- What a tremendous amount of fun it was to see multiple versions of Spider-Man up on the big screen fighting together for a common cause. If you don't believe me, go back and read my review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which did that for the first time about three years ago. But now Marvel Studios is here to create a multiverse of multiverses with Jon Watts's Spider-Man: No Way Home. Sure, there are only three Spider-Men (Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield) this time around, but this film also borrows some of the old villains, ranging from fan-favorites Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) to the less iconic Electro (Jamie Foxx), Sandman (voiced by Thomas Haden Church), and Lizard (voiced by Rhys Ifans). We've officially reached the House of Frankenstein era of the MCU.
- The plot, obviously just an excuse to collect a bunch of old cast members, revolves around the fact that Holland's Peter Parker has been outed as Spider-Man.* In response, multiversal muckraker J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons) takes his message of "Spider-Man's a menace!" to the internet, Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori) puts out a book on the subject, and the news helicopters hover over Aunt May's (Marisa Tomei) apartment. Peter's girlfriend M.J. (Zendaya) and best pal Ned (Jacob Batalon) are refused admission to M.I.T. by association, and even Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is...well, unhappy. In fact, Peter is so desperate to return things to normal that he consults Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who is still pretty good at mystic arts even if he is no longer the Master (Benedict Wong).
- But apparently Dr. Strange isn't quite good enough to correctly cast the spell intended to make people forget that Spider-Man is Peter Parker. Instead, Peter distracts him enough that the spell accidentally drags the aforementioned Spider-Friends and foes to this dimension. While Peter doesn't have too much trouble rounding up the villains the first time around, their subsequent rebellion delivers some truly tragic consequences that finally introduce that quote about power and responsibility to the MCU. From there, the action follows a fairly predictable course, with Spider-Men and company wrecking the Statue of Liberty this time around. (Jameson's news crawl quips "Why does Spider-Man hate national landmarks?")
- No Way Home is something of a mess as a stand-alone story, but is it even reasonable to use such terms to describe the 27th film of a franchise? While I didn't like this one quite as much as its two MCU predecessors, it was admittedly great to see Dafoe and Molina again, both of whom are so good that they must have been mentally rehearsing their roles for the past twenty years. Maguire continues to be the weirdly zen Spider-Man while Garfield comes closest to the comics, but the fact is that all three actors do a good job with their roles. (When Garfield exclaims "I love you guys!" it's tough not to agree.) One hopes that the fresh slate introduced by the film's end will be an opportunity to get back to the character's roots, leaving some of these silly space missions and multiverses behind.
- *See last ish! -Smilin' Sean
- Also featuring Martin Starr, Hannibal Buress, J.B. Smoove, Charlie Cox, and Tom Hardy, the last of whom cameos in what may be the stupidist mid-credits scene yet.
