Review: Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Rating

Director

Jon Watts

Screenplay

Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers

Length

2h 28m

Starring

Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Original Preview

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Review

For many with anxiety, the idea that everything you do and everything you say can be twisted and tossed back at you to make you feel like a failure is a feeling not many films can express effectively. Perhaps without intending to, Spider-Man: No Way Home may well be the perfect embodiment of it.

At the end of the previous installment, Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) announced to the world that Spider-Man’s real identity was Peter Parker (Tom Holland). This film picks up the pieces. Literally. Immediately following those events, Peter must contend with everyone knowing the truth and a vast portion of the public believing that he was the villain and murdered Mysterio. His family, his friends, and his associates are being tarred with the same brush.

Thinking he has the solution, Peter tries to get Doctor Strange to cast some magic that will make the world forget he is Spider-Man. In his constant waffling on who needs to be excluded from the spell, Strange loses control and a rift between dimensions brings in numerous villains from his past, including ones from many of the prior films from all eras. With the help of friends old and new, can Peter overcome super villains who are as smart as or perhaps smarter than they are? Will their dimension be destroyed by an influx of those who know the name “Peter Parker?”

Director Jon Watts returns for his third film in the series, ably displaying why Sony continues to bring him back. Along with editors Leigh Folsom Boyd and Jeffrey Ford, Watts keeps the frenetic action sequences and winding plot controlled and moving with little confusion for the audience. With so many acrobatic stunts bouncing off of walls and swinging through other scene elements, the film could easily have gotten lost in all the chaos but the filmmakers managed to keep things moving and understandable.

Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are back for screenwriting duties as well and their script posits a number of questions that have been a common part of Spider-Man history but with the script’s use of past events unveiling Peter’s deep-seated lack of confidence, masked often by his jocular attitude. This is where the concept of anxiety amplifying self-doubt gets its most salient points. Some audiences relate to Peter’s inability to see the best in himself, his frequent bouts of paranoia, and the necessity of friends and family to support and bolster him so that he can see his own worth. It’s in these moments that the interpersonal details of this vaunted franchise shine.

Holland has a relatable soul, an everyman approach to his performances that help ground the webslinger. Although it’s easier to see Andrew Garfield as the most like the comic book character, Holland is slowly carving out his niche as the most sympathetic of the screen renditions. The rest of the cast deliver fitting performances but only two stand out.

The first is Alfred Molina back in his robotic-arm costume as Doctor Octopus. Molina is a dependable actor and this was one of his best roles. It’s wonderful to see him given a chance to remind viewers why they appreciated his performance in 2004. The other is Dafoe’s return as Green Goblin. His manic take on the mad scientist villain of the first Tobey Maguire film in 2002 is moustache-twirlingly terrific. It’s a performance he’s delivered many times but it’s one that’s always fun when given the perfect context.

Spider-Man: Now Way Home is, at this point, one of the best stand-alone Spider-Man films yet made alongside Spider-Man 2 (2004) and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). By finding a way to tackle mental health in an affirming and generous way, this third picture in the latest series grounds the superhero genre in a way that it seldom does. Peter Parker is the everyman hero caught up in circumstances outside his control and handling it the best that he can, along with a little help from his friends.