Jon Watts’s Spider-Man: No Way Home picks up immediately after the end of Spider-Man: Far from Home, with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) dealing with the consequences of his identity being exposed by Mysterio. Hounded out of school along with his girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya), and best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon), Peter for the first time in one of his MCU outings exhibits the anxiety over being denied normalcy that long defined the character in the comics. Desperate to regain some semblance of a private life, Peter asks Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to use his magical powers to make the world forget Mysterio’s revelation.
When the spell goes wrong, though, it breaks the fabric of space-time and exposes the Earth to alternate dimensions (read: intellectual properties). This results not only in two different Peters—played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, reprising their versions of the character—being sucked into our world, but also the villains from the prior two Spider-Man series: Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), and Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Lizard (Rhys Ifrans). Through it all, no attempt is made to hide that this is pure fan service, and it immediately orients the urgency of Peter’s plight as an exposed and vulnerable superhero around a greatest-hits mashup of the character’s cinematic legacy.
This does yet another disservice to Holland, who’s felt like a supporting figure even in his own solo MCU projects as Spider-Man. Presented heretofore through the lens of stepping into Tony Stark’s role as the beating heart of the Avengers, Holland’s Spider-Man is in No Way Home subordinated to a series of applause-break entrances by other heroes and villains, and being stacked against two other actors who’ve tackled the same part does Holland no favors.
Maguire, who got to serve out his tenure as Spider-Man with a series of films that have only become more beloved due to nostalgia, exudes the corny but reassuring warmth that he did in Sam Raimi’s trilogy. And he immediately brings a presence to the film that Holland has barely gotten a chance to cultivate as Peter Parker and his alter ego despite appearing in twice the number of films. But it’s Garfield, whose time as Spider-Man was truncated by poor box office figures, critical notices, and legal battles over film rights to the iconic character, who steals the film. The actor, his eyes almost always glistening, looks genuinely emotional not only in conveying the lingering trauma that torments his Peter but also, it seems, in getting the closure that he thought he would from playing his childhood dream role across his solo series.
When Holland does get to take center stage, however, he does at long last get a chance to put his own stamp on Peter Parker. Mysterio’s revelation forces Peter to operate more as the loner of the comics than the well-supplied Stark subsidiary that he’s been so far on film, and for once there are real stakes to his adventures. Crucially, too, we get an extended view of his fundamental humanity. As the boy races to send everyone back to their respective dimensions, he pauses upon learning of the dire fates that await his counterparts’ enemies. Choosing the right thing over expediency, Peter resolves to try to rehabilitate the villains before sending them home, a gesture of naïve, wholesome faith in people that isn’t only true to Peter Parker but cuts a defiant path away from the MCU’s often glib brand of violence.
Through it all, Holland laces streaks of cynicism and defeatism into his performance as Peter copes with the fallback of his identity being exposed to a mistrusting public, but he retains that essential guilelessness that’s always been his best attribute as the character. There are a handful of moments in No Way Home that are the most human, well-earned moments of self-doubt, reconciliation, and resolve in the films and comics of the Marvel universe.
Yet, as is ever the case with modern superhero cinema, all of this is set aside in a climax that has to bring together the untenably large cast solely for a great dust-up of a battle. Watts is on his third Spider-Man film here, but he still has no real grasp of how to shoot Peter’s lithe, balletic movements or quick-reflex swings and web blasts. It’s nearly impossible to follow the action or even tell each Peter apart as they crisscross each other swinging through the air.
And in an aftermath that aims for the most emotionally raw sucker punch in the MCU, the film spends just as much time laying the groundwork for future movies in a way that undercuts the feeling of being present for a genuinely somber denouement. Even when focusing on No Way Home’s positives, it’s hard not to feel frustrated that it took six feature films and massive, reality-shattering plot machinations to finally make Holland’s Peter parker feel like the lonely, conflicted, relatably flawed young hero that captured hearts almost 60 years ago.
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