*THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME!!!*
I recall saying that Zac Synder’s Justice League was “magical”, and now I find myself giving Spider-Man: No Way Home the same kind of review. The movie was the pinnacle of Spider-Man movies, from great storytelling full of dangerous consequences to amazing character arcs, Jon Watts created a masterpiece of cinema. Let’s go over it, shall we?
The Plot
The story picks up immediately after Spider-Man: Far From Home when Mysterio pulled the pettiest move in history and reveal Spider-Man’s identity. This is the start to a series of unfortunate events that throws the lives of Peter, MJ, and Ned into a tailspin, and the timing could not be any worse because it was college admissions. Peter was rejected by all of his college choices because he’s both Spider-Man and a suspected murderer/terroist, but what’s worse is that MJ and Ned were rejected because of their relationships with Peter. Ridden with guilt, Peter decided to seek aid from Doctor Strange, asking him if there is a way to make the world forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, and Strange reluctantly agrees to help. Unfortunately Peter messed with the spell, and Strange was forced to conceal its power, but this failed spell caused a few rifts within the multiverse that caused Spider-Man villains from other universes to appear in the MCU.
Since we can’t have villains from other universes causing mayhem, Doctor Strange enlisted Spider-Man’s help in capturing the five villains; Green Goblin, Doc Octopus, Sandman, The Lizard, and Electro(each one from their respected movies). Spidey captures these villains, but he soon learns from the villains that most of them are supposed to be dead, which leads Strange to believe that they all die during their battles with Spider-Man, and he states that they must be returned back to their worlds to preserve the balance within the multiverse. Peter did not accept Strange’s plan, which forces him to stand up for the villains, pleading to Strange that they should cure the villains of their trauma before sending them home, but Strange just wasn’t having it. This caused the two of them to have an epic fight in the mirror dimension, which lead to Spider-Man winning and trapping Strange in that dimension.
He uses that time to help rehabilitate the villains the best he can, and his best course of action is to cure them of the very thing that made them all unstable in the first place, their powers. With the help of some Stark tech, he was able to fix Doc Ock’s AI problem and cure him of his psychosis caused by the metal arms. Octavias, and a temporarily sane Norman Osborn, help Peter cure the rest of the villains, but this is short-lived when Peter’s spider sense detects that Norman has been plotting to kill him. A huge fight breaks out, and all the villains, except Goblin, escape from Peter. Peter and Green Goblin have a brutal showdown, and Peter fights with an intensity that has never been displayed in any of his other movies. The fight takes a dark turn when Goblin kills Aunt May during his escape. He leaves Peter bloody and broken…..
With Peter alone, Ned and MJ find out through the news what happened. After Peter’s fight with Strange, he took both the contained mind-wipe spell that caused this mess and Strange’s portal ring, and left them with Ned and MJ. MJ is tempted to activate the spell, but Ned talks her out of it saying they need to wait for Peter. As Ned is in distress wondering where Peter is, a flicker from a portal appears. This happens because Ned is holding Strange’s ring, and he surprises himself and MJ with the discovery of his magical powers. He uses the ring to create a portal to find Peter, which works, just not the way they wanted. A portal opens to Spider-Man, but the Spider-Man who walks through is Andrew Garfield. He explains that his name is Peter Parker, and he’s been stuck in this world for a day. MJ tells Ned to try to open another portal to find their Peter, but he unintentionally opens a portal to summon Tobey Maguire Peter Parker, who has been looking for Tom Holland Peter, same goes for Andrew Peter.
Ned and MJ take the two Peters to find their Peter, and when they find him, the Peters share a small heart-to-heart moment to console Tom Peter. The Peters agree to help Peter cure the villains, and this leads to possibly the coolest final battle sequences to be in a superhero movie. The Spider-Men fought together to cure most of the villains, but they couldn’t stop Green Goblin from destroying the concealed spell that was supposed to send everyone home. Luckily Doctor Strange returned, through unintentional help from Ned, and he tries his best to conceal the GIANT rifts in the universe that were the product of the destroyed spell. Tom Peter had a final fight with Green Goblin, which almost ended with Tom Peter killing Goblin if it wasn’t for Tobey Peter stopping him. Tom Peter cured Goblin, and the fight was over. Despite all this, Strange could not stop the universes from colliding, until Tom Peter asked if he could cast the original spell again, but this time to make the world forget about Peter Parker completely. Strange said it could work, but he didn’t want to do it, but Peter reassured him that he was ok with it.
Tom Peter said his good-byes to Tobey Peter and Andrew Peter, and he said good-bye to Ned and MJ with a heavy heart. Peter promised them both that he will help them remember who his is again. Strange casts the spell, everyone is sent back home, no one remembers Spider-Man’s secret identity, but nobody remembers Peter Parker. Peter starts his life over on a blank slate, and when he sees MJ and Ned again, he chooses not to reveal that he’s Spider-Man. The movie ends with him in his own apartment in the city, his police scanner detects crime in the area, and he swings into action as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
My Thoughts
This movie did not feel like a typical MCU movie, and I fucking love that! It seems that Sony had more creative control for this movie since the plot format felt more in-line with the Sam Raimi Trilogy and the Marc Webb movies, and this is honestly the reason why No Way Home is the best movie out of the Jon Watts Trilogy. In most MCU movies, the horrible deeds villains do have no lingering consequences, which really downplays the danger factor within the story, but this movie had bad things happen because of Peter’s decisions, and they all couldn’t be fixed.
The whole plot revolved around Peter trying to fix his mistakes and get back to the way things were, but things just kept getting worse and he started to reach his breaking point, which is why it was a good move to add Tobey and Andrew into the story. They both have years of experience being Spider-Man, and they both know about the hardships it brings, especially Tobey since he learned how to finally reach a balance after his three movies, whereas Andrew was still struggling to accept the death of Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man 2.
One of the themes this plot revolved around was second chances, which was enforced by Andrew Garfield Spider-Man because after the emotional support offered to him by Tobey, and him saving MJ (which was his redemption for not saving Gwen), he seems to finally learn that he can move on and be the hero he was meant to be. Also Doc Ock found his redemption when his AI problem was solved, giving him the chance to help the Spider-Men during the final battle.
Finally, this movie taught us the most important lesson about being Spider-Man:
“With great power comes great responsibility“
The line is finally stated in this movie as Aunt May’s final words, and this doesn’t resonate with Peter until the end of the movie when realizes that he has to make the world forget about him in order to save it. The greatest burden of Spider-Man are the sacrifices he has to make for the greater good, and for him it was losing everything and starting over. He lost his best friend and the love of his life, and he could have easily reminded both of them about who he is to them, but he felt that he shouldn’t. The whole mess started because he was too careless about revealing his identity to others, and he felt that the best way to keep the people he loves safe was to let them go. The perfect ending to a spectacular Spider-Man film.
Spider-Man: No Way Home was a better movie than Avengers: Endgame by 3000%, and I don’t care if you think I’m crazy for saying that, it was just that good. This is a movie that used nostalgia correctly, unlike The Matrix Resurrections that was just a mere cash-grab. The past was able to guide the future, and at the same time the best was honored. I give Spider-Man: No Way Home a 10/10, and I believe that is my first 10/10 review. I can’t wait for this movie to come out on blu-ray because I’m going to rewatch the shit out of it!
Let’s all hope that this movie was a sign of good things to come for the MCU’s Phase 4, with the next movie being Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, directed by Sam Raimi. This Spider-Man movie was a successful attempt for a live-action multiverse movie, so let’s all hope that the new Doctor Strange movie can be a good follow-up.
That’s all I have for now, be sure to go see Spider-Man: No Way Home as soon as possible, and don’t be an asshole by spoiling the movie. This is your friendly neighborhood Deadpool, signing off.
Hall of Mercs 