The problem is... how much will they show up in the movie itself? Are they going to be the main villains? Are Green Goblin and Sandman and whoever just going to be voice cameos? Hell, I made it a point to remain absolutely unspoiled about this movie, and I did not dare to imagine that they would ever get Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield to reprise their roles not as Uncle Ben or whatever, but as multiversal hopping versions of their Spider-Men. 

(I'm going to refer to them as Tobey!Spider-Man and Andrew!Spider-Man, because I get confused using the directors and the Peter-1, Peter-2 and Peter-3 designations the movie uses confuses me)

And... and if we're really getting down to it, the plot of No Way Home is pretty simple. Hell, it's actually somewhat convoluted when you think about it too much. After a magic spell gone awry, Dr. Strange tasks Spider-Man and his supporting cast to round up the villains, who are seemingly plucked from their home universes at the moment of their deaths. After some handwaving and some 'killing is bad' arguments, Peter and his friends decide that the best way to do so is to rehabilitate them. That is a question that raises a whole can of worms -- not in the least the fact that Sandman was already more or less a nice guy at this point; and both Lizard and Dr. Octopus could easily be 'cured'. And there's also the rather iffy paradox of, say, returning Dr. Octopus back into his timeline right as he's drowning? Or Norman Osborn right as he's about to be impaled by a glider? 

But let's just handwave that to multiversal magic, and it's not often that a movie gets me so hyped up even almost a year after watching it that I can go 'yeah, fuck the logic'. The actual reason is that the writers wanted to take a lot of these under-developed and under-utilized villains and give them a sendoff. Obviously not all of them take equal billing -- the Lizard is reduced to a one-note 'haha, I turn people into lizards' joke, while Sandman just seems tired to be around everyone else. But Electro has often been hailed as the best character in Amazing Spider-Man 2 that just peters out without really getting any sort of catharsis or payoff to his villain story, while we finally get a version of Green Goblin that actually goes back and forth between Norman and Goblin, and also becomes extremely personal to Peter instead of being a starter villain. Admittedly, Defoe's Goblin was one hell of a memorable starter villain in Spider-Man, but here we get to see just why Willem Defoe was so impressive back in 2002. 

And Daredevil's here, too! Matt fucking Murdock, played by Charlie Cox from Netflix. He gets such an underrated role in that scene where he just gives a virtual middle finger to Mysterio's plan to ruin Spider-Man, and boy what a great cameo he got. 

And that's without bringing in Tobey!Spider-Man and Andrew!Spider-Man! I actually cheered when Andrew!Spider-Man came through that stupid ring, because I genuinely had no idea that it was going to happen. The villains have really stolen the show for me, and to see him interact with the MCU cast? And then when 'some dude' shows up, and it's the very first superhero I have ever seen in live-action, Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man in all his dorky youth pastor glory? 

Again, the movie does a great job at having the two senior Spider-Men give their own perspectives on forgiveness and tragedy. Where the movie falters a bit on the comic-book multiversal logic of it all, it does a great job at tying the actual themes together. Is MCU!Peter's bull-headed quest to ignore (and even fight) Dr. Strange in the interest of trying to redeem everyone as much of a mistake as him fucking up Dr. Strange's memory erasure spell? We get some genuinely great scenes between May and MCU!Peter discussing this, and when characters like Dr. Octavius and Norman Osborn are genuinely freed from their 'demons', so to speak... Andrew!Peter also talks a lot about self-forgiveness, something he would have to learn to do after his failure to save Gwen Stacy, and one must remember that Tobey!Peter's last movie had him freak out and go all ham in basically punching to kill Sandman, the guy who shot Uncle Ben. It is actually extremely poignant, I feel, that he was the one that stopped MCU!Peter from impaling Green Goblin on his own glider.

Green Goblin, too, I feel, gets the bulk of the screentime and I absolutely love him. We genuinely see the confused, scared Norman flip back and forth between his Norman persona and the control-freak Goblin persona, and when the Goblin comes out, man is he brutal. He goes straight for what will hurt Peter Parker most, he goes straight for the kill, and he just feels so... so personal, you know? Electro, Ock and Lizard feel like they're just trying to cling on to their power, while Sandman just refuses to be denied the chance to go home, but Goblin is genuinely vile and is out to hurt people, and Willem Defoe's acting between the two (and they even preserved the tooth prosthetic 'tell') personalities is appropriately threatening.

Again, the movie itself could be really be a lot better, either by cutting some plotlines or giving it a bit more runtime. It is a bit irritatingly convenient that serums and magic rings can solve most of their problems, but the acting and the action really does end up being so well done that it distracts me from all the nitpicking I would otherwise have with the movie. 

Let's talk about the other heroes, too. Daredevil cameo making me all excited notwithstanding, it's interesting that we do get Dr. Strange seemingly as an alternate mentor to Peter after Iron Man's death. And Dr. Strange is... he's just so 1000% done with the kid after the memory spell gets fucked up. I really do think that Strange is kind of underutilized in this movie, but that's a good thing. The movie already has way too many characters already, and having Spider-Man use math to tie Dr. Strange and leave him in that train-mirror-dimension is absolutely the right thing to do as far as pacing goes. And, I guess, the biggest usage of Dr. Strange here is to show a more cold-hearted, ruthless way to handle things, which is to leave these 'villains' to their fate.

Also interestingly utilized is May Parker. Up until Endgame, it is a very valid criticism that very few people on the good side ever suffer any sort of tragedy. But building May up as a supporting character over a couple of movies, and then giving her a major supporting role here to both Peter and Norman, and later having her die of her wounds? She gets to be Uncle Ben, so to speak, but instead of dying early on in an obligatory origin story death (and I think it's still heavily implied that MCU's Uncle Ben had the same fate), we actually know and care for Aunt May which makes us really feel MCU Peter's rage and anger and hurt and no small amount of guilt. And when "with great power, comes great responsibility" hits, it really hits. 

I'm really not sure how I feel about the ending of the movie, with the aftereffects of the new memory spell returning the people from the Tobey-verse and Garfield-verse to their respective realities... but also wipes out MCU Spider-Man's real identity from everyone's minds. It just feels like a rather odd way to do a soft-reboot, although I do appreciate a future Spider-Man movie that stars on him being less of a member of the Avengers or as Iron Man's protege and more as... Spider-Man himself. Not the biggest fan of this conclusion, though it is a very well-acted series of scenes by Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon. 

I really could go on and on and discuss Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Electro, Sandman and Lizard. I really could. But I think this review so far has been pretty successful in showing how much I am excited about this movie, and how much I love their character arcs. The fight between Spider-Man and Doc Ock with the cars? The Electro/Sandman/Spider-Man three-way in the trainyard? Green Goblin revealing his true colours and just attacking everyone, ramming Spider-Man through the apartment building? The final battle of three Spider-Men facing against the elemental forces of Electro and Sandman (oh and Lizard's there too)? Spider-Man fighting Dr. Strange with math? Green Goblin's epic arrival on the final battle and how he beats up Doctors Strange and Octopus with ease? The primal glider-stab that MCU Peter is about to do on Goblin? Man, so much good stuff.

And... and I get it. So much of this movie rides on its hype and it bringing back Maguire, Garfield, Defoe, Foxx, Molina and the rest. Yes, it's not something that's likely to be anywhere as exciting if they do it with another franchise, nor, I think, are they able to do it. Yes, after the movie is over, you really do have a lot of questions on the nature of the memory-erasure spells. Honestly, though, even if you're being absolutely cynical, this is still a very solid superhero movie on its own. 

But you know what? I really do think that a superhero movie is supposed to get you excited, and I don't think any other movie other than maybe Infinity War has managed to get me as excited as this one. One of my all-time favourite superhero movies for sure, and while it's got a huge subjective and nostalgic bias... I'm pretty sure that's on purpose. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Post-Credits Scene:
• The mid-credits scene shows what happens to Eddie Brock from Venom: Let There Be Carnage... and he's just hanging out at a bar, missing out on all the multiversal madness while he argues with Venom, and gets bamboozled by mentions of Hulk and Thanos. He gets blipped back to his own universe, but leaves behind a single Symbiote blob.
• The post-credits scene is just a trailer for Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness.
• Future Movies Foreshadowing: Since we're not too many movies down the line, it's really hard to say, but we do foreshadow a bit on seeing the full scope of the multiverse when Dr. Strange breaks reality apart. There are billboards all over the city advertising Rogers: The Musical, which shows up in Hawkeye.
• Past Movie Continuity [MCU]: 
• Daredevil! Daredevil appears, played by Charlie Cox, which essentially confirms that the Netflix TV shows are canon to MCU after some flip-flopping. He still shows off what a badass he is with his blind reflexes. He also refuses to help people who are lying, which he can tell with his super-senses.
• Notably, Daredevil has a relatively longer scene talking to Happy Hogan. Happy's actor Jon Favreau played Foggy Nelson in the 2003 Daredevil movie.
• The events of Spider-Man: Far From Home (with Mysterio's identity reveal) and Avengers: Endgame are continually referred to in this movie that it would be pedantic for me to list all of them.
• Dr. Strange and Spider-Man's fight briefly takes them through the Mirror Dimension from Doctor Strange, and he also does the 'push someone's astral form out of their body', something Ancient One did in Doctor Strange and Avengers: Endgame.  
• The sketches that MJ did of Peter in detention in Spider-Man: Homecoming are framed in her room. 
• Peter's "I Survived My Trip To NYC" shirt that Tony gave him in Homecoming is the one he changes into after he gets back to his apartment. 
• Throughout the movie, MJ wears the broken pendant from Far From Home.
• The mugshot for Happy used in the news is the long-haired Happy from the prologue flashback in Iron Man 3.
• Past Movie Continuity [Tobey and Garfield Movies]:
• In a general rule, the plotlines and ultimate fates involving Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Lizard and Electro are all brought up at some point or another, and each subsequent villain is at least vaguely aware of the preceding villains' fate. 
• Norman quotes his (in)famous "you know, I'm something of a scientist myself!" line from Spider-Man, itself having grown into a meme. It makes sense in context, though!
• Green Goblin yells out "can the Spider-Man come out to play?", which he does in Spider-Man.
• Tobey!Peter mentions having had a 'web block' before, referencing a subplot in Spider-Man 2 where his emotional state causes him to have problems with his powers.
• Doc Ock keeps repeating the line "the power of the sun in the palm of your hand" in reference to his master plan in Spider-Man 2, which kind of becomes a running gag. He actually gets to hold one when he sees the Stark reactor. 
• Doc Ock mentions 'killing [Peter]'s little girlfriend', a reference to how he kidnapped Mary Jane in Spider-Man 2.
• When Tobey!Peter and a sane Otto Octavius finally get to meet each other, they repeat their first meeting lines ("trying to do better!"), and smile knowingly at the reference. 
• Tobey!Peter mentions that he's been stabbed before, something that Harry does to him in Spider-Man 3. 
• The 'new start' that MCU!Peter does involves him getting into an apartment with a landlord that is all about rent, similar to the Tobey movies. 
• Lizard is missing a finger on one of his arms, consistent with how his arm regenerated imperfectly after Captain Stacy shot it in Amazing Spider-Man.
• Electro is briefly seen in his bright-blue form from Amazing Spider-Man 2 as he recreates his body above the railways, although he would later reform into his full human body. 
• The way that MJ almost died in this movie is, obviously, meant to parallel shot-for-shot Gwen Stacy's death in Amazing Spider-Man 2. Of course, Garfield!Spider-Man actually manages to save her this time.
• Tobey!Peter has a whole scene of him having back problems. The actor Tobey Maguire famously had a lot of back problems (which led to Spider-Man 2 nearly not being a thing), and there were lines in his movies alluding to this too, including the memetic "ow, my back!"
• Both Tobey!Peter and Garfield!Peter note how their respective best friends (Harry Osborn for both) went evil and tried to kill them. The comics version of Ned actually does become the Hobgoblin, although not voluntarily. 
• Tobey!Peter insists that Garfield!Peter is "amazing", telling him to repeat it multiple times, which is a nod to how his film series is called the Amazing Spider-Man series. 
• When discussing previous foes, Tobey!Peter brings up Venom from Spider-Man 3, while Garfield!Peter bemoans that Rhino from Amazing Spider-Man 2 sounds lame next to Venom and Thanos. 
• Multiple themes from the five non-MCU Spider-Man films appear, most prominently Dr. Octopus's theme from Spider-Man 2 heralding his grand entrance, Green Goblin's theme from Spider-Man also in his first entrance, the theme of Amazing Spider-Man being used as the Daily Bugle Tiktok theme; and the very distinctive dubsteb of Electro's theme "My Enemy" when he first attacks Spider-Man.
• Less of a reference, but both Sandman and Lizard's "back to human" scenes are basically their respective scenes from Spider-Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man transposed via CGI, because neither Thomas Haden Church nor Rhys Ifans were available to physically reprise their role.
• Movie Superhero Codenames: Almost everyone gets to use their superhero codenames (which is hilarious when there are three Spider-Men running around), though our heroes do alternate back and forth on also calling Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Electro, Sandman and Lizard by their human names since this movie is all about humanizing them. 
• Favourite Action Scene: The final battle of three Spider-Man swinging around? Not even the huge CGI battle against the previous Spider-Man enemies, but just seeing Tobey, Garfield and Holland's Spider-Men doing what a spider does. The original Dr. Octopus fight and the Electro/Sandman clashes were great, too.
• Funniest Line: Garfield!Spider-Man: "So are you gonna go into battle dressed like a cool youth pastor, or do you have a suit?"
• The legendary meme of 'Spider-Man pointing at himself' meme from the 60's cartoon is done in live-action, albeit with the three Spider-Men being uncostumed and none of them is actually an impostor.
• Among the silhouettes seen on the cracks to the multiverse, you could make out the very distinct silhouettes of Kraven the Hunter, Scorpion and a more comic-accurate version of Rhino, three more of Spider-Man's classic rogues' gallery. There are many debates on who some of the other silhouettes are supposed to be (some people swear they saw Black Cat) but these three are probably the most obvious. 
• MCU's MJ also technically has the surname Watson, but she hates it because it reminded her of her dad. 
• Flash Thompson has dyed his hair blonde, which makes him a bit more similar to his comic-book counterpart. 
• Norman Osborn shattering the Green Goblin mask and leaving it broken in the foreground of the shot as he walks away is a homage to the iconic 'Spider-Man No More!' from Amazing Spider-Man #50, albeit that is Peter leaving the Spider-Man costume behind. 
  
• When Peter is out in his astral form, waves of 'Spider-Sense' emanate out of his physical body, more or less identical to how the Spider-Sense is visually depicted in the comics.
• Electro and Garfield!Spider-Man discuss about there being a black Spider-Man somewhere, which, of course, is a reference to Miles Morales. 
• The joke about Spider-Man having spider-pheromones that can subtly mind-control others of the opposite gender is actually the power of Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman. 
• Graffiti that says 'Ditko', after one of Spider-Man's co-creators Steve Ditko, appears on the van Lizard is in, as well as in the background of the rooftop scene with Peter and MJ. 
• When Spider-Man fights Dr. Octopus, one of the cars has the plate 63A5M-3. Dr. Octopus debuted in 1963's The Amazing Spider-Man #3.
• Electro's lightning bolts form his distinctive comic-book counterpart's star-shaped mask, albeit out of lightning. 
• In a very easy-to-miss scene, Liz Toomes, Vulture's daughter from Homecoming, has starred in an article defaming Peter Parker for being a liar.