*SPOILER ALERT*
With Spider-Man’s identity now revealed, our friendly neighbourhood web-slinger is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life as Peter Parker from the high stakes of being a superhero. When Peter asks for help from Doctor Strange, the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
In my opinion, Spider-Man: No Way Home is one of the greatest Marvel movies ever made.
The marketing of this movie intrigued me because the major selling point to the movie was if Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are in the movie or not and the way Sony and Marvel played around with the leaks was nothing short of a tactical masterclass. I had been following the marketing for this movie for the whole of last year and they still managed to surprise me in the movie.
No Way Home is nothing short of a love letter to all the Spider-Man fans all over the world.
Tom Holland’s Spider-man’s major criticism was that he did not feel like Spiderman because he did not go through the hardship and struggles that the previous renditions of Spider-man faced. This movie corrects all the criticisms that this version of Spider-Man faced and Marvel manages to correct them in the best way possible. It was extremely easy for this movie to be just a cash grab as it could have just fed on nostalgia like the Star Wars sequels did but director Jon Watts does a stellar job in maintaining the heart and soul of the movie. None of the characters including the villains feels like cardboard but instead, all of them feel human which has to be applauded.
The movie starts directly from the ending of the previous movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home and the first hour is relentless in its pacing and does not miss a beat.
I had seen the movie in 4DX and the web-swinging scenes were extremely immersive in the theatre.
Having Charlie Cox reprise his role as Daredevil was also a treat to watch. After Peter Parker approaches Doctor Strange in the movie that’s when things start to boil up. The VFX work is top-notch and especially in the scenes where Doctor Strange and Spider-Man have their confrontation.
Speaking about the villains, Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin was more unsettling than he was in the first Spider-Man movie where he appeared.
Jamie Foxx as Electro and Alfred Molina as Doc Ock both were exceptionally good as well. Rhys Ifans and Thomas Haden Church as Lizard and Sandman respectively were not as fleshed out as the others but they were strong additions regardless. But when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield entered that was when my theatre erupted and quite rightly so. Tobey Maguire as the older and wiser Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield as the more upbeat and traumatized Peter Parker fit in perfectly with the MCU and I can’t wait to see more of them going forward.
Marvel managed to balance fan service, nostalgia, humour, action and the core of what makes Spider-Man, one of the greatest superheroes out there, his selflessness.
They somehow always manage to have their content be fresh and not let it grow stale. James Cameron had said that there would be superhero fatigue due to the mass content of these kinds of movies these days but, I don’t see that happening anytime soon because Marvel keeps surprising us, the audience, in the best way possible.
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RATING:
Story: Good
Treatment: Excellent
Performance: Excellent
Recommendation: Must-See.
Film reviews by the Youngest Film Critic 