Posted in: Kaitlyn Booth, Marvel Studios, Movies, Sony | Tagged: marvel, movies, Review, sony, spider-man: no way home

Spider-Man: No Way Home Review – This Is Exactly What You Think It Is

Spider-Man: No Way Home is exactly the movie you think it is if you've seen a single trailer for this movie for good and for ill. The first and second acts are very messy, but the third act pulls it together to pack one hell of an emotional punch.

Director: Jon Watts
Summary:  With Spider-Man's identity now revealed, Peter asks Doctor Strange for help. When a spell goes wrong, dangerous foes from other worlds start to appear, forcing Peter to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

Unfortunately for this reviewer, it is very difficult to get into the nuts and bolts of what makes Spider-Man: No Way Home really work and what moments it really stumbles without getting into some massive spoilers. So we're going to be somewhat vague here. This review is going to be on the shorter side [for me], and we'll talk about spoilers this weekend. Until then, if you've seen a trailer, then you won't learn anything new from this review. And that is the thing about this movie; it is precisely the movie presented in the trailer. Perhaps this is the problem with Marvel taking time off due to COVID — it has given fans too long to speculate, but this is a Marvel movie where there wasn't a single surprise to be seen. Perhaps if you've somehow gone without seeing a single trailer, then you would be surprised. If not, then there isn't anything here that you won't expect going in.

That comes in handy for the absolute banger third act, but the problem is it takes far too long to get there. This is a movie about the Multiverse which means it's going to get complicated and fast. Spider-Man: No Way Home doesn't linger on those complications much; they either assume you've seen What If…? or you're going to just go along with it, which means that it shouldn't be as messy as it is in the beginning. There is a lot going on in this movie, and there is a lot to set up for that third act scene. This means that things really meander and have a hard time keeping up the momentum. At the beginning of the third act, there is a clear moment that almost feels like the movie should be ending, but then we have an entire final fight to get through.

There are some emotional beats that really, really work here that won't be spoiled, but there are others that stumble hard through no fault of this movie. The main concern for many is that Spider-Man: No Way Home was going to be a live-action version of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and those are impossible shoes to fill. The moments when this movie leans into the things that make it more unique are the ones that work while others just don't. Fortunately for this movie, most of those emotional beats fall into the much better third act, so they work more than they don't.

Everyone is fantastic when it comes to the cast, as you would expect. This movie puts Tom Holland through the wringer, and he really gets to show off his range. Benedict Cumberbatch gets the chance to be a little more cheeky and fun than he has previously been in other Marvel movies, which is nice to see. Everyone else is great, but the real heroes of this movie are, ironically, the villains. 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. It's genuinely like they walked off their respective Spider-Man sets and into this movie. It's great to watch.

Meanwhile, Jamie Foxx is a walking billboard for how badly Sony dropped the ball on the Amazing Spider-Man series. His look is awesome here, the writing is so much better, and he acts like an actual person with depth and not a blue dude with a dubstep soundtrack following him around. The rest of the returning villains are also good, and they are all a ton of fun to watch.

Spider-Man: No Way Home isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the first half of the movie really weighs things down and not in a good way. However, once the film finds its footing, gets all of the cards on the table, and plays the game, it is fabulous and probably some of the best Spider-Man action we've ever seen. Fans are going to love it, even if the slog to the good stuff can feel a bit tedious. It's a shame because there is only 50% of an excellent movie here, but that 50% is worth showing up for.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

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Review by Kaitlyn Booth

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8.5/10

Spider-Man: No Way Home is exactly the movie you think it is if you've seen a single trailer for this movie for good and for ill. The first and second acts are very messy, but the third act pulls it together to pack one hell of an emotional punch.

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