Spider-Man: No Way Home
Directed by Jon Watts
(2021, Columbia Pictures/Pascal Pictures/Marvel Studios)
Admittedly, when I hear about a new Marvel movie, I find myself sighing, wondering what they have thought of now to milk yet more cash from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
So, when I heard about another installment in the thrice rebooted Spider-Man series, I didn’t pay too much attention to it, I didn’t think too much of it, and I didn’t really care.
However, I did want to keep up with the pop culture zeitgeist, so there I was ready to watch yet another superhero movie with throwaway action scenes, “cool” tounge and cheek one liners and explosions galore.
But something happened on the way to the multiverse: I became entranced. Yes, just like a spell woven by Dr. Stephen Strange, I was instantly zapped into the web crawler goodness that was Spider-Man: No Way Home.
So, what happened to dissipate my curmudgeonly pessimism? The storytelling.
The writers of the story, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers clearly used precision craftsmanship to painstakingly detail every nuance that is part of the Spider-Man movie franchise dating back to the 2002 film.
In this newest installment, we pick up exactly where Spider-Man: Far From Home left off – with Peter Parker’s identity being exposed to the entire world thanks to Mysterio.
The fallout from this revelation is that Peter is considered far and wide what the newshound, J. Jonah Jameson has always said he is: a menace to society. Not only is Peter negatively effected by this but so are the people around him – his girlfriend, MJ, his best friend, Ned, and his Aunt May.
Peter is so upset by this that he seeks out the help of the ever goateed, Dr. Strange to see if he would help him by casting a spell to reverse everyone knowing his true identity. Dr. Strange reluctantly agrees. However, Peter repeatedly interrupts during the casting of the spell to request that his loved one still knows who he is.
Due to those interruptions a rip in the multiverse is opened – and that is where the real fun begins.
Without giving away much more – Spider-Man movie fans will be pleasantly surprised by who shows up to both help and hinder Peter.
The movie is a roller-coaster of edge-of-your-seat moments, emotions, and just good fun.
Tom Holland as Spider-Man has always been presented as Tony Stark’s apprentice, Tony’s customized creation. However, this is the movie where Tom Holland’s Spider-Man comes out from under Tony’s iron wing and grows up.
So, I was wrong. There is a reason why the MCU movies do so well. There is a reason why this movie was the second biggest movie debut of all time. It is not just because people like to see people flying around in tights (I mean maybe they do but that is a whole different topic.)
It is because the MCU has created a solid through storyline that touches on each film. Sure, some are better than others (see: The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton), but the most current reboot of the MCU dating back to Iron-Man (2008), is an incredible piece of superhero storytelling that if you play close enough attention, you will be able to connect the infinity stones pretty easily.
A+
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