Spider-Man: No Way Home Review

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Spiderman: No Way Home Poster. Photo by Colombia Pictures/Marvel Studios [Fair Use].

Edgar Echeverria, Contributing Writer

The third installment in Tom Holland’s Spider-man trilogy is one you do not want to miss out on.

Picking up immediately after 2019’s Spider-Man: Far from Home, we follow Peter Parker dealing with the repercussions of having his identity revealed to the public by Mysterio. After messing up Doctor Strange’s spell to reverse this mess, Peter must face off with old enemies from across the multiverse.

I haven’t been the biggest fan of the MCU’s portrayal of Spider-Man, but No Way Home addresses these issues and brings a satisfying conclusion to his story arc.

Director Jon Watts has always described his take on the character as a coming-of-age story and I never really saw it until this film. It made me see the other two movies in a much more positive light; the payoff is satisfying and leaves Peter’s story open to many possibilities.

Defoe’s Green Goblin. Photo by Colombia Pictures/Marvel Studios [Fair Use].

Another plus in this movie was the performances, especially Willem Dafoe’s. Reprising his role as the Green Goblin from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, seeing him back was great. Each scene he was in, I was left impressed by how immersed he was with the character. Zendaya’s character MJ gets more character development here which I’m glad as I felt her character just served to be a snarky classmate in the previous films, but here, she’s more active in the film’s plot and serves as a comforter towards Peter during this stressful time.

The action scenes were some of the bests in the series yet. You can see the influence taken from Spider-Man PS4; Tom Holland really gets his hands dirty in this one. The fight on the bridge with Doctor Octopus is a great example of this along with the one against the Green Goblin in the second act.

***Spoilers Below***

Tom Holland’s Peter Parker with his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and girlfriend MJ (Zendaya). Photo by Colombia Pictures/Marvel Studios [Fair Use].

Now for spoilers… if you were expecting Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, then congratulations they’re here! Seeing them back was a wave of nostalgia, and thankfully they get enough screen time to leave fans satisfied.

Tobey Maguire is more or less the same character we last saw in Spider-Man 3, just older, and serves as the mentor of the group. That isn’t a bad thing but maybe a mention or two about stuff that has happened in between these 2 movies would show some world-building in that universe, still, it was great to see him back and his interactions with the other two show a lot of good chemistry.

Andrew Garfield does a fantastic job reprising his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. While many have had mixed opinions on his take of the character, this film shows us how great of an actor he is given a better script. Due to studio interference, he was never able to finish his series. Still the quippiest out of all the Spider-Men, Garfield’s performance stands out.