‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is a crazy, fun adventure ride

Posted on December 24, 2021

By MARK VIOLA

The first “Spider-Man” feature film released in 2002, starring Toby McGuire in the title role, helped spark the ongoing era of quality superhero comic book adaptations. Its sequel, 2004’s “Spider-Man 2,” is still one of the best superhero films ever made.

However, the third film in that series wasn’t nearly as good, and the franchise was rebooted with a new actor — Andrew Garfield — in the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. This time around, the series only lasted two films, and with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) taking off, Sony and Disney struck a deal and Spider-Man was rebooted for a second time.

Tom Holland was our third Spider-Man and is still suiting up after numerous film appearances, beginning with “Captain America: Civil War” in 2016 and then getting his own film, “Homecoming,” one year later. In 2019, following the cataclysmic events of “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame,” Spider-Man got his second solo MCU film, “Far From Home.”

That film had an after-credits scene in which Spider-Man’s secret identity is revealed to the world, and the new film, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” picks up seconds later.

The resulting media and legal firestorm that follows Peter’s public outing quickly sweeps up his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and his friends Ned (Jacob Batalon) and Happy (Jon Favreau).

With seemingly no way out, Peter turns to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to see if his magic can do something to help. However, Strange’s spell goes awry, breaking down the barriers of the multi-verse — a new concept in the MCU — and villains from the previous cinematic incarnations start bleeding over into Peter’s world, including Green Goblin (Willem Defoe), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) and Electro (Jamie Foxx).

Director Jon Watts, who helmed the first two MCU “Spider-Man” movies, is back, and once again he delivers a film that is full of action and heart in nearly equal measures. As one might surmise from the plot description, this is an incredibly busy movie, with a lot of characters and plot threads to manage. It is exactly that issue — too many villains and an unfocused script — that sank the final installments of the previous two series, 2007’s “Spider-Man 3” and 2014’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”

So, it was a big risk doing what they did in this movie, but unlike those past films, “No Way Home” not only works, it also nails the landing for this trilogy. It does feel busy at times, but the action and the adventure is almost always tied to the emotional core of the story, giving meaning to even the chaos.

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