no home movie review

Spider-Man: No Way Home

The best of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” reminded me why I used to love comic books, especially the ones about a boy named Peter Parker. There was a playful unpredictability to them that has often been missing from modern superhero movies, which feel so precisely calculated. Yes, of course, “No Way Home” is incredibly calculated, a way to make more headlines after killing off so many of its event characters in Phase 3, but it’s also a film that’s often bursting with creative joy.

Director Jon Watts and his team have delivered a true event movie, a double-sized crossover issue of a comic book that the young me would have waited in line to read first, excitedly turning every page with breathless anticipation of the next twist and turn. And yet they generally avoid getting weighed down by the expectations fans have for this film, somehow sidestepping the cluttered traps of other crowded part threes. “No Way Home” is crowded, but it’s also surprisingly spry, inventive, and just purely entertaining, leading to a final act that not only earns its emotions but pays off some of the ones you may have about this character that you forgot.

Note: I will very carefully avoid spoilers but stay offline until you see it because there are going to be landmines on social media.

“No Way Home” picks up immediately after the end of “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” with the sound of that film’s closing scene playing over the Marvel logo. Mysterio has revealed the identity of the man in the red tights, which means nothing will ever be the same for Peter Parker ( Tom Holland ). With an almost slapstick energy, “No Way Home” opens with a series of scenes about the pitfalls of super-fame, particularly how it impacts Peter’s girlfriend M.J. (Zendaya) and best bud Ned ( Jacob Batalon ). It reaches a peak when M.I.T. denies all three of them admission, citing the controversy about Peter’s identity and the roles his buddies played in his super-adventures.

Peter has a plan. The “wizard” he met when he saved half the population with The Avengers can cast a spell and make it all go away. So he asks Dr. Strange ( Benedict Cumberbatch ) to make the world forget that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, which, of course, immediately backfires. He doesn’t want M.J. or Ned or Aunt May ( Marisa Tomei ) to forget everything they’ve been through together, and so the spell gets derailed in the middle of it. Strange barely gets it under control. And then Doc Ock ( Alfred Molina ) and the Green Goblin ( Willem Dafoe ) show up.

As the previews have revealed, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” weaves characters and mythology from the other cinematic iterations of this character into the universe of the current one, but I’m happy to report that it’s more than a casting gimmick. My concern going in was that this would merely be a case of “ Batman Forever ” or even “ Spider-Man 3 ,” where more was often the enemy of good. It’s not. The villains that return from the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb films don’t overcrowd the narrative as much as they speak to a theme that emerges in the film that ties this entire series back to the other ones. For a generation, the line about Spidey was “With great power comes great responsibility.” “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is about the modern Peter Parker learning what that means. (It also helps a great deal to have actors like Molina and Dafoe in villain roles again given how the lack of memorable villains has been a problem in the MCU.)

So many modern superhero movies have confronted what it means to be a superhero, but this is the first time it’s really been foregrounded in the current run of Peter Parker, which turns “No Way Home” into something of a graduation story. It’s the one in which Parker has to grow up and deal with not just the fame that comes with Spider-Man but how his decisions will have more impact than most kids planning to go to college. It asks some interesting questions about empathy as Peter is put in a position to basically try to save the men who tried to kill other multiverse iterations of him. And it playfully becomes a commentary on correcting mistakes of the past not just in the life of Holland’s Parker but those of characters (and even filmmakers) made long before he stepped into the role. “No way Home” is about the weight of heroic decisions. Even the right ones mean you may not be able to go home again.

Watts hasn’t gotten enough credit in his other two Spider-Man movies for his action and “No Way Home” should correct that. There are two major sequences—a stunner in a mirror dimension in which Spidey fights Strange, and the climactic one—but it’s also filled with expertly rendered minor action beats throughout. There’s a fluidity to the action here that’s underrated as Mauro Fiore ’s camera swoops and dives with Spider-Man. And the big final showdown doesn’t succumb to the common over-done hollowness of MCU climaxes because it has undeniable emotional weight. I also want to note that Michael Giacchino ’s score here is one of the best in the MCU, by far. It’s one of the few themes in the entire cinematic universe that feels heroic.

With so much to love about “No Way Home,” the only shame is that it’s not a bit more tightly presented. There’s no reason for this movie to be 148 minutes, especially given how much the first half has a habit of repeating its themes and plot points. Watts (and the MCU in general) has a habit of over-explaining things and there’s a sharper version of “No Way Home” that trusts its audience a bit more, allowing them to unpack the themes that these characters have a habit of explicitly stating. And, no offense to Batalon, turning Ned into a major character baffles me a bit. He always feels like a distraction from what really works here. On the other hand, this is the first of these three films that has allowed Zendaya and Holland’s chemistry to shine. In particular, she nails the emotional final beats of her character in a way that adds weight to a film that can feel a bit airy in terms of performance.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” could have just been a greatest hits, a way to pull different projects into the same IP just because the producers can. Some will see it that way just on premise alone, but there’s more going on here than the previews would have you believe. It’s about what historic heroes and villains mean to us in the first place—why we care so much and what we consider a victory over evil. More than any movie in the MCU that I can remember, it made me want to dig out my old box of Spider-Man comic books. That’s a heroic accomplishment.

In theaters on December 17 th .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man
• Zendaya as Michelle 'MJ' Jones
• Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange / Doctor Strange
• Jon Favreau as Harold 'Happy' Hogan
• Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds
• Marisa Tomei as May Parker
• Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus
• Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon / Electro
• Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin
• Tony Revolori as Eugene 'Flash' Thompson
• Angourie Rice as Betty Brant
• Martin Starr as Mr. Harrington
• Hannibal Buress as Coach Wilson
• J.B. Smoove as Mr. Dell
• J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson
• Benedict Wong as Wong
• Chris McKenna
• Erik Sommers

Cinematographer

• Mauro Fiore
• Michael Giacchino

Writer (based on the Marvel comic book by)

• Steve Ditko

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‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Review: Tom Holland Cleans Out the Cobwebs of Sprawling Franchise With Multiverse Super-Battle

Convoluted as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has gotten, Holland's latest opus spins two decades and three iterations of the Spidey brand into a satisfying meta-adventure.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains spoilers.

What do you call the opposite of a reboot? The “system overload” of “Spider-Man” movies, Sony’s ninth (and almost certainly not last) feature-length riff on the friendly neighborhood superhero, “ Spider-Man: No Way Home ” seeks to connect Tom Holland ’s spin on the web-slinger with the previous live-action versions of the character by first reassembling a rogue’s gallery of all the villains Peter Parker has vanquished to date. Returning director Jon Watts — whose bright, slightly dorky touch lends a welcome continuity to this latest trilogy — wrangles the unwieldy premise into a consistently entertaining superhero entry, tying up two decades of loose ends in the process.

The mind-bending plot hinges on a convenient comic book device called the multiverse, which allows infinite iterations of Spider-Man/mineral/vegetable to exist in their own parallel dimensions. That’s a radically different strategy from the one Sony has been peddling till now, whereby the studio simply recast the character every few years (lest the rights revert back to Marvel), without offering much in the way of closure to fans of Tobey Maguire’s or Andrew Garfield’s earlier outings.

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Granted, the idea should be familiar to anyone who saw 2018’s animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which introduced the thrilling possibility that virtually anyone could be Spidey. But whereas that toon suggested infinite paths for the character going forward, “No Way Home” serves to wrap up what has come before, starting by reviving Spidey’s past adversaries, forcing Holland’s Peter Parker to face off against five of the villains pulled in from the movies that preceded him.

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It all happens because Peter’s life has been turned upside down by Mysterio (the bad guy he vanquished at the end of “Far From Home” two years ago), who managed to unmask Spidey before biting the dust. Desperate to protect his family and friends, Peter appeals to all-powerful wizard Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell that will make everyone forget his identity. Instead, the plan backfires, calling everyone who ever knew that Peter was Spider-Man out of their dimension and into his.

To make things a little easier for the movie to manage, it’s really only the villains who answer Strange’s calling — which is impressive enough, considering that means enlisting Alfred Molina (Doc Ock), Willem Dafoe (Green Goblin), Jamie Fox (Electro), Thomas Haden Church (Sandman) and Rhys Ifans (The Lizard) to reprise their roles. Meanwhile, to make things easier for Spider-Man to manage, none is even remotely as intimidating as we remember them.

“No Way Home” keeps the surprises coming up to (and even through) the end credits, but perhaps the most unexpected is Peter’s decision — together with girlfriend MJ ( Zendaya ) and best bud Ned (Jacob Batalon) — not to defeat these villains the way his predecessors did. Instead, Peter hopes to “cure” the goons of the mutations that are making them unhappy, even if it means defying Doctor Strange (one of several characters on loan from the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which Holland’s Spider-Man has been making now-regular appearances).

Peter’s empathy seems perfectly fitting for a movie that targets a fresh wave of idealistic teens very much engaged with questioning everything Western civilization thought it knew about crime and punishment, power and privilege. As a critic who grew up on movies in which the bad guys were routinely impaled (Tony Goldywn in “Ghost”), decapitated (Dennis Hopper in “Speed”) or otherwise made to pay dearly for their sins, it’s fascinating to encounter an escapist Hollywood offering that seeks to understand the root of these characters’ megalomaniacal behavior.

The reason, as Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers’ screenplay tries to explain, is that this version of Peter is still dealing with Mysterio’s death. In that reaction, we see the franchise trying to make the character more fully dimensional and dare I say “realistic” — much as 21st-century Bond “Casino Royale” and Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” did in recognizing the physical toll saving the world had on their respective protagonists.

For my money, Holland has been the least interesting of the three big-screen Spider-Men, coming across younger and less mature than Maguire or Garfield. Until now. This simple plot development makes him more than just an acrobat in spandex, juggling awkward high school experiences with flashy visual effects battles — although both elements carry through to this film, in which college acceptance carries equal weight with a big CG showdown at the Statue of Liberty. He’s further disrupting the Marvel-movie formula (which already got a massive upset with the “Infinity War”-ending “snap” and inevitable time-travel gimmick it took to reverse it) and even going so far as to redefine audiences’ collective notion of heroism in the process.

As complicated as it all sounds, “No Way Home” sticks to a relatively straightforward idea of the multiverse, taking extra care to walk us through the logical loop-de-loops its plot requires. Whenever Doctor Strange shows up in a Marvel movie, audiences ought to be prepared for some magical monkey business — the kind of rule-bending that essentially makes anything possible. Superhero movies are only as good as their villains, and it’s a thrill to be reunited with Doc Ock and Green Goblin. Though the other three baddies were relatively disappointing in their original incarnations, this film focuses on the tragic dimension of their characters and their capacity for redemption.

It’s not quite so successful at identifying the rage building in Peter Parker, whose good intentions directly result in an irreversible loss. While incendiary news reports — from conspiracy-monger J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons), an unlikely constant across the multiverse — paint him as a menace, Spidey is torn between the instinct to help his adversaries and a much darker impulse to seek revenge (a watered-down version of the Jedi-Sith tug-of-war we’ve seen in “Star Wars” protagonists). Though Holland looks too much like an eager Boy Scout for us to believe he’ll go rogue, that conflict serves as a promising setup for the movie’s obvious midpoint twist — one that trailers have hidden, but reviews really ought to unpack. Be warned that spoilers will follow.

If villains can make the dimensional leap, it stands to reason that other Spider-Men can too, and sure enough, first Garfield and then Maguire show up seemingly up-to-speed on Peter’s villain-infestation problem. Because they’ve all faced variations on the same challenges — from losing loved ones to reconciling their romantic interests with a demanding day job — the movie balances easy-target comedy with more profound life lessons. What could easily have felt like one of those tacky Disneyland parades, where all the princesses are assembled to do fan service, instead finds a strong emotional foundation.

Garfield, so good in this year’s “Tick, Tick … Boom!,” radiates more charisma here than he ever did in his two Spider-Man installments. And the older-and-wiser Maguire, who’d gotten soft and lazy between his second and third Spider-Man movies, reminds audiences who haven’t seen him on screen in years why we found him so appealing in the first place. There’s something fundamentally worrisome about dissolving the barriers between these separate iterations of the franchise, and yet, the entire creative team seems committed to treating the multiverse not as a stunt or a crass corporate ploy (it does conveniently repair a rift in the MCU), but as an opportunity to more fully explore what Peter Parker stands for.

“No Way Home” doesn’t pretend that the earlier films were perfect, poking fun at elements we can all agree were weaknesses while also leaving room for the villains and Spider-Men alike to do some much-needed healing. The movie can be ungainly at times, and it’s much too committed to setting up even more craziness to play out in upcoming Marvel product (these aren’t stand-alone films so much as overloaded episodes, after all), but it provides enough resolution for the past two decades of Spider-Man adventures that audiences who’ve tuned out along the way will be rewarded for giving this one a shot.

Reviewed at AMC Century City, Los Angeles, Dec. 13, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 148 MIN.

• Production: A Columbia Pictures release and presentation of a Pascal Pictures, Marvel Studios production. Producers: Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal. Executive producers: Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, JoAnn Perritano, Rachel O’Connor, Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach. Co-producers: Mitch Bell, Chris Buongiorno.
• Crew: Director: Jon Watts. Screenplay: Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers, based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko. Camera: Mauro Fiore. Editors: Jeffrey Ford, Leigh Folsom Boyd. Music: Michael Giacchino.
• With: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home swings big on two decades of fan payoff

 a big, satisfying, and occasionally messy conclusion.

By Chaim Gartenberg

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Spider-Man: No Way Home is a film meant to do a lot of things. It’s the third film in the Jon Watts-directed MCU trilogy of Spider-Man films, concluding a storyline for Tom Holland’s incarnation of Peter Parker. It’s a direct sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home , picking up where the cliffhanger credit scene of the 2019 film left off. It’s the continuation of the overarching Marvel Cinematic Universe and its “Phase Four” story arc. And it’s a tribute to the past 20 years of Spider-Man movies. 

That’s a lot of balls to juggle. And the fact that No Way Home succeeds in pulling off as many of them as it does is impressive, especially when it comes to the fan service — but much like Peter Parker, this movie can’t have everything.

Spoiler warning: this review will reference basic plot details of the movie as revealed in the existing Spider-Man: No Way Home trailers, in addition to spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home.

If you want to go in fully unaware, skip this review for now.

Spider-Man: No Way Home picks up right where its predecessor, Far From Home , left off. Peter Parker’s secret identity as Spider-Man has been revealed to the world through one last trick of Mysterio, and now everyone blames the webslinger for the villain’s rampage through London. 

No Way Home doesn’t let Peter get off easy here, at least for the first third of the film, which eschews heroics for grinding down the costumed hero. Half the world hates Peter and thinks he murdered Mysterio. He’s got no idea how to pay for college. (As an aside, given that it’s the third time this plot point has come up in an MCU project this year: did none of the Avengers get paid? Come on, Tony.) Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) is forced to move after her apartment is besieged by reporters and protestors. And his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon) and his girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya), get soundly rejected from every college they apply to just for being associated with Peter. 

No Way Home doesn’t let Peter get off easy

So in an effort to protect his loved ones, Peter goes to his fellow Avenger Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and asks him to magic away the problem. Naturally, things go awry. The spell cracks open the multiverse and spills out villains from Sony’s previous five Spider-Man movies spanning almost two decades: Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe, reprising his role from Spider-Man ), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina, Spider-Man 2 ), Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church, Spider-Man 3 ), Lizard (Rhys Ifan, The Amazing Spider-Man ), and Electro (Jamie Foxx, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ). Each bad guy has been snatched up from their moment right before their web-slinging comeuppance and given a fresh chance for revenge on (another) Spider-Man, who has to find them and send them back from whence they came. 

No Way Home revels in bringing back these characters. Each villain gets his moment in the sun (some briefer than others), and long-time Spider-Man fans will get a thrill of getting to see Doc Ock smash his way through a highway of cars, a devilishly grinning Green Goblin cackling his way from scene to scene, or Jamie Foxx’s Electro not having to be a blue CGI Doctor Manhattan knock off. Dafoe leads the charge, bouncing between his feral and friendly personalities without missing a beat in the intervening 19 years, while Molina’s tortured scientist struggles to control his out-of-control creation. The core cast of Watts’ trilogy is also back. Holland’s take on Peter is his best yet: still fresh-faced and quipping his way through fights while dealing with the increasing weight of actually having to be Spider-Man. MJ and Ned are more divorced from the action, although Aunt May gets the spotlight in some of the film’s quieter moments to great effect. 

It’s all extremely fun but harkens back to the same issue all of Holland’s films have had: the smorgasbord of bad guys are once again other character’s foes that Peter just happens to be dealing with, much in the same way that Homecoming and Far From Home had him cleaning up Tony Stark’s messes. Peter’s Inception -esque mirror dimension duel with Doctor Strange almost has more weight than some of the villain fights — at least there, Peter knows his opponent’s name. 

In fact, nearly all of the film’s biggest emotional beats rely on viewer’s knowledge of the previous five Spider-movies, attempting to tie a bow on each villain’s story in addition to offering closure for the characters in the Tom Holland trilogy that No Way Home ostensibly is intended to wrap up. There’s a lot going on. 

Pure payoff for two decades of Spider-Man films

Still, once No Way Home hits its stride, it’s hard to care too much about any of that. Characters and cameos abound in scenes that feel engineered to have fans cheering in theaters. There are big reveals, catchphrases are dutifully recited, and the last hour is basically just pure payoff for two decades of Spider-Man films, handled with a surprising amount of humor and heart despite some darker swings halfway through. Whether you’re a fan of the Sam Raimi, the Marc Webb, or the Jon Watts movies, No Way Home does its best to please. (Although you’ll definitely get the most mileage if you’ve seen all seven preceding Spider-Man flicks, of course.) It’s all very satisfying for fans, though at times it can feel like the movie is as much about the competing studio interests of Sony and Disney as it is about Spidey himself.

And, as is practically Marvel tradition, No Way Home doesn’t let its characters rest, slamming the reset button and sowing the seeds for future sequels, with the now-traditional post-credit scenes setting up more adventures for Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. 

Still, Holland’s incarnation of the character is said to be sticking around for another few movies, and No Way Home ’s ending hints at shedding some of Peter’s accrued MCU baggage for a friendlier, more neighborly Spider-Man. So it’s at least possible that future entries will finally let the character soar through the city on his own strengths, instead of just standing on specters of movies past.

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‘spider-man: no way home’: film review.

Tom Holland’s webslinger fights a bunch of familiar faces in Jon Watts’ third outing as Spider-director.

By John DeFore

John DeFore

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The heroes who went clobberin’ through the pages of Marvel Comics in the 1980s were still relative kids when the mythology over at rival publisher DC started creaking under its own weight. Superman and Batman had started fighting crime in the late ’30s, for Pete’s sake, and the many iterations of their stories, not to mention those of less revered characters, had piled up in confusing or contradictory ways. The solution was a series called Crisis on Infinite Earths , envisioning a collision of alternate realities in which some characters died, others had their stories straightened out, and many (though far from all) overly literal fanboys were allowed to stop fretting if next month’s adventure contradicted one they read 15 years ago.

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That influential series solved some obvious problems. By contrast, one might wonder what issues are being fixed in Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home , where Spidey and Doctor Strange open a rift between parallel dimensions, forcing Tom Holland ’s Spider-Man to face villains who starred in movies opposite Tobey Maguire’s and Andrew Garfield’s versions of the character.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Release date: December 17 Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei Director: Jon Watts Screenwriters: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers

Was the problem “there’s not enough fan service in Marvel movies”? Certainly, this outing is a textbook example of that phenomenon, in which little moments of pandering (be the moments loving or cynical) make inside jokes, throw in gratuitous cameos, or bring intergalactic bounty hunters back to life because there just aren’t enough Star Wars products out there yet for Disney to sell.

Some of the fan service plays fairly well here; some is unsubtle enough you expect an actor to look into the camera and wink at you after delivering his line. But in the end, No Way Home does use its multiversal mayhem to address the only real problem with the Holland-era web-slinger: the Iron Man-ification of the character, in which his already amazing powers keep getting overshadowed by the gadgets given to him by billionaire jerk-hero Tony Stark. This is the least fun of the Watts/Holland pictures by a wide margin (intentionally so, to some extent), but it’s a hell of a lot better than the last Spidey threequel, Sam Raimi’s overstuffed and ill-conceived Spider-Man 3 .

The story begins with the scene that closed the last film: Spidey is perched outside Penn Station when J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) exposes his secret identity. Soon, the whole world knows it’s Peter Parker under that mask, and hordes believe Jameson’s bizarre claim that Spider-Man is a war criminal. (This iteration of Daily Bugle editor Jameson is obviously modeled on real-life idiocy-promoter Alex Jones; but as is often the case these days, intended satire pales in comparison to the stupidity of the real thing.)

Life gets hard for our hero and his pals Ned (Jacob Batalon) and MJ ( Zendaya ), who have to deal with constant media attention and uncomfortable scenes at school. Somehow (just don’t question it), this notoriety even prevents the three brainiacs from getting into any of the colleges they apply to. So Peter Parker heads to Greenwich Village, hoping Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) can cast a spell and make his identity a secret again.

Several moments of poor judgment later, Strange has had to quash his own out-of-control magic, which threatens to summon to our planet every person, on every alternate Earth out there, who knows the name Peter Parker. But the cat’s partly out of the bag, and any viewer who has seen a trailer knows at least some of the characters who are coming to play — first, and most enjoyably, Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus.

As the old villains reappear, we’re reminded that practically every one of them is a good soul gone wrong — some made monstrous by the same kind of dumb luck that made Peter a hero. So when Strange prepares to send them back to their own timelines (where, we may recall, most of them perish spectacularly), Peter balks. Urged on by his fiercely moral Aunt May (Marisa Tomei, the only woman in the multiverse who can get away with the godawful outfits these movies give her), he insists on trying to heal the villains before sending them home. Arguments between Avengers being what they are, Spidey and Strange duke it out in a magical realm where the scenery goes all Inception- y on them, then Spidey steals a magic doodad and sets off to cure the bad guys.

Rather than spoil any of the surprises the plot may have in store, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Who thought it was a great idea to tackle this material so soon after practically the same thing happened in 2018’s animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse ? That rollicking, eye-popping adventure was so fresh, funny and exciting that No Way Home can really only look stodgy in comparison, relying on the novelty of faces we haven’t seen in a while and building up to the kind of operatic emotional moments the previous Watts films tended to avoid.

Yes, Peter suffers here, losing so much he’s at risk of also losing the spirit that has made Holland’s Peter Parker so winning onscreen since swinging into Captain America: Civil War . At moments, the anguish feels like the paint-by-numbers routine of superhero franchise-building: more of the same, despite the unusual circumstances.

But there’s a lightness to the movie’s final scene that makes one hopeful. What if all this colliding-multiverse stuff freed Peter from attachments, not only to his former incarnations, but to some of his more grandiose present-tense buddies as well? Would it be so bad if he were allowed to be a “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” for a while, with no obligation to fight aliens and giant monsters every other year? Let Doctor Strange explore the mystic depths for a while, and let Spidey swing.

Full credits

Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing Production companIes: Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei Director: Jon Watts Screenwriters: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers Producers: Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal Executive Producers: Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, JoAnn Perritano, Rachel O’Connor, Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach Director of photography: Mauro Fiore Production designer: Darren Gilford Costume designer: Sanja Milkovic Hays Editors: Jeffrey Ford, Leigh Folsom Boyd Composer: Michael Giacchino Casting directors: Sarah Finn, Chris Zaragoza

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Spider-Man: No Way Home First Reviews: Ridiculous and Ridiculously Fun

Critics say tom holland's third solo outing as peter parker is as full of easter eggs as anticipated, but also surprisingly emotional and strengthened by an epic third act..

TAGGED AS: Film , films , Marvel , marvel cinematic universe , marvel comics , Marvel Studios , movie , movies , spider-man , spider-verse , Superheroes

The eighth live-action solo Spider-Man movie and the third starring Tom Holland within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (of which it’s the 27th entry), Spider-Man: No Way Home promises to be a culmination of everything fans have seen before. Somewhat literally, as the Multiverse brings in characters from other runs of the Spidey franchise for a nostalgic mash-up of sorts.

Does it work? Considering the movie’s high Tomatometer score out of the gate, the answer seems to be yes. However, while some are calling it one of the best superhero movies of all time, others do see some problems in the storytelling. But hey, imperfection is part of what makes Spider-Man such a relatable fan favorite, right?

Here’s what critics are saying about Spider-Man: No Way Home :

Has Marvel done it again?

Spider-Man: No Way Home  isn’t just the best of the eight live-action Spider-Man films, it’s one of the superior films of the entire Marvel Studios franchise. – Jeffrey Lyles, Lyles’ Movie Files

One of the best MCU films and easily ranks up there with the top Spider-Man films. – Jon Nguyen, Nerd Reactor

I not only loved  Spider-Man: No Way Home  but believe it to be the best Marvel movie of all time . – Scott Menzel, We Live Entertainment

My favorite Marvel film thus far . – Diandra Reviews, diandrareviewsitall.com

Simply put,  Spider-Man: No Way Home is the best film in the MCU.  – Sheraz Farooqi, Cinema Debate

The best superhero movie of all time, and easily the best Marvel Cinematic Universe film yet… Easily the best live action Spider-Man movie . – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

(Photo by Columbia Pictures)

How does it compare to the last two Spidey movies?

It is a definite improvement from the last film . – RAchel Wagner, rachelsreviews.net

No Way Home  feels more like a Spider-Man movie. It’s a bit corny yet endearing, heartfelt and incredibly fun — which is as it should be . – Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant

While not quite as utterly delightful as  Spider-Man: Homecoming , it matches and often exceeds the already strong  Spider-Man: Far From Home . – Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

From a visual standpoint, it’s the biggest of the three. From an actual story perspective, it’s the weakest . – Luke Y. Thompson, SuperHeroHype

Will hardcore Spider-Man fans be happy?

These filmmakers really understand Spider-Man . – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

Spider-Man: No Way Home is everything we can wish for in a Spider-Man film . – Jon Nguyen, Nerd Reactor

This film brilliantly pays homage to the legacy of Spider-Man . – Scott Menzel, We Live Entertainment

No Way Home  is a reminder that Marvel Studios undeniably gets the Marvel Comics characters down to the core . –  Jeffrey Lyles, Lyles’ Movie Files

Will you need to have seen the other Spider-Man movies?

Director Jon Watts makes sure that viewers who have only followed Holland’s Spider-Man films aren’t lost . – Jeffrey Lyles, Lyles’ Movie Files

Spider-Man: No Way Home is an epic superhero feast for fans, but it should not be the first Spider-Man movie that people should see . – Carla Hay, Culture Mix

The connection and understanding of the previous movies’ plots are essential . – Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant

This film does base a lot of humor and emotional beats around the idea of audiences connecting with what’s happening based on previous films . – Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment

Spider-Man: No Way Home is at its best and its worst when it&#39;s recalling other movies. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Slashfilm

Is there a lot of fan service?

While there is a lot of nostalgia and fan service, the film doesn’t rely solely on that . – Scott Menzel, We Live Entertainment

There’s a ton of callbacks and plenty of fan service but it’s always in service of the story at hand . – Sean Mulvihill, FanboyNation

Fan service doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing, especially when it services a larger thematic purpose: grappling with Spider-Man’s legacy . – Hoai-Tran Bui, Slashfilm

Even those uninterested in the film’s White-House-lawn–sized supply of Easter eggs can enjoy Holland and Zendaya’s teen-romance chemistry and Holland and Batalon’s buddy-comedy banter . – Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

Sadly the film trades real storytelling for crowd-pleasing Easter Eggs . – Scott Mendelson, Forbes

Does it feel like a live-action version of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse ?

The film is a celebration of the character on the screen, like a live action Into the Spider-Verse , though not quite as overwhelmingly stunning . – Sean Mulvihill, FanboyNation

No Way Home  feels like a live-action retread and reworking that’s nowhere near as successful or inventive . – Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

Is it all that different from 2018’s Oscar-winning  Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse ? The difference I see comes through in the filmmaking . – Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment

It often plays like if  Into the Spider-Verse  cared more about the cameos than about Miles Morales . – Scott Mendelson, Forbes

How is it to see the old villains again?

It is such an amazing reminder of how good the Sam Raimi  Spider-Man movies were to see Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina in their roles . – Kaitlyn Booth, Bleeding Cool

These characters are not back just to put fans in seats, they are actually used incredibly well in the story. Every one of them has a story, a plot point, and an arc in this movie . – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

What would have made the film stronger, however, is Peter getting his own villain rather than solely having to fight the ones from the past (as good as it is to see them back) . – Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant

Are there too many villains?

It never quite crosses that threshold… It always manages to bring the focus back to Peter Parker and his problems . – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

While this creates an interesting juggling act for the film, much of what is impressive about it is both how it handles all of them, and how it puts the story in a position to reflect on the totality of the character’s big screen legacy . – Eric Eisenberg, Cinema Blend

Multiple villains invariably do water down the central conflict. When everyone’s a compelling movie star, and the story has to find screen time for all.  – Luke Y. Thompson, SuperHeroHype

How is the script?

Director Jon Watts and screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers performed a miracle here juggling the drama, humor, action, and emotional elements of the story. – Lupe Rodriguez, Haas CineMovie.tv

Peter makes one bad decision after another… But that’s Spider-Man in a nutshell. – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

When the film dares to ask heady questions about fate and humanity – debating whether these things are immutable – it falters, providing superficial answers akin to a Magic 8 Ball . – Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction

If you poke too many holes in the narrative, Spider-Man: No Way Home starts to become undone . – Hoai-Tran Bui, Slashfilm

Does the movie get emotional?

The film will have you reaching for tissue paper . – Lupe Rodriguez, Haas CineMovie.tv

The most somber story we’ve seen yet centering on Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. The threats are more extreme than anything he’s previously faced alone, but also amped way up are the emotional stakes and maturity . – Eric Eisenberg, Cinema Blend

Certain moments are very emotional, and I was surprised by how powerful those scenes were . – Scott Menzel, We Live Entertainment

Does it take a while to get going?

The first half of the movie really weighs things down and not in a good way . – Kaitlyn Booth, Bleeding Cool

For much of the first 20 minutes of the film, No Way Home is astonishingly low stakes . – Hoai-Tran Bui, Slashfilm

There also is a lot of time in this movie with people in rooms talking . – Rachel Wagner, rachelsreviews.net

But does the third act redeem that slow start?

The first and second acts are very messy, but the third act pulls it together to pack one hell of an emotional punch . – Kaitlyn Booth, Bleeding Cool

The final act [is] one of the more breathtaking of any recent superhero film . – Jeffrey Lyles, Lyles’ Movie Files

The final act of Spider-Man: No Way Home is joyful in the best ways, dark in other ways, and overall the most fun the MCU has in years. For many, this third act will stand as the best in the franchises’ history, and they wouldn’t be wrong . – Sheraz Farooqi, Cinema Debate

How is the action?

The battle scenes are MASSIVE… There are several big action scenes, and they just get bigger and bigger as the film goes on. Each one topping the previous one, which feels impossible, trust me . – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

The action of  Spider-Man: No Way Home  is often quite dazzling . – Sean Mulvihill, FanboyNation

Some of the best Spider-Man action we’ve ever seen . – Kaitlyn Booth, Bleeding Cool

A lengthy part of the movie that takes place on the Statue of Liberty will be talked about by fans for years . – Carla Hay, Culture Mix

The action is more brutal than ever before, trading some of the fantastical web-slinging action to more hand-to-hand combat and bloody brawls . – Sheraz Farooqi, Cinema Debate

Are there any issues?

As for the CG fest, it feels more awkward than usual at times. Certain scenes look as if they utilized blue-screening solely so the actors on set wouldn’t even know what was happening . – Luke Y. Thompson, SuperHeroHype

They are presenting a perfect world… where nobody is evil or bad and everyone can be redeemed or “cured” of their sociopathic or evil tendencies. That’s just not reality . – Rachel Wagner, rachelsreviews.net

The only major stumbles are in the mid-credit and post-credit scenes, when the franchise overlords have to impose their corporate will to whet appetites for the next movie while we’re still digesting the one we just saw . – Sean P. Means, Movie Cricket

Is the movie worth seeing in spite of its flaws?

There is only 50% of an excellent movie here, but that 50% is worth showing up for . – Kaitlyn Booth, Bleeding Cool

Spider-Man: No Wy Home is a mixed bag… Equal parts fantastic and frustrating . – Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction

Spider-Man: No Way Home will probably be a “love it or hate it” film . – Carla Hay, Culture Mix

Spider-Man: No Way Home  is the very definition of the sum being less than its parts . – Scott Mendelson, Forbes

While the whole may not exceed the sum of its parts, some of those parts are great indeed . – Luke Y. Thompson, SuperHeroHype

Will it leave us wanting more Tom Holland Spider-Man movies?

It sets the stage for a promising second trilogy that brings the character back to his cinematic roots and builds upon the foundations set forth today . – Diego Andaluz, AwardsWatch

If they’re handing off the baton to other filmmakers to continue Spidey stories this is a good way to do it. There’s closure and surprises galore here, but also a clear avenue for further adventures . – Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

If it is the end of the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, I am OK with that. I don’t want that to happen, but it gives fans a closure . – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

Spider-Man: No Way Home is in theaters on December 17, 2021.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home review: Welcome to the multiverse

Oh, what a tangled meta-web he weaves.

In 2018, a movie called Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse floated the idea that there could be an infinity of Spideys: an Afro-Latino teen from Brooklyn or a small Japanese girl, one all in monochrome and another made of ham. It went on to win an Oscar, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, and spawned a pile of sequels and spinoffs.

Meanwhile, either in some other dimension or just down the hall, the other Spider-Man carried on, confined in this mortal coil (or at least for three films now) to the body of Tom Holland . But if moviegoers have learned anything in the last two decades at the multiplex it's that no Peter Parker is fixed forever, and in Spider-Man: No Way Home (in theaters Friday) the glue that puts the uni- in universe has come unstuck.

That's less breezy to do without the magic wand of animation, and No Way Home struggles early on to put the pieces in place and find its storyline. At the end of 2019's Far From Home , Holland's Peter was "unmasked" by Jake Gyllenhaal' s malevolent Mysterio — railroaded for crimes he hadn't committed and recast as a dangerous teenage menace in the public's mind. He'd like to shrug it off, but the reveal has also cast a pall on the people that love him: His Aunt May ( Marisa Tomei ), his loyal girlfriend M.J. ( Zendaya ) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), even his cheerful bachelor-uncle benefactor, Happy ( Jon Favreau ).

If they've all become outcasts because of him — even MIT decides it doesn't want to see M.J. and Ned on its incoming-freshman rolls — how can he get their good names back? An irritable wizard several Manhattan zip codes away might know; and in fact Doctor Strange ( Benedict Cumberbatch , very much enjoying his snits) does have a few thoughts on how to fix it, including a forgetting spell that can, he promises, wipe Peter's slate clean. But a mid-spell intervention comes with side effects, and suddenly, portals are spitting out MCU ghosts like pinwheel sparklers on the 4th of July, long-dead villains and heroes emerging from the studio backlots that time forgot: 2014, 2007, even 2002. (It's no secret from the trailer at least that the resurrected-enemies list includes Jamie Foxx 's Electro, Alfred Molina 's Doctor Octopus, and Willem Dafoe 's Green Goblin).

Along with Holland, director Jon Watts is on his third installment, and the tone he brings to the franchise remains a kind of goofy, self-referential high-school sweetness; his previous two were like updated John Hughes movies that just happened to have agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The first chunk of No Way Home feels noticeably less cohesive than the ones before it, a hectic collision of convenient plot points and winky one-liners pinging off every available surface while the script scrambles to find its footing. (A major part of Peter's appeal has always been that he's a kind, guileless kid, the most human superhero — though this script makes a strong case that great power should be no 17-year-old's responsibility.)

The way that the movie eventually manages to bridge all those multiplicities and pull them into focus feels both obvious and ingenious, though pretty much everything that happens after the 40-minute mark is a spoiler that early title cards and even a recorded pre-show entreaty from the cast beg you not to share. At just under two and a half hours, that leaves a lot on the table. So it's safer maybe just to say that what seems at first like pure fan service turns out to be some of the best and by far the most meta stuff Marvel has done, tender and funny and a little bit devastating. (There were audible sobs in the theater at an industry screening.) It's also Holland's last time in the suit (unless it isn't ); if and when Peter finds his way home, maybe this bigger, broader Spider-Verse will find a new way — or a new form altogether — to take him there. Grade: B+

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Review: 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' is a refreshing blast of visiting baddies and second chances

It’s not just jampacked “Avengers” movies that get to be dimension-hopping, mega-action epics with tons of surprise characters. Now fans can expect that in films featuring the Marvel Cinematic Universe ’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.  

No matter if he’s fighting a street-level foe like the Vulture  or a cosmic villain such as Thanos , Tom Holland ’s teenage superhero always finds a way to be the ideal underdog, and that happens again in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (★★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters now) as the craziest obstacles get thrown in his direction. (And considering he joined the Avengers and was blipped out of existence for five years, that’s saying something.) Director Jon Watts’ third Spidey film is a rousing entry that doubles as a love letter to the comic book character, a film very much about second chances and a cleverly crafted reminder of that famous adage: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

'Spider-Man': Tom Holland talks 'No Way Home,' FaceTiming Zendaya and his 'interesting life'

“No Way Home” opens by paying off the cliffhanger from 2019’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” : After a climactic fight ends with the death of illusionist Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), 17-year-old high schooler Peter Parker’s secret identity as Spider-Man is revealed to the world by  DailyBugle.net  Internet conspiracy theorist J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons, again in the role he was born to play). Almost immediately, the lives of Peter, his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and beloved Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) are upended by pesky media swarming his Queens apartment, authorities threatening charges and JJJ’s public propaganda machine labeling Peter a “web-headed war criminal.”

'Spider-Man: No Way Home' premiere: See Zendaya and Tom Holland rock the red carpet

Suffice it to say, Peter’s senior year could be starting off better, and going viral in the worst way now threatens Peter and his friends’ dreams of attending MIT together. The young hero seeks out magical bud Doctor Strange ( Benedict Cumberbatch ), who can conjure a spell to make everybody forget that Peter is a   superhero. But when Peter realizes his loved ones won’t know he’s Spidey, he inadvertently tampers with the frazzled Strange’s conjuring mojo, resulting in supervillains from other universes showing up in Peter’s reality.

Review: Benedict Cumberbatch stuns as a cruel cowboy in Jane Campion's 'Power of the Dog'

Peter, MJ and Ned are tasked by Strange to “Scooby-Doo” the problem of guys like Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) and Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) from the Tobey Maguire “Spider-Man” movies as well as Electro (Jamie Foxx) from the Andrew Garfield “Amazing” Spider-era. The youngsters' ambitious plan unfolds with a lot of do-gooding, trippy magic, quirky humor, a little heartbreak and various clever ways of bringing together the larger Marvel universe.

But as sprawling as this thing gets, “No Way Home” satisfyingly concludes Watts’ trilogy that started with 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” Sure, there was the odd evil dad and summer trip gone wrong, yet the core of those movies was Peter trying to figure out how to be a kid and a superhero at the same time – and usually failing before learning a deeper lesson. Watts maintains that aspect as a constant in the new film, thereby grounding all of the grand MCU-ness in a relatable universality even as Spidey meets the business end of Doc Ock’s tentacles and has Pumpkin Bombs thrown at his head by Green Goblin.

Spoilers!  What that 'Venom 2' end-credits scene might mean for Tom Hardy's Marvel future

There are many welcome returns in “No Way Home” – most of which you need to see for yourself, true believers! – but watching Dafoe revel in having another chance as Spidey’s insane archenemy from the comics is a heavenly treat, while a second time’s undoubtedly the charm for Foxx’s Electro. The film’s heart and soul, though – as was the case for the past two movies – is Holland, who lends his dazzling enthusiasm to Spidey yet shows new grit and gravitas.

"No Way Home" turns out to be a bit of a Christmas movie as well, with an intriguing “It’s a Wonderful Life”-esque vibe giving new perspective to its central character. It's a quintessential Spider-Man film that pays homage to the past, checks off all the necessary Marvel boxes and still manages to spin together something refreshing.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home  Is Aggressively Mediocre

The one good idea that the Tom Holland–starring Spider-Man films had was a simple, obvious one: They really did make Peter Parker a kid. Tobey Maguire had been 27 at the time of his first turn as the high-school-age superhero, while Andrew Garfield had been 29. It’s not so much that those actors were too old for the material; it’s that the material could never fully utilize the character’s youth and inexperience because we as humans have a visceral resistance to watching people who clearly aren’t kids making childish decisions. Holland, by contrast, was 21 when Spider-Man: Homecoming premiered in 2017, and he looked even younger. As a result, the filmmakers for this latest Spidey cycle, including director Jon Watts and screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, have been able to sell us on some of Peter’s dodgier choices. They’ve also managed to mine the age gap between him and other characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for humor as well as one meme-worthy moment of genuine pathos. (“Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good.”)

But in most other respects, Watts’s Spider-Man films have been black holes of imagination. (The first entry featured a huge set piece at the Washington Monument — an inspired idea on paper — and did absolutely nothing interesting with it. The setting might as well have been an office building in suburban Atlanta. It probably was at some point.) This is a particular shame when it comes to Spider-Man, since previous attempts at the character, even at their worst, have often been visually spectacular. It does take a unique brand of corporate cynicism to drain any and all grandeur from the sight of Spidey swinging through the canyons of Manhattan; trapping the most cinematic of all superheroes in nondescript swirls of CGI sludge feels like its own act of villainy.

In other respects, too, these movies’ Spider shtick is starting to get old. They continue to treat Peter Parker as a child, and the ultrabuff, grown-up Holland now looks increasingly out of place. The new film begins with Peter Parker unmasked and publicly castigated and shamed for killing the previous entry’s villain, Mysterio. Among the real-life consequences of Parker’s cancellation is MIT’s rejection of his and his friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned’s (Jacob Batalon) college applications. Determined to fix this problem, Parker goes to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and asks him — I am not making this up — to cast a spell making the rest of the world forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man so that his friends can get into the college of their choice. And Doctor Strange — again, I am not making this up — agrees to do so. Holland is a fine actor, but I’m not sure any actor could survive the sheer idiocy of this character’s decisions here. Peter might be a teenager, but I don’t recall him ever being this stupid, either in the comics or the movies. Anyway, hocus-pocus, things go wrong, portal into other dimensions, flashing lights, blah, blah, blah. The magic goes awry, and Potter Peter finds himself face-to-face with a whole new set of problems. It’s all so pro forma that even Cumberbatch’s Strange, called on to convey rage at how his young colleague’s dumb request has prompted him to tear a hole in the fabric of the universe, merely musters some mild annoyance.

The initial big revelations of the new film have already been shown in trailers, so I’ll discuss those first. When Strange’s magic opens a gateway to different realities, once-dead villains from previous Spidey movies suddenly return, including Spider-Man ’s Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Spider-Man 2 ’s Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ’s Electro (Jamie Foxx). Again, a potentially promising idea. And judging from the cheers these veteran bad guys’ mere emergence got at my screening, perhaps it was of secondary importance that they be given, you know, something interesting to do . But aside from Dafoe, who once again gets to have some modest fun with his character’s divided self, there’s not much going on here. Why bring back an actor like Molina, who brought so much heartbreak and sneering rage to Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 , only to give him no sense of inner life or any good lines? The same goes for Foxx’s Electro, whose transformation from oddball engineer to blustery supervillain in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was one of that (admittedly dreadful) film’s few highlights. Here, he’s just a tired wisecrack machine. That the action scenes involving these characters are so insipid just adds insult to injury: Watching Doctor Octopus dutifully toss weightless, computer-generated concrete pipes at our hero, it’s hard not to think back on Sam Raimi’s eye-poppingly imaginative action sequences in Spider-Man 2 featuring these same two characters and maybe even shed a tear for what has been lost.

It’s not just the action and the magic that flop. Even the film’s more intimate moments fall flat. One early domestic comedy scene involving Peter, MJ, Aunt May (Marisa Tomei, mostly wasted here), and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) has the camera whip-panning and roaming the spaces of their apartment in a pastiche of handheld indie filmmaking, but none of the humor feels organic or earned or even all that funny. It doesn’t build or make any emotional sense. Like almost everything else in the movie, it’s just another put-on. Making Peter more of a child does allow you to play up his sincerity and naïveté, which should ideally be a breath of fresh air in a universe filled with cynical, world-weary superheroes. But for all their alleged earnestness, these last three Spider-Man films have never had any kind of identity to call their own.

And now for the heavy spoilers, which I’m not supposed to talk about … but forgive me, it’s impossible to discuss this picture’s highs and lows without doing so. So, fair warning. Seriously.

Here, I’ll even give you an extra paragraph break to click away before finding out what happens next in the movie. (Even if it’s destined to become common knowledge within a few days.)

As the infinitely superior Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse already taught us, opening up doors to the metaverse means that you might also discover other iterations of Spider-Man. So sure enough, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire return to the franchise that once helped make them stars, and the three Peters Parker now work together to try and handle this cavalcade of villains. And a film that was already engorged with fan service positively erupts with it.

That’s not such a bad thing, at least at first. It’s certainly nice to see Maguire again, and Garfield is a genuine delight. The latter’s previous turn as Spidey was a wildly uneven one. His slightly hapless, rom-com variation on Peter Parker made the first outing quite fun, but by the second entry, he had become twitchy, whiny, annoying. Here, almost as if he’s been given a second chance (a running theme in the film), he gets the goofiness just right. A scene where the denizens of this world ask Garfield’s Parker to prove he has Spider powers offers a charming bit of slapstick, and his uncertainty and insecurity pop up at opportune moments during the big climax. But this also reveals a bigger problem. Because as we watch Garfield act literal circles around everybody else, we are reminded of how lifeless and wanting the rest of the picture is. It’s like getting a new pair of glasses and realizing that your world has been a blur for the past few months. Except that whenever Garfield is off the screen, you’re forced to put your old glasses back on, which just makes everything look that much worse.

The Tom Holland Spider-Man films have been so eager to please that one does feel like a bit of a crank criticizing them. Nobody should enjoy kicking puppies. At the same time, along with the oft-rebooted Batman , Spider-Man is the one superhero franchise for which we do have proofs of concept for different approaches. And while the previous Holland films have been mediocre in modest ways, No Way Home feels downright aggressive in its mediocrity, bringing back better actors from better movies and calling back to an endlessly inventive and moving masterpiece like Spider-Verse . Is it an attempt to try and gain residual luster from associating with better work? Or is it something more cynical, an attempt to bring that better work under the big tent of its blandness? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that No Way Home was trying to make us forget that a better Spider-Man movie is possible.

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Spider-man: no way home.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 68 Reviews
• Kids Say 315 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Fun, funny, touching Spidey sequel has comic book violence.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Spider-Man: No Way Home is the third Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland and the 27th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It's fun, funny, exciting, suspenseful, surprising, and very moving and is sure to please Spidey fans. Violence includes a lot of comic book…

Why Age 11+?

Lots of comic book-style fighting and peril, with characters getting slammed and

A character says, "what the ffff." A few uses of "s--t," several uses of "ass" a

Brief sex-related dialogue when Aunt May finds a shirtless Peter alone with MJ a

Lego toys -- including Lego Star Wars toys -- shown more than once. UPS truck br

In a scene during the end credits, a Marvel character is seen at a bar, declarin

Any Positive Content?

Core message comes from Aunt May, who believes that everyone deserves a second c

Spider-Man/Peter remains heroic and brave but impulsive, sometimes rushing into

Main characters (and most characters) are White males, but cast has a wide range

Violence & Scariness

Lots of comic book-style fighting and peril, with characters getting slammed and bashed around, falling from high places, etc. Punching, choking, kicking. Explosions. An important character dies. Heroes briefly attempt to kill villains. Destruction of property. Bloody cuts and scrapes. Brief guns and shooting. Brief jump scare.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

A character says, "what the ffff." A few uses of "s--t," several uses of "ass" and "hell," uses of "damn," "butt." Exclamations "oh my God," "God," "goddamn," "good God" and "oh God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Brief sex-related dialogue when Aunt May finds a shirtless Peter alone with MJ and assumes, wrongly, that they were preparing for sex. Kissing. A character is said to be "nekkid" after reverting from energy to human form, but he's only shown from the chest up.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Lego toys -- including Lego Star Wars toys -- shown more than once. UPS truck briefly shown. M&Ms candies shown. Part of the vast MCU franchise, which has tons of off-screen product tie-ins and merchandise available.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

In a scene during the end credits, a Marvel character is seen at a bar, declaring that they are "drunk."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Core message comes from Aunt May, who believes that everyone deserves a second chance, that people who have means should help others who don't. Also argues that good deeds last forever because they inspire others. Theme about how revenge doesn't solve anything, only creating more bad feelings and regret. MJ's theory is "expect disappointment, and that way you won't be disappointed," but she learns to hope for the best. "With great power comes great responsibility" is here too, in a big way.

Positive Role Models

Spider-Man/Peter remains heroic and brave but impulsive, sometimes rushing into things without thinking them through and making mistakes along the way. Ned is a supportive, loyal best friend. Most female characters (Aunt May, MJ, Maria, Betty) remain in important but still supporting roles.

Diverse Representations

Main characters (and most characters) are White males, but cast has a wide range of diversity in supporting roles, with characters representing a wide range of cultures, backgrounds, and body types. Girls and women are important to the story and have agency but are not in lead roles.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Spider-Man: No Way Home is the third Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland and the 27th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It's fun, funny, exciting, suspenseful, surprising, and very moving and is sure to please Spidey fans. Violence includes a lot of comic book-style fighting and peril, with characters getting slammed and bashed around, falling from high places, etc. There's punching, choking, kicking, explosions, bloody cuts and scrapes, and brief guns and shooting. Characters die (one death is particularly sad), and lives are threatened. There's also brief sex-related dialogue, kissing, and nongraphic partial nudity. Language includes uses of "s--t" and "ass," and a character says "what the ffff." Characters learn from their mistakes and demonstrate perseverance, and messages revolve around the importance of second chances, helping those in need, the lasting impact of doing good deeds, and, of course, the connection between power and responsibility. Note: An extended cut of the film released as Spider-Man: No Way Home - The More Fun Stuff Version has content beyond what's covered by this review. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (68)
• Kids say (315)

Based on 68 parent reviews

What's the Story?

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME picks up moments after the ending of Far from Home , in which J. Jonah Jameson ( J.K. Simmons ) revealed Spider-Man's secret identity to the world. This bombshell upends the lives of Peter Parker ( Tom Holland ), MJ ( Zendaya ), and Ned ( Jacob Batalon ), even resulting in their applications to MIT getting rejected. Peter decides to go see Doctor Strange ( Benedict Cumberbatch ) and ask for a spell. There is one, but it will cause everyone to forget who Peter is; it would be as if he'd never existed. While they attempt to modify the spell to exclude Peter's loved ones, things spin out of control. Before long, supervillains from alternate universes descend upon Spider-Man's world, and his hands are full. He's going to need some help.

Is It Any Good?

This Spider-Man sequel has all the necessary ingredients for a top-notch superhero movie, including hilarity and heart, action and anxiousness, and some happy surprises. There's so much in Spider-Man: No Way Home to try not to spoil, but, given that the three Tom Holland Spidey movies all play on the word "home," even the title holds some clues. At its core, the movie is about families (including the "found families" we make along the way), doing the right thing, and helping out. Peter makes a most unusual decision in the story, steering away from what might be the "normal" choice in a comic book story and choosing something more unconventional, perhaps even uncinematic, because it's the right thing to do.

Yet the filmmakers don't let things get preachy or self-righteous. There's plenty of time for some of the funniest bits of dialogue in any of the Marvel movies so far, as well as moments of undeniable warmth between characters who've become so soothingly familiar. Unsurprisingly, Spider-Man: No Way Home is also technically superb, with exhilarating effects sequences, expert cinematography, and a breathless music score. (It's still a little untidy here and there and can't quite reach the dazzling perfection of the thematically similar Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse , but what can?) Overall, this 27th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe feels in some way like part of a great Spider-Man TV show, built on characters we really care about, whose trials and tribulations are truly affecting.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Spider-Man: No Way Home 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Who are the role models in Spider-Man: No Way Home ? In addition to courage , what other character strengths do they display? What does Peter learn about himself and his role as a superhero?

Is it true that good deeds can live on and inspire others? Can you think of any examples?

How do you feel about the idea of the multiverse? If you could meet someone from an alternate universe, who would it be? What would you expect?

What would you want to see in another Spider-Man sequel? For those familiar with the previous Spider-Man installments: Which Spider-Man series is your favorite? How about which Spider-Man actor, and why?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 17, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : April 12, 2022
• Cast : Tom Holland , Zendaya , Benedict Cumberbatch
• Director : Jon Watts
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors, Multiracial actors
• Studios : Columbia Pictures , Sony Pictures Releasing
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Superheroes
• Character Strengths : Courage
• Run time : 148 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sequences of action/violence, some language and brief suggestive
• Awards : Common Sense Selection , Kids' Choice Award
• Last updated : July 11, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Far from Home

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Doctor Strange

Avengers: Endgame

Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Movies and TV Shows in Order

Best superhero movies for kids, related topics.

• Superheroes

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

‘No Way Home’ is a joyous valentine to Spider-Man movies and their fans

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The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials .

The plot of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is set in motion by a threatened bout of collective amnesia, which is fitting because I could barely remember anything that happened in the last of these movies. That’s odd, because I definitely saw it. ( I’m pretty sure I reviewed it. ) Fortunately, like most installments of endless cinematic franchises, this latest Spidey adventure seldom stops explaining itself or referencing its predecessors (more on that in a bit). Within moments you are helpfully reminded of how 2019’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” ended, with that belligerent hack journalist J. Jonah Jameson (Spidey mainstay J.K. Simmons) exposing the famous webslinger’s true identity to the entire world. And most thoughtlessly of all, he didn’t even think to preface it with a spoiler warning.

The people at Sony Pictures, by contrast, have taken their usual care to warn journalists not to spill the secrets of “No Way Home,” expecting us to behave with more scrupulousness and care than some of their own marketing materials. I’ll proceed as cautiously as I can, with the caveat that your spoiler sense may tingle differently from my spoiler sense.

If you’re that concerned about plot details, I implore you: Put down this review and read something else. Read the sports section. Read a Thackeray novel. (Do not read Twitter.) And yeah, sure, see the movie first if you must. If “West Side Story” hasn’t already sated your appetite for impetuous teenagers leaping acrobatically around New York, this one might do the trick.

‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ tried to hide its lineup of villains. One leak upended a Marvel-ous strategy

The cast and creatives of Sony’s ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ discuss spoilers, returning villains and the Marvel multiverse at the film’s premiere.

Dec. 14, 2021

Or you could just plunge ahead and read on, especially if, like me, you harbor some skepticism about the way studios use the promise of jaw-dropping, game-changing twists to preempt criticism and sell material that’s actually fairly predictable at its core. Really, given the months of speculative hype that have preceded “No Way Home,” the most surprising thing about it is how … unsurprisingly much of it plays out.

If you’ve had your ear even remotely to the ground, you know what’s up: Due to unprecedented ruptures in the multiverse, characters from the first two Spider-Man series make appearances in this one. To discuss who those characters are and what they do would apparently be a crime on par with leaking the nuclear codes, so let’s just swing around them, Spidey-like, as gracefully as possible.

The narrative pretext for all these series-blending shenanigans is charming enough, in a low-stakes teen-movie kind of way. Due to an accompanying whiff of scandal, being outed as Spider-Man hasn’t exactly done wonders for Peter Parker (the excellent Tom Holland). Nor has it boosted the reputations of his girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya), and his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon), whose associations with Peter have gotten them rejected from MIT. With bricks flying through the window of the Queens apartment he shares with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei, winning as ever), Peter calls on his old friend Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), asking him to cast a spell that will cause the entire world to forget that he’s Spider-Man. Much digitally confected spectacle and human error ensue, and rather than erasing the world’s memory, Doctor Strange winds up accidentally jogging ours.

And so a caper becomes a point of convergence, a nearly 2½-hour reunion special. Amid a jumble of clashing timelines and multiplying meta-paradoxes plotted out by screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (who also wrote “Far From Home”), the familiar faces include a handful of villains from the Tobey Maguire-starring, Sam Raimi-directed trilogy of “Spider-Man” (2002), “Spider-Man 2” (2004) and “Spider-Man 3” (2007), as well as the less fondly remembered Andrew Garfield-starring, Marc Webb-directed duo of “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012) and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (2014).

I doubt anyone will be shocked when Willem Dafoe’s snarling Green Goblin arrives, or when Alfred Molina’s metal-tentacled Doc Ock turns up, daring Spider-Man to beat him to a bloody poulpe. My own surprise was entirely genuine when Jamie Foxx resurfaced as Electro, a super-baddie I had completely forgotten about from the misleadingly titled “Amazing Spider-Man 2.”

As I was saying: amnesia. But “No Way Home,” directed by Jon Watts (who also steered “Far From Home” and 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming”), does strive to pull off something memorable, and largely succeeds. It’s rare to see such surreally elaborate narrative gymnastics arise from what is basically a long-running game of corporate tug-of-war. The Spidey custody battle that has ensnared Sony, Disney and Marvel Studios over the years is too tedious to rehash here, but there is something admittedly disarming about the solution that “No Way Home” hits upon. Without saying too much — OK, without saying anything at all — three parallel Spider-Man universes that once were forced to stand apart now get to belatedly salute each other, in a warm, even reconciliatory spirit.

This exercise — call it the Spidey Variations — may be fan service on a maximalist scale. And it doesn’t have quite the delirious invention of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” the 2018 animated feature that made the most of its multiverse-collapsing conceit. Still, it’s nice to feel a persistent human touch amid the otherwise mechanical sound and fury of “No Way Home,” especially during its wobbly, draggy midsection. Bridges rumble and scaffolding crumbles; the Statue of Liberty really should file for hazard pay. Comic relief arrives on cue (hello, Jon Favreau); tragedy strikes without warning. It’s a Spider-Man movie, in other words, and also a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.

But while the action ultimately turns as murky as in any Avengers epic, the smug, depersonalized air that often mars those glorified cinematic frat parties is notably absent. And for all “No Way Home’s” vertiginous heights and precipitous drops, few things here shake you more fully than the anguished closeups of Holland, in which Peter’s genetically modified strength — and his all-too-human vulnerability — are on tear-soaked, grime-smudged display.

Holland was only 19 when he landed this role (he made his scene-stealing first appearance in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War”). And while his Peter has always seemed younger than predecessors Maguire and Garfield, what united the three of them was a fundamental sweetness, an immutable sense of decency. The movies weren’t always great or even particularly good, but the actors kept you watching. Maguire put the most distinctive stamp on the character, his awkward, wide-eyed charm aided by the freshness and pop energy of Raimi’s direction. Garfield had a rougher time of it, being the standout element of a rudderless middle-child cycle that felt more commercially motivated than any of its brethren, and that’s saying a lot.

Holland’s task hasn’t been much easier. Like his predecessors, he’s an enormously likable screen presence, which has been crucial to making this third go-round with Spider-Man feel like more than just another retread. That’s no small thing, since every Spidey cycle must essentially trace the same arc, hit the same beats and rites of passage: the loneliness and isolation of superheroism, the all-too-relatable challenges of teenagerdom, the bittersweet ache of young love, the pain of sudden, irreversible loss. When someone here intones, “With great power comes great responsibility,” it’s with a wry awareness of how often those words have been spoken before, and how often they’ll likely be spoken again. The poignant (and ultimately spoiler-proof) achievement of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is that, for the moment at least, it leaves you considering that prospect with more affection than fatigue.

Here’s what we can tell you about ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

Arguably the year’s most anticipated movie had its world premiere on Monday, and fans are likely to rejoice at what’s in store.

Dec. 13, 2021

‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

Rating: PG-13, for sequences of action/violence, some language and brief suggestive comments Running time: 2 hours, 28 minutes Playing: Starts Dec. 17 in general release

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Spider-Man: No Way Home Review

15 Dec 2021

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Let's go back for a moment to a scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home . No, not the one where J. Jonah Jameson appears in the very-welcome form of J.K. Simmons . (Though that is obviously relevant.) But the scene where Mysterio talks about there being a multiverse, spinning a story about being a hero from another dimension. It was a tease, of course (Mysterio was bullshitting), but while it gave a sneaky wink to the spectacularly animated Into The Spider-Verse , it also deliberately sowed a seed.

One which sprouted to entertaining effect in the recent Loki TV series, before finally realising its full (Marvel) cinematic (Universe) potential here, in Far From Home ’s much hyped and rumour-laden sequel. Whether you've figured out what's coming, or are taken totally by surprise by some of its, er, surprises, we're happy to report that the result is crowd-pleasing in all the best possible ways.

As you'll know from the trailers, thanks to a spell-gone-sideways, No Way Home brings back almost all the villains from the pre-MCU movies. Which, with the help of Marvel's de-aging magic, solves the problem of how a new film would cast better than Willem Dafoe as Spider-Man ’s Green Goblin (who wisely ditches the Power Rangers mask early on), or the mighty Alfred Molina as Spider-Man 2 ’s Doctor Octopus. But, in keeping with the previous Jon Watts films, the joy of seeing them all returned is less felt in the action sequences — which occasionally become crowded and confusing with all the lightning and sand and pumpkin bombs — than it is in the sparky, snappy dialogue. At one point, it's almost like an above average SNL sketch: Spidey's various foes all gathering together to snipe and compare notes.

However, there is far more to the movie than wittily executed fan service. While it piles the villainy and jeopardy high, it doesn't neglect the series' heart: Tom Holland 's Peter, and his ongoing struggle to do the right thing by his friends and family, even though doing so invariably seems to make things worse. Holland has never been more affecting in the role, or guided Peter through such a battering, as the poor kid ping-pongs between finding solutions and creating problems — much to the annoyance of Doctor Strange ( Benedict Cumberbatch ), who doesn't so much step into Tony Stark's mentor shoes as play the exasperated foil. There are serious consequences, too. This isn't just a light-hearted knockabout. No Way Home has a massive emotional blow to deliver.

Crucially, this is a story about second chances. After Mysterio's parting revelation, Peter, MJ ( Zendaya ), Ned ( Jacob Batalon ) and May's ( Marisa Tomei ) lives are turned into a news-feed nightmare, and sweet Peter's efforts to fix that pop open the aforementioned can of baddie worms. It's here that the theme of second chances gets really interesting. Why should only our hero have a second chance? Why not also, Peter reasons, all these damaged "multiversal trespassers", driven to criminality by manufactured schizophrenia, errant mutagens, or crossed nanowires?

As crazy-meta as the narrative gets, it always keeps its characters up front.

Just below the surface, the idea is nudged a little further. With the dimensional doors opened to the older movies, the films themselves are almost given a second chance, too; an opportunity to do-over, or at least address, some of their plotting missteps.

No Way Home is, if you step back and think about it, a bloody weird and audacious movie. Yet as crazy-meta as the narrative gets, it always keeps its characters up front, with some dynamic and, at times, truly heart-warming interplay between the established players and their interdimensional guests.

Sure, the climactic showdown on the Statue of Liberty feels very familiar ( X-Men , anyone?), but it also serves up at least one punch-the-air moment that will have audiences whooping like they did when Thor rocked up at Wakanda in Infinity War , or Cap caught Mjolnir in Endgame . Indeed, No Way Home is the closest the MCU has come to the heights of those two films since Iron Man Snapped Thanos away. And for all its epic heft, it somehow stays neighbourhood and friendly. Which also helps make it, in a very real sense, the ultimate Spider-Man movie.

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A review of 'spider-man: no way home' with as few spoilers as possible.

Bob Mondello

Marvel's latest superhero film, Spider-Man: No Way Home finds its hero battling foes he thought he'd already vanquished.

Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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‘spider-man: no way home’ review: the best mcu movie in years.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home is one of the best MCU movies ever made.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is everything I hoped for and then some, surpassing my expectations and sticking the proverbial landing from start to finish.

No Way Home caps off the Tom Holland Spider-Man trilogy and really the entire modern Spider-Man cinematic era perfectly. It’s the best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in years, combining lots of web-slinging action, laugh-out-loud humor, truly powerful nostalgia and some deeply emotional moments into a tour de force of superhero cinema.

I say this as someone who has grown a lot more cynical and jaded about superhero movies these days. The genre has begun to feel too formulaic, too predictable and too ubiquitous, with too many shows and movies to even keep up with.

Many comic book movies feel too long and poorly paced. Even the good ones often fall apart in the third act and would be better-served with 20 or 30 minutes shaved off. There’s a sort of decadence in these films lately—too many action-packed scenes and battles and you start to feel a bit numb.

No Way Home avoids all these pitfalls. There wasn’t a moment I felt bored or antsy. Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch and the rest of the cast—some of whom I won’t mention to avoid spoilers—are all absolutely terrific. Dr. Strange is a very different father figure to Peter than Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) was, though they’re both larger-than-life mentors with a penchant for making rash decisions, valuing their own judgment over anyone else’s. Both brilliant, but deeply impatient, men.

Spider-Man and MJ

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No Way Home picks up right after the very end of Spider-Man: Far From Home when Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) reveals Spider-Man’s identity to the world in a last-ditch attempt to frame him for Mysterio’s own crimes. It’s a vicious final act from an otherwise kind of lame villain. But it feeds right into the Daily Bugle’s J. Jonah Jameson Jr.’s (J.K. Simmons) narrative about Spidey.

So we open to a world that suddenly knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man and a large population of people who believe that he’s a criminal and a killer. It’s a bad spot to be in, and one that Peter feels especially bad about since it has a direct impact on the people he cares for, like MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon).

This brings Parker to Dr. Strange’s Bleeker St. mansion, the Sanctum Sanctorum, where he asks for some magical help. Without revealing too much of the plot, things go awry and Strange’s spell has the opposite effect of what Peter is after, opening portals to other universes and drawing in characters who know Parker to his universe. This is our first glimpse into the MCU’s multiverse, which we’ll learn much more of in Dr. Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness next year.

Some of the characters who enter Peter’s universe are sworn enemies of other Peter Parkers. Dr. Octopus, Green Goblin and a handful of others. Each one spells trouble for Parker and his pals.

What follows is a funny, exciting, nostalgia-fueled trip through Spider-Man cinema that will delight and surprise fans, though if you cry at movies get ready to cry at this one, too.

Spider-Man and Dr. Strange

One thing I really loved about the film, beyond its humor and nostalgia, was that at its core it’s a film with a pacifistic message that values redemption over revenge, reconciliation over rivalry. Not that there aren’t plenty of fight scenes, but the point of this movie isn’t about destroying your enemies but rather finding ways to help them instead. It’s quite powerful and quite unique for a genre that’s all about toppling larger-than-life foes.

It’s shaping up to be a monster hit , too, with the third-largest opening weekend box office of all time domestically and fourth internationally, and incredibly high Rotten Tomatoes scores from critics (94%) and audiences (99%) alike.

I really only have one negative thing to say about the movie, and it’s something that any Marvel movie or show with any degree of seriousness suffers from: When something tragic or terrible happens, we move back to cracking jokes too fast. The emotional trauma is dealt with so quickly it almost doesn’t feel real.

Then again, I’m not sure how to change that in a picture like this. The timeline of events is incredibly short, and after the film’s big tragedy occurs, there’s not a lot of time left to dwell on it. At least No Way Home’s ending doesn’t wrap things up with a nice and tidy bow. It’s a bittersweet ending, with victory coming at a cost that’s almost too much to bear.

Go see Spider-Man: No Way Home on the big-screen. It deserves all the screen real estate you can find. Just prepare yourselves for the busiest movie theaters you’ve seen since the pandemic started. Oh, and stick around for the post-credits scenes . You won’t regret it.

Score: 10/10

Watch my video review below :

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Spider-Man: No Way Home (United States, 2021)

Note: This review contains no overt spoilers beyond what can be found in the trailers and other officially sanctioned publicity material. However, if you read between the lines, you may sniff out a few things. Proceed with caution.

Spider-Man: No Way Home completes the Tom Holland Spider-Man/MCU trilogy begun in Spider-Man: Homecoming and continued in Spider-Man: Far from Home . Once again directed by Jon Watts and featuring another high-profile Marvel character (following in the footsteps of Iron Man and Nick Fury), No Way Home brings the three-part arc to a resounding conclusion that may be a little more “sound and fury” than substance. Nevertheless, as superhero movies go, this one offers its share of satisfying moments and is guaranteed to warm the heart of any Spider-Man movie fan, regardless of when their fandom started.

With a movie like this, there’s usually the question of whether the final product can match the expectations generated by a brilliant marketing campaign and the seemingly boundless enthusiasm among potential viewers. For the most part, Watts succeeds in scaling the peak, although it’s fair to wonder how much better No Way Home might have been had its various piece-parts been kept under wraps. But with possible spoilers revealed as part and parcel of the publicity onslaught, the movie is forced to rely a little more on the narrative than might otherwise have been the case and, as is often true with superhero movies, that proves not to be the film’s strongest point.

Watt’s handling of the roughly half-dozen high-profile action scenes is a mixed bag. His touch is perfect during some of the one-on-one struggles, especially the one that introduces Doc Ock to the MCU. However, the more pieces that are put on the gameboard, the more scattershot things become and the Battle Royale is as confusing as it is exhilarating. It’s almost impossible trying to figure out who’s who and what’s going on. It’s necessary to wait for a pause in the action to take stock of what just happened.

The interesting wrinkle in No Way Home is the necessity for some of Spider-Man’s oldest and deadliest adversaries to work alongside the web-slinger when their goals coincide. But the tenuous alliance has foundational cracks from the beginning and there’s something Shakespearean in the way that Peter’s ego becomes his tragic flaw. Watts gives us just enough to recognize that sometimes superheroes are their own biggest enemies. I’ll admit to being frustrated by the character’s stubbornness at times.

Of all the recent films to arrive with a similarly stratospheric level of expectations (particularly The Force Awakens and Avengers: Endgame ), No Way Home is the most successful. It suffers from many of the common pitfalls of comic book movies but one thing that Watts understands are the characters . He has shepherded them through three films (to-date) and, despite the long shadows cast by past Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, he has enabled Tom Holland to come into his own. The chemistry between Holland and Zendaya easily matches that of Maguire/Dunst and Garfield/Stone. The supercharged CGI effects are fine and the battles are eye-popping, but the character interactions make No Way Home work.

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'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Review - Tom Holland Shines In a Too-Crowded MCU Multiverse

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Trying to write a spoiler-free review of Spider-Man: No Way Home is like trying to craft a restaurant review while being barred from mentioning any ingredient other than salt. The flavor of Tom Holland 's third standalone outing as the MCU's Peter Parker lives and dies on its surprises; it's less a "movie" than it is a series of capital-letter Moments, designed from the ground up to be relived for years to come in those hidden-cell phone Youtube clips of audiences losing their minds in the aisles of an AMC. Rest assured, the Moments promised by the trailers are in there, as well as a few more Moments you're maybe already expecting, plus a dozen or so legitimately surprising Moments nobody could have guessed. It's all thrilling in the same way the sudden drop on a roller-coaster makes your stomach flutter, brief and weightless, because after 13 years and 26 feature films Marvel Studios is kind of unbeatable at manufacturing that specific brand of shared movie theater euphoria. The MCU remains undefeated at making Moments. But is it good at making movies? No Way Home swings that question into even dicier territory, especially when it's got a cast this talented and the core of a classic Spider-Man story this emotional being pulled in every direction possible by the multiverse.

RELATED: Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon on ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ and How the Fight Scene With Green Goblin Got Bloody

Right, the Multiverse. Possibly even one of madness. It isn't fair to say the set-up in this film doesn't matter , but it does feel like the movie itself is bored with motions it has to sweat through to get to the part where Alfred Molina 's Doctor Octopus clanks his way back into the Marvel Universe. The part where Peter is accused of Quentin Beck's ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) murder ? Basically hand-waved away quicker than anyone could've predicted. Peter asking Doctor Strange ( Benedict Cumberbatch ) to perform a spell on the entire human race to make them forget Spider-Man's real identity? Sure, he'll do it, Strange and Spider-Man have had at least 1-2 meaningful on-screen interactions. What matters is that the spell is botched and reality is torn open just enough to allow in characters you recognize from previous Spider-Man films, namely Molina's Doc Ock, Willem Dafoe 's Green Goblin, Jamie Foxx 's Electro, Rhys Ifan 's Lizard, and Thomas Haden Church 's Sandman.

Look, I'm not going to say it isn't a dang blast just to see these actors return to these roles in the year of our lord 2021. I'm a human being with a soul and nostalgic memories of Chad Kroeger 's "Hero" dancing around my head like the rest of you. Sometimes Alfred Molina chucking several cars at Tom Holland is, in fact, all you need. If the one thing you're looking for from Spider-Man: No Way Home is a trip down memory lane, it will quite literally be impossible to harsh your buzz. Dafoe, especially, makes the most of his reprisal. It certainly helps that Willem Dafoe, face frighteningly rubbery as ever, is one of our greatest living performers; director Jon Watts really lets the actor play around in the murky Jekyll & Hyde layers between "Green Goblin" and the "Norman Osborn" still trapped inside that pointy emerald head in ways even the Sam Raimi films wouldn't allow, and the result is a tasty bit of comic book camp.

But the threads weaving together all those bombastic set-pieces and surprise cameos—exciting as they are, loud as the in-theater pop will be—are so thin, you start to notice the table-setting to a distracting degree. Almost none of the returning villains feel like live-in characters anymore; they're just avatars who stand still until it's time to do their next Big, Loud Thing, existing only to be recognizable. This is especially true in the cases of Lizard, 99% a personality-free CGI presence indistinguishable from every other CGI comic book monster, and Electro, who Jamie Foxx has decided to strip of every defining character trait other than the fact he is played by Jamie Foxx. Eventually, even the nostalgia drips away, and you realize the multiverse is mostly just too crowded for anything to actually breathe.

Which is the real shame, because every aspect of No Way Home that hones in specifically on the story of Peter Parker is fantastic, led by a never-been-better Tom Holland. There's a truth at the center of this movie that's true of every great Spider-Man story, that the character is primarily defined by his response to unthinkable loss, to monumental tragedy. "With great power comes great responsibility" only hits home if Peter gets a glimpse at the darker side of the equation, at how easily his power could be corrupted. Holland gets to sell rage in a way we've never seen from him, which almost singlehandedly justifies the MCU's decision to portray its Spider-Man as more childishly naive than bookishly smart. Here, when we see the character both break down and grow up, it is genuinely jarring. Even as the film adds more characters, Peter, Ned ( Jacob Batalon , extremely charming), and MJ ( Zendaya , amazing) remain its beating heart, and all the extra bells and whistles mostly drown that out.

Again, all of the details left out of this review could fill their own Multiverse. Surprises, call-backs, small character beats that pack an emotional wallop, one significant ehhhhhhhh story decision that brings to mind comic book storytelling's worst tendencies. It's all there, good, bad, and in-between. But No Way Home itself is pretty clear on this point: Getting exactly what you wished can be a sloppy deal indeed.

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Spider-man: no way home concept trailer reveals what tom holland's mcu movie could've been without the multiverse.

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A Deadpool & Spider-Man MCU Crossover Can Continue No Way Home's Post-Credits Scene In The Best Way Possible

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• Spider-Man: No Way Home fan trailer shifts focus from the multiverse to Peter Parker's conflict with the media and the authorities.
• Peter Parker's "public enemy" arc could have been more developed in Spider-Man: No Way Home if the film didn't have a multiversal premise.
• A more grounded story is still possible for Tom Holland's Spider-Man, if not in Spider-Man 4 , then in Spider-Man 5 .

Marvel fan crafts a thrilling Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer that removes every multiversal element from the MCU Phase 4 movie. After Spider-Man's MCU debut in Captain America: Civil War and his two first solo adventures in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home , Spider-Man's MCU journey reached a climactic point in Spider-Man: No Way Home , where Peter teamed up with two of his multiversal variants and fought their respective villains before Doctor Strange erased him from everyone's memories in Spider-Man: No Way Home 's bittersweet ending . Spider-Man: No Way Home 's tonal departure from the previous two entries is evident.

On YouTube , editor Alesk Studios shares a fan-made trailer for a grounded version of Spider-Man : No Way Home . Doctor Strange, the multiversal Spider-Men, and their multiversal villains are all absent from the video, and the world's negative reaction to Spider-Man's identity reveal takes center stage. The fan-made trailer emphasizes J. Jonah Jameson's antagonistic role and pits Spider-Man against the authorities and the media. Watch the full video below:

Why No Way Home's Multiverse Story Prevented Exploring Peter's Story As Much

Spider-man's public conflit took a backseat to the mcu multiverse.

Spider-Man: No Way Home successfully balances its grounded story with its multiversal nature. However, Peter Parker's conflict with society isn't as thoroughly developed in Spider-Man: No Way Home as it could have been with a more realistic premise . Had Peter's legal issues received the amount of runtime that went into the multiverse, his inner struggles and character arc could have been more complex, and his "public enemy" storyline would have become a more important part of his overarching MCU journey. As it stands with Spider-Man: No Way Home , Peter barely experienced the public backlash from Mysterio's footage directly.

Spider-Man's secret identity reveal is the inciting incident that motivates Peter Parker to tinker with the multiverse, and the side effects of this mistake are what leads to Aunt May's death, Peter's need to distance himself from his loved ones, and his newfound financial struggles. Besides his decision to hire Matt Murdock as his lawyer and reach out to Doctor Strange for help, Peter never really had to face his original problem. If he had, he would likely have had to go through harder obstacles to clear his name, and he would likely have ended up in a more difficult position at the end.

Deadpool and Spider-Man's MCU crossover can come sooner than expected, with Venom's symbiote offspring adapting a classic Marvel Comics storyline.

As the Spider-Man: No Way Home fan-trailer shows, J. Jonah Jameson could have been a more dangerous enemy due to his insistence on labeling Spider-Man as a villain, and Peter's loved ones could have doubted their support for Peter. Instead of extravagant supervillains from alternate timelines, Spider-Man could have fought the police and maybe some mercenaries sent to kill him or vilify him. This kind of grounded conflict might still be possible in a Spider-Man movie in the future — probably not in the possibly multiversal Spider-Man 4 , but perhaps in a more realistic Spider-Man 5 .

Source: Alesk Studios / YouTube

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Stream It or Skip It: ‘Agent Recon,’ a Chuck Norris Sci-Fi Movie on Hulu

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Writer-director-star Derek Ting makes a play for streaming audiences with Agent Recon , a sci-fi action movie made with the participation of aging action icon Chuck Norris. (“Co-starring” in this case would be a misleading distinction.) There are some low-budget genre gems hiding on various streaming services, and this one seems to be breaking out. Is it worth your time?

AGENT RECON : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Let’s have lead character Jim Yung (Derek Ting) take this one: “I never really understood why I was given these powers. My foster parents disowned me when I was 18. I had headaches when I was growing up, so I was never really good at anything. I wanted to join the CIA and got rejected. But then I was exposed to this red dust called the Ash. The Ash took over my friends, controlled them, but somehow it gave me strength, reflexes, and more. Then I met Alastair, the founder and leader of the Earth Security Unit. He taught me how to wield those powers, and tap into an energy called manna. He was killed by Kinians, an ancient alien race. Now we’re on the run. Where to? I’m really not sure. But I know Alastair has a plan.” That’s the immediately convoluted setup to Agent Recon , recited in a confusing jumble over establishing shots that don’t establish anything, to the point where it’s not even clear that the movie is some kind of a sequel to previous installments Agent Intelligence and Agent Revelation . This particular movie is actually about Jim, his fellow Earth Security Unit member Tanya (Sylvia Kwan), and gruff Colonel Green (Marc Singer) on a investigatory/rescue mission, helped along by the preserved, computerized consciousness of the aforementioned Alastair (Chuck Norris, just the actor you think of when casting a human computer).

What Will It Remind You Of? Maybe the humans-meet-alien-tech movie Skyline and its weirder straight-to-video sequels, which have garnered a cult following.

Performance Worth Watching: “Worth watching” is a stretch, but the least embarrassed should be Kwan, who keeps her head down and mostly says her lines correctly. This is not a bar that her co-stars meet so easily.

Memorable Dialogue: That exposition-dump opening is memorable for its rhythmless rambling, but during the movie proper, we learn that the aliens (who conveniently look like humans wearing goggles and masks) are most vulnerable in the liver – which means there are repeated mid-shoot-out cries of “get ‘em in the liver!”

Sex and Skin: This movie will make you long for the sweet escape of any nudity at all, even from Chuck Norris. But no dice.

Our Take: It’s most likely that genre fans will tune into Agent Recon because it’s a new sci-fi-action movie advertising a role from Chuck Norris, so those folks should know upfront that Norris’s appearance in this movie barely qualifies as proof of life, much less a performance. Playing a sort of A.I. repository of a dead human character, Norris obviously completed most of his scenes via green-screen: For much of the movie, his occasional and largely motionless close-ups have a weird outlined effect, and he only ever shares the frame with other actors when shot from the back; body doubles and/or dummies were clearly employed. Later, he clocks in for an alleged action sequence where he trudges through some nondescript ruins – most of the movie’s sets look less designed than abandoned – while pretending to fire some automatic weapons. 

At least you can’t accuse writer-director-star Derek Ting of trying to make himself look cool; his own fight sequences are just as lumbering and lifeless, augmented with crummy digital effects to show off his character’s ill-defined alien-related powers. (The aliens themselves, as mentioned, just look like anonymous foot-soldiers. Or are they anonymous foot soldiers controlled by unseen aliens? I failed to receive clarity on this matter.) The bad action sequences give the actors – Norris included! – a break from frequently mis-emphasizing the words in stock phrases, suggesting that second takes were not an option for some scenes. Stock footage, alongside seemingly every second of anything Norris shot for the movie, is used to inch the sans-credits running time past 80 minutes. (Just for good measure, the opening and closing credits repeat much of the same information.)

Look, low-budget filmmaking is not a crime. But it also doesn’t cost millions of dollars for a filmmaker to learn spatial continuity, write dialogue that moves beyond nonstop exposition-dumping, or develop any kind of editing rhythm that draws basic connections between successive images. Every element of Agent Recon , from the nonsensical title on down, feels like something that was included because it seems like something a movie might have. For reference, see literally any other movie on Hulu instead.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Agent Recon is one of those movies you don’t want to call one of the worst of the year, because it doesn’t seem fair to call it a movie at all, as it doesn’t give the impression of being made by professionals. Unless you’re scouting for a new season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 .

Jesse Hassenger ( @rockmarooned ) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com , too.

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