Let’s be honest it is always kind of hard to gauge a Marvel movie going on the company’s promises. Every time a new Marvel movie is coming out they promise that it is bigger and better than the last one. Like all repeated promises sometimes they deliver and sometimes they don’t, but believe me you have to believe the hype when it comes to Spider-Man: No Way Home. Not only does the film deliver a new level of being epic, this is one film that is guaranteed to become a fan favourite… perhaps Marvel have finally found the way to create a film that true fans are going to love while still making that elusive cinema buck.
You have probably already heard a lot of internet buzz about things that will or may happen within this movie but don’t worry we will try to write this review in such a way that we don’t mention anything that you haven’t already seen in a trailer or a poster… and we will try to be vague yet informative about things that you haven’t seen yet.
Directed by Jon Watts (Cop Car) the film picks up in the very seconds after the ending of Spider-Man: Far From Home. Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland – The Impossible) identity has been exposed to the world by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler) and online journalist J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons – Whiplash).
Not only that but Peter Parker finds himself being investigated for the death of Mysterio and it seems like the world is turning against him. He turns to his support network of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler) and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau – Chef) for support but when the impact of the investigation affects him, his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya – Dune) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalan – Spider-Man: Homecoming) in a major way he decides that something needs to be done.
Peter then turns to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power Of The Dog) for help but the resulting spell that is cast has catastrophic ramifications. Suddenly Peter and his crew find themselves in a battle as foes from the multi-verse land in New York led by Doc Ock (Alfred Molina – Boogie Nights), Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe – The Card Counter) and Electro (Jamie Foxx – Horrible Bosses).
What Jon Watts has created here is a very special film for comic-book fans. If you are a causal Marvel movie fan then you are going to like this film but if you are a die-hard Spider-Man fan then you are going to LOVE this film because this is something so special that the only one to describe it is that it is a once in a generation film.
There are some very special moments in this film for true Spider-Man fans, we will leave that at that so there are no spoilers, but it is how everything else that comes together in this film that takes it to the next level.
Somehow Watts and screenwriters Chris McKenna (Ant-Man And The Wasp) and Erik Sommers (Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle) manage to pack a lot of things into this film without making it feel crowded or letting it run past its welcome. To their credit they also bring the right blend of things to the film – nostalgia, epic action sequences, characterisation and just the right amount of humour. They have pretty much made the perfect comic-book movie!
The result is a film that makes Spidey fans gasp at times throughout the film – and in the screening we were in there were even rounds of applause and screams during some of the film’s big revelations, and that is something that you rarely see in modern day cinema.
It also feels like the actors here know they are acting in something special. We have known that Tom Holland is something special every since his performance in The Impossible but here he takes his acting to a whole new level. He almost has to as Willem Dafoe comes into the film bringing his A-Game. The scenes between Dafoe and Holland are legendary and it feels through Dafoe’s performance that he forces Holland to take that next step and become a true star that can deliver as well.
There are too many special moments in this film to mention and many of them would be spoilers so the best thing to say is that this is a film that Spider-Man fans are going to truly embrace and adore. This is the one time that Marvel has delivered something very special indeed for comic book fans everywhere.
5/5 Stars
