*This review will not discuss the spoilers of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home.’ It will, however, mention characters that are seen in the trailers.*
“Be careful what you wish for” is a line spoken in “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” And ironically, this cautionary proverb applies to the movie itself, a film that gives you all you wanted and more—the epic fantasy wish list dream scenario—but isn’t necessarily better off for it in the end. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is maximalist, chock full of familiar characters and callbacks, and sometimes all that greatest-hits reminiscing is diverting and entertaining. But it’s also not very necessary, making for a very regressive, fan-service-y ‘Spider-Man’ legacy-sequel that’s overly nostalgic for its heydays.
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‘No Way Home’ picks up immediately after the events of “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” Via the previous villain Mysterio, the new Alex Jones-like J.J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) and the Daily Bugle reveal Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) identity—he’s 17-year-old Peter Parker— to the world. In the aggressive aftermath, hectically rendered on screen, Parker’s life is thrown into chaos. Worse, all his loved one’s lives—Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), M.J. (Zendaya), Ned (Jacob Batalon)— are ruined in the process too.
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Guilt-ridden by the predicament he’s inadvertently caused, Parker swings into action when his friend’s futures are threatened by their association to the now polarizing Spider-Man figure. He entreaties his friend-from-work colleague Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell that compels the world forget who Spider-Man is. Pitying him and all he’s been through, Strange relents, but as is wont to do, things go wrong and out of hand.
But as the trailers suggests, the botched spell does the reverse of its intentions and calls on those who know Peter Parker is Spider-Man: villains from his past, but from alternate universes: Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), Max Dillon / Electro (Jamie Foxx), Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) and more, all of them confused and unfamiliar with this version of Peter Parker. With the multiverse fractured, Strange wants to repair his error (and error in judgement), immediately. But spurned on by something Aunt May says about moral obligation —and learning of the fate of all these villains who die through their various interactions with Spider-Man—a well-intentioned Spider-Man tries to save them instead of sending them back to their respective universes.
This puts Spidey at odds with Strange, and launches a whole other series of challenges, conflicts and problems that lead into the second half of the film that are too spoiler-filled to discuss. Suffice to say, ‘No Way Home’ gets grander, busier, a bit clumsy in spots, and more convoluted as it reaches its big climactic ending filled with various emotional payoffs (some work better than others).
‘No Way Home’ is pleasurable in spots, and certainly has some laughs and even entertaining thrills, but definitely suffers from lots of issues, one of them being there are very few surprises (at least if you’re an extremely online person and that’s all I’ll say about that). Another problem is its familiarity in the wake of recent triumphs. Sony nailed the ideas of the multiverse and the spirit of Spider-Man, in the terrific “Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse.” In treading similar territory, ‘No Way Home’ feels like a live-action retread and reworking that’s nowhere near as successful or inventive. Some of the character writing is a little baggy too. Strange, May and even Peter make some decisions that are either puzzling, too reckless, or just not emblematic of who they are based on how we’ve seen them onscreen (for one, May suddenly becomes unchill for the first time ever, moralistic and ethical in a way we’ve never seen). And then you realize this type of is writing dictated by the necessities of plot, rather than character.
Conversely, thematically, however, there’s a nice evolution in the writing of the Peter Parker character and the ideas of self-reliance and his journey to becoming a fully realized accountable hero who can earn and carry the burdens of this calling. The problem is, the motifs are often overshadowed by the multiverse gimmick and speaks to the larger problem: is this the story of the Peter Parker’s emotional journey (the best parts of the movie) or first and foremost an event film (the most rote stuff)? And these two elements while trying to play in concert, and sometimes harmonize, are ultimately, often at odds with each other (Strange belittles Parker for having a “messy” life and that’s an apt word to describe this film).
After avoiding the legacy, origin story and burden of Peter Parker in the newer Marvel-produced ‘Spider-Man’ films, No Way Home, finally addresses and embraces them. Up until now, the MCU Spidey-films didn’t feature an Uncle Ben, a fateful moment, and never dealt with its iconic “great responsibility” maxim, or the notions of guilt, consequences and becoming the better version of yourself through painful hardships and tough life lessons.
All of that lore and emotional DNA of the character is finally introduced, but it has to wrestle for space among five villains, three “family” members (Ned, MJ, May), at least one Marvel hero (Strange, essentially relegated to the plot device of ill-judged magician who gets a long, but not-all-that-convincing time out), and a few other supporting characters that pop up along the way. To be perhaps too reductive about it, ‘No Way Home,’ often feels like Sony Vs. Marvel: Sony playing it safe, wanting all the remix, comfort food elements from their I.P. drawer, Marvel more interested in pushing the character forward into darker and even almost uncomfortable areas.
While generally light in tone, ‘No Way Home,’ gets emotionally gutting at the midway point of the film, a turning point so devastating (no spoilers), it almost feels like an entirely different movie. In this crucial moment of heartache and despair, ‘No Way Home’ really comes alive, and nearly transforms into something transcendent— at least as far as superhero films are concerend. But it quickly shies away from the big moment, using elements of humor, wistfulness, melancholy, friendship and more to help Parker overcome his greatest challenge.
“Spider-Man No Way Home” isn’t terrible by any means, and some of the things in the second half we can’t discuss are entertaining, even if they are a little awkward and obvious at times too (and far more talky and playfully meta than you might expect). But ultimately, for a franchise that felt so fresh, modern, and different from previous cinema ‘Spider-Man’ incarnations thanks to the MCU connections that pushed it in innovative new directions, it’s awfully content to play with reprocessed ideas and characters from the old sandbox. This may be meant to goose the box office, but it drags, and often gives ‘No Way Home’ the sense like its writers have run out of news ideas and are too eager to please fans. In fact, ‘NWH’ ends in a place where it feels like it’s starting right where the Sam Raimi films began nearly two decades ago. Perhaps that tribute is intentional, but it does seem conventional too. While MCU Spider-Man may have been running from his past and his origins all this time, one wishes his return home didn’t have to feel this familiar. [C+]