Latest Spider-Man movie tops them all

Marvel has just released the newest edition to the MCU franchise, Spider-Man No Way Home. The 2½ hour movie is jam packed with action, emotion, humor and beautifully written characters. 

Let’s look at where this movie picks up, right where Far From Home ends. Peter’s class has returned from Europe after the attacks by Mysterio, but Mysterio managed to take a video before his death, and he tells everyone that Spider-Man is trying to kill everyone with the Stark Industries drones, but at the very end of the video, he reveals that Spider-Man’s actual identity is Peter Parker. 

Then we watch as Peter’s life is taken over by publicity and hate from the public, but as if it wasn’t bad enough, Peter is charged with the murder of Mysterio, so Aunt May hires a lawyer for Peter. The lawyer is none other than Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil. He says that Peter is now a free man and doesn’t have to worry about criminal charges but unfortunately is not seen again in the movie, which I feel could’ve been really cool if the writers had kept him in the movie for a bit longer, but I’m sure that Marvel has something big planned for Daredevil soon. 

As the story progresses, Peter gets to know each one of the villains: Sandman, Green Goblin, Doc Ock, The Lizard and Electro. Spider-Man’s character throughout every series has been one to focus on saving people rather than killing them, which I think has something to do with Peter Parker’s age in each series. He’s young and doesn’t want to kill anyone; he doesn’t want that on his conscience. He’s ambitious and tries to save everyone but eventually realizes that he can’t. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man loses Harry, Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man loses Gwen Stacy and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man loses Tony Stark. It’s a character arc that every rendition of Spider-Man goes through. 

But Dr. Strange doesn’t want Peter to try to save the villains, and he knows that it’s just going to make matters worse. The scene where Dr. Strange takes Peter into the mirror realm is mind-bending and brilliant, and the part where Peter basically figures out what the mirror reality really is, really goes to show how smart he is. He uses his webs to tie up Strange and steal Kaecilius’ Sling Ring, which he uses to open portals. He returns to the sanctum where Ned and MJ are and gives the ring to Ned which is huge foreshadowing. I think most people in the theatre knew something was going to happen with Ned and the ring soon. 

So now that Peter is trying to save the villains, he moves them to his new home with Aunt May and tries to help them but is only able to cure Doc Ock before Osborn is taken over by the Green Goblin and sends everything into a downward spiral. Electro steals the Arc Reactor in Peter’s apartment, The Lizard escapes, and Osborn beats Peter within an inch of his life.

Meanwhile, MJ and Ned have crashed at Ned’s house and are just waiting for a text from Peter while watching the news. Once they realize that Aunt May has died, they worry about Peter and attempt to see him using the ring that Peter gave to Ned after stealing it from Doctor Strange. And this is the scene where most of the audience knew that we were about to see Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. 

It was a really well done scene that really got the audience excited. Just by the suit, we could tell it was Andrew running through the portal, not Tom. The scene of MJ trying to test Andrew’s Spider-Man was a good comic relief moment. The writers really utilized this moment with MJ and Ned to give Andrew and Tobey a magical introduction into the movie. The only problem I had with this scene was that when Andrew and Tobey shot webs at each other, I think they ended that little fight too early. I personally think it would’ve been really cool to see a bit more action in that moment but the writers did phenomenal work with that scene. 

So they all go to a lab to work on a cure for the villains. This entire sequence is a rollercoaster of emotions. Andrew talks about how he lost Gwen Stacy and how he went into a dark place after that. Tobey talks about how he and his MJ made it work since we didn’t get a true resolution with their relationship at the end of Spider-Man 3. The way the writers worked all of the jokes into this scene was perfect and the way that all three Spider-Men got to tell their stories was heartwarming to say the least. This was a nostalgic moment for a lot of fans. 

Now, for the sake of keeping the resolution of the movie secret, I’ll avoid talking about it but I will say that the third act was insane and filled with emotion. The writers on this film did an awesome job.

It’s probably my favorite Marvel movie yet and it’s definitely made it into my top 5 favorite movies of all time. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who loves Marvel and/or Spider-Man. And for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet and wants context when they do watch it, I recommend watching Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), & Spider-Man Far From Home (2019) at the very least but if you have multiple days open, I recommend watching all of the Spider-Man movies and all of Marvel phase 3.