“With great power there must also come great responsibility!” These are the words with which Stan Lee concluded Amazing Fantasy #15, a comic book issue famous for one reason: within its pages Stan Lee and Steve Ditko introduced the world to what is today the most popular superhero on the entire planet… Spider-Man. Those words have been the guiding ethos for the character ever since, with the phrase appearing in some formulation or another in every adaptation of the character in the 59 years since they were first published.
They had, however up until now, been conspicuously absent from one rendition of the character, that of Tom Holland’s in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and their absence and that of the unifying ethos of the character that they represented was beginning to be quite conspicuously felt. It is perhaps fitting then, with the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, that Stan Lee’s exact wording graces the screen for the first time and with it, the MCU’s Spider-Man finally finds his groove and swings to new heights.
It is quite difficult to review No Way Home without spoiling the plot of the film, because this film is anything but light on plot. I will however do my best to present you with a spoiler free review, so that audiences that may have perhaps been turned off by the marketing can gain an understanding of this unlikely triumph of a film.
No Way Home’s premise is fairly easily laid out by its trailers. Peter Parker has been outed as Spider-Man in the aftermath of his latest world saving heroics and his life has come crashing down around him. He’s dealing with constant press attention, legal troubles that necessitated the hiring of a particularly competent lawyer, and social consequences for himself and his friends that he could never have imagined. This leads him to reach out to Doctor Strange in hopes of erasing the knowledge of his secret identity from the world, but something goes wrong with the good doctor’s spell, and enemies from other universes (more specifically other film universes) emerge into Spider-Man’s world and complicate it further still. From there it is a race by Peter to resolve the mess he has made before the very fabric of his world comes crashing down around him.
At first look, the above plot would appear to be convoluted and seemingly desperate. Many I’ve talked to in the lead up to this film felt as if it was simply Marvel trying to capitalize on the success and fame of Sony’s animated masterpiece Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. This, thankfully, did not turn out to be the case. The seemingly convoluted plot proves itself to be carefully calibrated to give audiences a very specific experience that its animated predecessor could not by nature of its construction: a deeply emotional examination of exactly who Peter Parker is and what drives him. Because at the end of the day, that is what No Way Home is, a meditation on Peter Parker… and it is perhaps the best one we could have hoped to ask for. Rather than getting lost in the weeds of its admittedly complicated plot, No Way Home instead constantly works to keep the film centered on Peter, who he is as a person, and what being Spider-Man is about for him. The film digs past all the fringe elements that some argue have come to define the MCU interpretation of the character and puts Peter squarely where he belongs: in a catastrophic situation driven in large part by his own actions, scrambling to hold everything together and somehow save the day, and in this environment Holland shines in the role like he never has before.
Holland’s performance is one of many truly great ones throughout the film, but none of the others quite compare to the heights he is reaching with this turn as everyone’s favorite webslinger. He demonstrates a massive and potent emotional range, and a growing understanding of the character that brings new dimensions to his portrayal.
His Peter is one that is finally finding his footing in this film, and growing into the kind of hero that the friendly neighborhood needs. And when he swings off once again at the end of this film, audiences are left waiting and wondering when the character will next grace screens.
Also of note amongst the performances are those of the returning villains, each pulled from previous Spider-Man films. Alfred Molina (Doctor Octopus), Willem Dafoe (Green Goblin/Norman Osborn) Rhys Ifans (Kurt Connors/The Lizard), and Jamie Foxx (Electro) all take turns stealing the show, each clearly having the time of their life getting to revisit the Spider-Man villains that they originated on film.
They bring a much needed energy to the proceedings and provide Holland and each other with excellent foils to bounce off of. Last but not least, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange provides a wonderful foil to Peter as they come into conflict over the appropriate solution to the crisis Peter has created. He brings renewed energy to the character which bodes extremely well for the upcoming second solo film Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness.
It’s fair to say that it took the MCU Spider-Man movies a bit of time to find the proper angle from which to approach the character. Not having been allowed to sufficiently stand on his own two feet, Spider-Man at times felt more like a supporting player in the universe rather than the biggest character in the entire Marvel stable. This is what makes No Way Home feel so rewarding. Because with it, Marvel Studios have finally found a direction for the character that feels uniquely theirs while also being true to the core of the character. If Into The Spider-Verse was about what it means to be a spider-person, No Way Home has proven to be about what it means to be Peter Parker, and serves as nothing less than a total celebration of one of pop culture’s most enduring characters. It may not be the Spider-Man movie that people have necessarily been waiting for, but it is absolutely the one that they need. With this film Tom Holland truly comes into his own as the iconic character as Marvel charts a bold and exciting new direction, both for decades long true believers and relative newcomers alike. It is amazing. It is astonishing. It is spectacular… it is Spider-Man.
