BEWARE OF SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
10/10
A brief introduction, I viewed this film on Dec 16 at the earliest IMAX screening. Spider-Man: No Way Home is going to be in my top 3 films of 2021, having seen the trailers near the end of Oct – mid-Nov, the anticipation for the film was to die for. In honor of keeping articles short, I will place all my thoughts into a couple of paragraphs.
Overview
Now, Spider-Man (2002) has been one of the oldest comic book movies that I’ve seen when it first came out [in 2002] with the first iteration played by Tobey Maguire. Through the years we received two other actors to play this character, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland. The recent one is Tom Holland, and although he has received criticism for the way he has been made to portray this character in his two movies, excluding this one, it definitely had its different directions than the other ones, but Spider-Man: No Way Home really takes the cake!
This film does an incredible job at mixing the tones that the other franchises had to them, and as the trailer below holds no secrets the villains that returned also bring their respective film’s way of moving the story along. It’s a beautifully orchestrated MCU entry that doesn’t feel like an MCU film aside from its cheesy jokes which aren’t necessarily bad. Tom Holland really steps his game up during this film and we can see a sudden change from the boyish charm of the other two films [Homecoming and Far From Home] to this new more mature interpretation, which leaves an incredible want to see how his story continues. Not to mention, the return of Alfred Molina as Doc Oc and Willem Defoe as Green Goblin, who both absolutely killed their role once again putting on one last show before they say an official goodbye to reprising their roles.
Review
Now, as I mentioned this is a film that doesn’t hide its big bad. Having it is clear that it has both Tobey Maguire villains Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) and Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) as well as Andrew Garfield’s Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Lizard (Rhys Ifans). It’s clear that the film will have the cross-over of the year, even updated to beating Avengers Endgame‘s crossover event.
As I mentioned, Tom Holland crushed his role in this film not just being a good Spider-Man and Peter Parker, but going above and beyond at performing his character’s development.
Tom’s rendition of the hero has always had its criticism with the fans as being only a good hero because of Tony Stark’s tech, but in this film, he shows he is more than that. Growing up from his kid-like attitude and wishful thinking, we see his maturity multiply by the end of the film. A major part that adds to this is because of his Aunt May dying, but before doing so receiving the speech of “With great power comes great responsibility.” Not to mention, meeting the two other legendary Spider-Men points of view and help of guidance. The sudden change needed to be molded to make the toughest choices, and with that Tom’s character needed to do the adult and difficult decisions. His performance in this film all throughout really leaves me teared up to the brim of emotions, and honestly leaves an insatiable desire to see more of him as Spider-Man on the big screen.
Now, we can’t forget to talk about the big reveal I mentioned before, yes, all three Spider-Men come together near the end to fight the big bad’s and although they aren’t on the screen for the entire film, their impact is astronomical. Hearing the crowd cheer for this one wasn’t as bad as other times, as I can genuinely agree with the reactions. It was a nice and warm feeling to have these two other Spider-Men be on screen one last time as the character really was a sight for sore eyes and an amazing way to have closure.
Now, we can’t forget about its villains, having five characters back but only three actually performing. Alfred Molina reprised his role as Doc Oc, Willem Dafoe returned as Green Goblin, and Jamie Foxx played Electro once again. These three come back with arms up ready to throw you out of the ring. Their performance took your breath away when they had screen time, and each in their own ways of outdoing their last acting chops from previous films.
Alfred Molina gives his all to give the best as Doc Oc even coming back to his pre-arm self as sort of an anti-hero or at the very least becoming a hero at the end, in a way making amends just like he did in Spider-Man 2. Jamie Fox even came back as a better version of Electro than in his time in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, although a little underwhelming to say the least as his character seemed not like the one he played in the original manner, which isn’t bad just takes out a sense of knowing who this guy was in his world. Going over to Willem Dafoe’s performance as Green Goblin, which I have to say was my favorite part of the film. His ability to switch between Norman Osborn and Green Goblin is uncanny and honestly makes me question if he does have another personality like the Goblin on screen. By far the one part that shocked me the most is when Peter’s sense was alerting him of the oncoming trouble and Green Goblin taking over and “coming out to play” only to change his facial expression in front of Peter.
Now to keep this article short, I will say that these villains made it a blast to watch the film and made Peter change with so many deaths and all the suffering they brought.
All in all, the film is a solid 10/10 for me and I imagine for you and others as well. I’ll definitely go and see it once again in IMAX before I am able to preorder my copy of the film. I hope we are all able to see more of Tom Holland as Spider-Man in the future as this film was an incredible stepping stone for his career. Nonetheless, let me know what you thought about the film in the comments as there is still much to talk about that I didn’t include on here. Check the film out now and let me know what you think, till next time peace.
The Nerd Corps 