‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Review

^{By: Amanda Guarragi}

Our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man has been through so much. We’ve seen three different versions of this character and they’ve all made Peter Parker their own. For some reason, Tom Holland is the perfect combination of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s versions. Thus creating the ultimate Spider-Man that Sony and Marvel has blessed us with. Holland’s first trilogy isn’t perfect, but Spider-Man: No Way Home sure is. One of the most well-written comic book movies since Logan, in all honesty. Everything flowed together nicely, the visuals were great and the third act is something special.

My main issue with Holland’s Spider-Man is that he was always walking in the shadows of someone else. He never became his own man; his own hero and he never had a sense of identity. This is the film where we see that growth, not only as Peter Parker, but as Spider-Man. He needed a film that was just his own. Issues that he had to deal with head-on, without any other hero helping him. This was his movie, and I know that it may seem overstuffed with villains coming in from other universes but this worked. We saw the goofy kid from Queens, the tech genius, and a true hero all wrapped into one.

Never in my life would I have ever expected to see these villains come together in one spot. It has such a simple story and it was executed so well. Parker has to collect these villains and keep them in Doctor Strange’s dungeon until they are ready to send them back to their designated universes. Seeing each of them with upgraded CGI (especially Electro, sorry, Jamie Foxx) was so worth it. It’s like they all fell back into their characters and it was fantastic. Hit the perfect wave of nostalgia for this film and had plenty of references. Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin still reigns supreme and he stole the spotlight.

Spider-Man: No Way Home was perfectly balanced. Jon Watts nailed the humour and emotional moments. No emotional moment was undercut with a bad joke and that third act will make anyone cry. It’s structured in a way that you may know what’s about to happen, but then they surprise you over and over again. What a perfect third instalment to Holland’s first trilogy, I really can’t wait to see him grow as our official Spider-Man. This was truly a love letter to Peter Parker and Spider-Man, Stan Lee would have been so proud of this.

Excelsior!