No Way Home: The True Ending To The Spider-Man Trilogy, Or Carried By The Past?

Jan 11

This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. It's the final Marvel premiere of the year 2021. And most of all, it's the conclusion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man trilogy. No Way Home has become one of the greatest films that both Marvel and Sony have ever released - but I have got to admit, given the long, complicated history of Spider-Man films, it would have been very difficult for it to turn out any other way.

The film, starring Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Zendaya as MJ, picks up right after the previous film, Spider-Man: Far From Home. Immediately, we learn the impact of the footage released by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) following his showdown with Spider-Man. All over New York City, reporters assemble, mobs gather, government agents launch intense interrogations, and certain classmates publish books about their friendship with Parker.

This newfound attention, especially given the very-recent reversal of Thanos’ snap, greatly overwhelms Parker, whose only desire is to graduate high school and attend MIT with MJ and Ned (Jacob Batalon). After the trio is rejected from MIT due to their involvement in the scandal, Parker turns to what apparently is the only solution he could think of: Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) casting a spell that makes everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spiderman.

As one could expect, the spell goes awry, and the multiverse collides. The multiverse has been teased in popular animations for years, such as Marvel’s What If? and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, showing us that there are dimensions that mirror our own where our heroes' stories go a bit differently. We finally see these dimensions come face to face in live action, drawing in everyone from the multiverse who knows Spider-Man’s identity as Peter Parker. The first character to appear is Dr. Otto Octavious (AKA Doc Oc, AKA Dr. Octopus), portrayed by Alfred Molina who reprises his former role as the main antagonist of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. After subduing the villain, he confronts several over multiversal bad guys, including Electro (Jamie Foxx), Lizard (Rhys Ifans), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), and Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). Through No Way Home, we get to relive 20 years of Spider-Man cinematic content.

***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD***

Overall, this film is nothing short of a masterpiece. It deeply explores topics of popular socio-political discussions, such as redemption versus retribution, in a way that allows us to feel for both the heroes and the villains. It was also quite special from a production perspective. While it occurs several scenes into the film, the moment that first caught my attention was the dramatic yet hilarious continuous scene that takes place in Parker’s apartment. In general, continuous scenes are incredibly difficult to pull off well, but this film pulls it off, with the right dose of humor and anxious emotions. Speaking of emotion, although I am personally not a fan of most movie romances, I must admit that Zendaya and her boyfriend had impeccable on-screen chemistry (likely due in no small part to their real-life relationship).

To be clear, EVERYONE in this movie did their thing. But my man Willem Dafoe understood every essential part of the assignment. I would be remiss in my duties as a reviewer if I did not highlight the brilliance that he brought to the role. One scene in particular occurs towards the halfway point; after delivering a spine-chilling monologue, the Goblin battles Spider-Man, even at one point cackling maniacally as he’s pounded in the face. I dare say his performance was comparable to Heath Ledger’s Joker (The Dark Knight) and Anthony Hopkins’s Hannibal Lector (The Silence of the Lambs): both horrific and wonderful to behold.

The next on my list is *surprise emoji* Andrew Garfield, who, along with Tobey Maguire, reprised his role as Spider-Man, effectively winning over the hearts of all his previous doubters. I have to admit, I hated his version of Spider-Man and didn’t watch either of his movies to completion. Now, I would very much like to. The raw emotion and humor and uh…well, good looks that he brought to the table caught me off guard. And I am completely here for it.

If I were to summarize this film in a single phrase, I would call it “a fan-fiction made real,” which is the closest thing I have to criticism. Simply based on the film’s immensely positive critical reception and box office numbers, many would correctly conclude that No Way Home was the most successful Marvel film released this year. However, I argue that No Way Home had many more variables in its favor than the other movies. The largest of these variables are nostalgia and simplicity.

For starters, the ideas behind the multiverse were fleshed out for almost an entire year before its first silver-screen appearance. The film needn’t have devoted a significant amount of time to explaining the plot because it had already been drilled into the minds of every true (and possibly, every wannabe) Marvel fan. Furthermore, every principal and supporting character in this film had been previously introduced and developed in some other film, whether it be from Marvel or Sony. Thus, we also needed no extra time to understand their motivations.

Delving even deeper, because the characters were previously introduced, and we hadn’t seen any of them in live-action for years, the movie fed off of our nostalgia. The hype was produced through the trailers early-on, and the teases of the potential appearances of Tobey Maguire’s and Andrew Garfield’s multiversal iterations of Spider-Man practically yanked people off their couches and dragged them into theaters. If you combine this with rumors of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Tom Hardy’s Venom, it would simply be unfair to compare No Way Home to Eternals, Shang-Chi, and Black Widow. No Way Home did not have to prioritize originality, as other Phase 4 films carried a significant burden. All that said, I completely enjoyed the fan-service! The nostalgia blended in quite well with the rest of the film, giving us a sense of closure with the previous Spider-Men that we did not get with their original series.

No Way Home was a healthy blend of romance, revenge, creativity, and human-spider versus wizard battles that made it an absolute delight to watch. Marvel ended 2021 on a great note. With the current state of the universe and the next MCU iteration’s official teaser having been released, I am confident that whatever is in store for us viewers will be more amazing than anything we have experienced before!