Spider-Man: No Way Home is a complicated film, on one level. There are multiple fight sequences, as well as a lot of talking sequences, some big passages of time, some thorny conundrums that get handwaved aside, and some others that last until the bitter end.
The last SM movie ended with Peter Parker being outed by Alex Jones fill-in J Jonah Jameson both as Spider-Man and (thanks to villainous shenanigans) as the murderer of Mysterio and the wreaker of havoc across London.
The movie manages to quickly get past that, but it also has impacts through the entire film. Even though the cliche of “wanted by the police” isn’t lingered over, the repercussions of the event continue to last, leaving Peter’s life a never-ending media circus. But, as we’ve had hammered home over the years since the last SM film, public belief doesn’t necessarily align with truth, meaning that even when Peter is exonerated, he remains under attack by JJJ and by a substantial portion of the general population.
Worse, the biggest villain fought against by our her for the first quarter of the movie is the college admission process, and MIT decides that all the excitement means they will take a pass not just on Peter’s application, but on his girlfriend MJ’s and his bestie Ned’s. Which in turn leads Peter to go to Doctor Strange to see if the Sorcerer Supreme can set things aright.
He does not, but in the process the universe is broken, and beings from other worlds start to shift into ours, in particular some arch-enemies of previous Sony Spiderverse films.
It’s all a glorious muddle, yet the narrative through-line is maintained amidst various super-battles, with Peter trying to take care of his friends and family … and learning that great Spider-Man lesson not yet uttered in this go-around.
Ultimately, SMNWH is a story about growing up, of coming of age — not solely because Tom Holland is becoming a more mature actor in appearance, but also (to not be meta) not just in personal courage and heroism (Peter has already demonstrated that). This is a movie about that moment of maturity when one learns to extend the application of one’s virtue beyond just a circle of friends and family. That includes the willingness to lose everything in order to save others, even those who might not deserve it.
Throw in a great soundtrack by Michael Giacchino, some really nicely done SFX (including battles of CG figures that look more and more realistic), a variety of cameos from elsewhere in the Multiverse, and a ton of witty banter and general geekery, and it’s a delightful capstone to the Tom Holland trilogy of Spider-Man films.
(So, of course, they’ve announced a fourth film. We’ll see what they do with it.)
P.S. There are two post-credit scenes, one to placate Sony, one to placate Marvel. Neither are great, but worth waiting for unless you really, really need to pee.
Originally posted on Letterboxd.