Spider-Man: No Way Home is, on the surface, the most ambitious live-action Spider-Man movie Sony Pictures has produced.Jon Watts’ third Spider-Man movie following Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), is full of warmth and Christmas cheer, apart from eye-popping thrills and heart-wringing nostalgia.
Spider-Man: No Way Home: Film Synopsis
Spider-Man: No Way Home begins where the previous installment ended. After being outed as Spider-Man by Mysterio in Far From Home, Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) life has turned into a 24/7 media circus. The people closest to him – his aunt May (Marisa Tomei), classmate and girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best pal Ned (Jack Batalon) – are the worst affected by the turn of events. They are charged with aiding and abating Peter’s chaos-generating vigilantism.
In desperation, Peter requests his Avengers ally Dr Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a magic spell that will make people forget Spider-Man’s antecedents. Realising that the memory wipe means his friends and loved ones will also forget him, Peter interrupts Dr Strange as he is casting the spell, causing a tear in the multiverse and bringing assorted villains from different universes. Dr Ock (Alfred Molina), Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy and Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Lizard (Rhys Ifans) from Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man movies fight till they realise the Spider-Man they are fighting is not the one they fought before.
Spider-Man: No Way Home: Cast Performance
With every passing film, Tom Holland just keeps proving how Marvel’s decision of passing the baton to him could be for the best. We’ve seen Tom’s contribution to Marvel’s other films and are aware of the range he possesses from being pleasant to poignant in a single scene. Here, his character continues to grow enjoying a stupendous arc tackling emotional trauma, befriending & caring for people from other timelines and more such things.
Zendaya is still just Spidey’s girlfriend as nothing much is explored for MJ from the last time we saw her. Jacob Batalon’s Ned is also overshadowed by the ‘new more important’ friends of Spidey this time around. Benedict Cumberbatch‘s Doctor Strange gets the perfect launchpad to announce his ‘Multiverse Of Madness’ as he lays the base for the same. Cumberbatch remains to be the ever-so-cool Doctor Strange nailing some hoot-worthy sequences. Marisa Tomei as Aunt May gets a larger screen presence this time around and for good reason.
Direction and Music
Jon Watts has hit the Spiderverse with its best film yet. It’s not just the lead character he gets it accurately, it’s about leading this whole universe of mixing and mashing superheroes with villains. With this one, in a way, he has created a party bomb packed with all the necessary shenanigans giving the chance of pushing the button to Tom Holland.
Michael Giacchino uses his symphonic pieces just at the right moment. His background music beautifully maximises the impact of not a few but many important scenes of the film.
The action sequences in No Way Home are fast and frenetic yet always coherent, and the post-Inception, city-twisting digital effects are spectacular. The endearing performances, and a screenplay by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers that interweaves teen-angst soap opera with all the goofy logic makes the film so appealing.
Final word
By bringing together all their previous Spider-Man movies into one whole, Sony Pictures is breathing new life into them again. No Way Home isn’t just about looking back at old films. It also opens up new avenues for the Marvel Universe. The film has left all of us eager to see where Spidey and Doctor Strange might go next – and that makes this Spider-Man one of the most amazing Spider-Mans of all.
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