Here we are ! A week after Spider-Man: No Way Home released in all theaters around the world, it was time for me to talk about the most anticipated movie of 2021, and probaby the most anticipated Marvel project since Avengers: Endgame. After an entire year of rumors about who would appear in the movie and what the movie would be about it was finally time to discover about all of that and we were not disappointed ! But enough teasing, let’s talk about it and for those who haven’t seen the movie yet, be aware : spoilers ahead !
Since Marvel Studios introduced a new version of Spider-Man (interpreted by Tom Holland), everyone has been dreaming about having the 3 Spider-Man reunited together but so far it sounded more like a dream than something that could really happen. It sounded impossible… until Marvel Studios officially introduced the concept of the multiverse in the MCU, a multiverse which was clearly opening the possibility of bringing into a same movie, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man and all the vilains related to their movies. I have to say that it was great to see all the three Spider-Man together. Three generations and 20 years of Spider-Man reunited in one movie was in my mind, an historical moment for any Spider-Man fan. The question is, was it a good thing for the movie to reunite all these characters from the previous movies ? And the answer is yes.
I’m not gonna lie, I somehow was scared about seeing all these characters because from my experience, reusing old characters is rarely a good thing as the actors are often here to get the money and their acting is often wrong and looks more like a caricature of a character they once made legendary (ex: Harrison Ford playing Han Solo in the last Star Wars movies). Surprisingly, it wasn’t the case with this movie. Both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were clearly happy to be back as Spider-Man and the chemistry between them and Tom Holland was clearly awesome. On the other side, I have the same opinion about the antagonists. The role of both the Lizard and Sandman is kind of forgetable but more because of the time screen they have. Regarding Jamie Foxx as Electro, Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius and Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin, their performances may have been better than the one they gave us in their respective movies, especially for Willem Dafoe, who clearly delivered the best acting performance of the movie. In addition to that, this very generous fan service barely caused troubles to the movie as it still managed to stay focus on the main story : Peter Parker (Tom Holland) trying to save his life after his identity was revealed by Mysterio at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. And this is in my opinion the best point about this movie : they managed to give us a real Spider-Man movie, with all the problems going with the fact of being Spider-Man for Peter Parker, they managed to give a role to this movie in the MCU and in Peter Parker’s life in the MCU and yet, the also managed to give us a decent and quite useful fan service without damaging the main body of the movie.
However be sure that the movie is not perfect and obviously has some defaults, starting by Aunt May. The death of Aunt May, killed by the Green Goblin, doesn’t have the same impact as Ben’s or Gwen’s death had in the previous movies. The impact and the role May’s death has on Peter and what comes next works as expected on the movie but not on the audience, or at least not as much as you’d expect from the death of such an important figure for Peter Parker. In my mind this is only because of how Aunt May was represented in Homecoming and Far From Home, far away from representing a shelter for Peter like the previous versions of Aunt May did. I’m kind of disappointed that such an event like the death of Aunt May, doesn’t have the expected impact, despite being well integrated in the scenario. Regarding other defaults the movie may have, they’re mainly scenaristic shortcuts and despite being questionable elements, I accept these kinds of shortcut as the quality of the movie is still very good and such a big movie wouldn’t be possible without taking some easy shortcuts in the scenario.
So what can I say in order to conclude this review ? First of all, I loved this movie. As a long time Spider-Man fan, seeing the 3 Spider-Man together, the Green Goblin and all the other vilains took me back in the past, when I was just a kid discovering with excitement the new Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield. I was so happy seeing that they were all back for new adventures and even if they may never come back again, I was glad to see them both, one last time. Overall and despite some important defaults, the movie was great, with a well balanced story and a decent rythm. The references to all the previous Spider-Man movies and also the PS4 Spider-Man video game were great, the story was great and the final moments of the movie clearly succeeded into giving some real emotions to the audience. Spider-Man: No Way Home was a great MCU movie, and an excellent Spider-Man movie and with the last scene showing Peter Parker in a small student’s room, getting ready to fight criminals, it’s clear that Spider-Man’s future in the MCU is going to be great ! I was sadly disappointed by Homecoming and Far From Home, as they were too much influenced by the Tony Stark and the MCU, but this third movie set things right with some decent Spider-Man stuff and for that : well done Marvel and Sony because we had great expectations and the movie answered to those expectations !
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