Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) Review: A Spectacular Waste
By: Vedant Chouksey
Tags: Spidermannowayhome, Movie Review, Sam Raimi, Spider Man, Marvel

With Spider-Man: No Way Home, Director Jon Watt’s Spiderman Home Trilogy finally comes to a spectacular extravagant conclusion. No Way Home is easily the best of the three films but if it is, as proclaimed by many, the “Best Spider-Man film Ever”, remains to be seen.

Rating: 7.5/10

Story

Life becomes difficult for Peter Parker when the world discovers his secret identity. So, to secure college admissions for himself, his girlfriend and best friend, Spider-Man asks Dr Strange to cast a spell that would make the world forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

Unfortunately, the spell goes wrong and supervillains from other dimensions appear in this world looking for Spider-Man.

Performances

Tom Holland has developed a lot as an actor since he first took up the role of the friendly neighbourhood superhero. In this film, he actually matures and becomes the Spider-Man we all know and love- the one who is cheery, goofy, silly, funny yet carries an air of sadness and sacrifice.

Zendaya as MJ is the best romantic interest any Spider-Man has ever had. I would go as far as to say that she delivered one of the best, if not the best performance in the series. Her chemistry with Tom Holland is apparent. She is far more than a romantic interest and is one of the most interesting characters in the film.

Alfred Molina reprises his role as Doc Ock from the Sam Raimi-Tobey Maguire films. He was truly terrifying, justified and iconic in Spider-Man 2. He continues to deliver his A-game here as the mean spirited pessimist, Dr. Otto Octavius.

Actors playing, Electro, Sandman, The Lizard, all reprise their roles, but the obvious stand out amongst all the villains is Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin. His portrayal of both the meek, good-natured Norman Osborne and the terrifying, insane Green Goblin, is simply put, ingenious. Even at the age of 66, Dafoe did his stunts on his own, leading to one of the best fights that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man had ever had.

(mild spoilers about “you know who” in the next 2 paragraphs)

The Amazing Spider-Man films may not have been the most amazing Spider-Man films, but it did give us the quippy, smart Spider-Man from the comics in the form of Andrew Garfield, who plays just the right amount of pretentious, angsty, conflicted, good-natured teenager. He is fantastic in No Way Home as he once again slips into the shoes of Peter Parker and delivers the goods.

Tobey Maguire is also back as a seasoned older, more mature Spider-Man. His character has more poise. At first, his delivery seemed unfamiliar and disinterested, but Maguire gets back into his groove soon enough.

Positives

Spider-Man: No Way Home has some fantastic cameos. Simply being able to fit them all is commendable. But, No Way Home actually manages to juggle several popular characters at once without making it feel unreasonable.

The film clearly has several moments for the fans of Spider-Man, which are again well managed by Jon Watts.

No Way Home may have faltered at several moments but it absolutely nails the ending after the climactic battle. The dilemma that Spider-Man faces is truly excellent giving us gut-wrenching final moments.

The soundtrack of the film starts off noticeably well. It is different and fun but unfortunately, it goes back to the tried and tested swelling music that we have been listening to in the theatres for the past 30 years.

Negatives

When I talk about the direction by Jon Watts, I am compelled to use the word — “manage”, because that is what he does. He does not direct the film, he manages it. It seemed like he was given a checklist by Marvel containing the scenes of fan service he had to show in the film. And in true management consulting fashion, he goes through the list one by one and solves the problem.

All Spider-Man films before this trilogy had a personality and an air to them. Sam Raimi was campy, fun, good-natured, exaggerated. Marc Webb(Andrew Garfield) was cool, self-serious.

Jon Watts is nothing.

It is the same Marvel schtick. No colour, no personality, an empty shell of a film with a brilliant cast. Season generously with some quips and one-liners along the way just in case you forget you are watching a Marvel Film. Time and again, Marvel films have marred scenes with emotional depth and genuinely heartbreaking moments between characters with ill-timed jokes, because god forbid, the characters ever get real.

No Way Home suffers from the same problem several times, except for the ending, which the film nails, as previously mentioned.

But there are far too many ruined moments for the ending to make up for. Take the interactions between the supervillains for instance. It was one reference after another, followed by a quip or two, followed by another reference. It was completely unnatural and synthetic.

The worst offender of this plastic writing and character development was Electro, played by Jamie Foxx, who gave the worst performance in the film. His charmless, over the top, cartoonish villainy was a complete mismatch in the film.

Conclusion

A very wise character in No Way Home says, “If you expect disappointment, then you can never really be disappointed”. To those who still haven’t seen the film, if you go to the theatres remembering these lines, you might end up enjoying the film.

For now, the best Spider-Man film remains the animated one— Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, closely followed by Sam Raimi’sSpiderman 2.