Now as we said, No Way Home is essentially a movie built on wish fulfilment , the kinds of concepts and ideas that five-year old you would make up in their mind and would probably be unacceptable to everyone else. Except Marvel Studios has seemingly made  a rep for itself making movies that don’t seem like they would work on paper. They did so with 2021’s The Avengers, back in a time when no one thought superheroes from 4 different franchises could come together, they did it again with Infinity War and Endgame , tying up the established MCU in ways that only seemed possible in actual comic books. And now , well they’ve essentially done it again. In a concept that seems like it shouldn’t work at all , this latest Spider-Man movie is a celebration of 20 years of Spider-Man movies that have come before , from the returning villains from previous Spider-Man movies , to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man essentially rediscovering what it means to be Spider-Man, especially in a world where he doesn’t have the guiding hand of Iron-Man or any of the Avengers to help him through it. It makes the premise and character feel fresh despite being in six Marvel movies at this point. In fact, this movie more than the others, is the one that’s truly given Holland’s Spidey a sense of agency and independence in his choices. Yes it has Doctor Strange in it along with characters like Happy Hogan, but they never overshadow or even command and mentor peter the same way Tony or Nick Fury(well, Talos) did.

This is Peter’s movie, one where he’s given full reign to make his own choices and most importantly, his own mistakes. It’s those same mistakes that bring the most important plot points to focus, bringing the obvious dilemma of villains from previous movies, but also making Peter take a whole new view on the term “with great power comes great responsibility”. It’s a pretty amazing character journey, though to say it’s always a happy one would be a lie. In fact No Way home is one of the most heart-wrenching and emotionally testing movies in the MCU. If moments in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame made you feel a certain way, well these ones might have a similar effect.

Now let’s talk about some of those characters that make some of those emotional moments worth it. Peter’s supporting cast of MJ, Ned, Aunt May and Happy is definitely back in full swing, and more useful than it’s been before even. Aunt May and MJ especially have their own moments to shine in this movie, and prove why they’re essentially the two most important people in the world to Peter(next to Ned of course). But we both know those aren’t the characters you came to hear about. Those would be the villains that Peter has to fight , namely Willem DeFoe’s Green Goblin, Alfred Mellina’s Doc Ock, Thomas Hayden Church’s Sandman, Jamie Fox’s Electro and Rhys Ivans’ Lizard . And yes, for those of you still unsure these ARE the same versions from the previous Spider-Man movies. Marvel is using their newfound “multiverse” trope to full effect, and pulling characters from other non-MCU movies like the old Spider-Man movies into the MCU as they please.

Now while all that sounds crazy and a little too much , No Way Home actually pulls this concept off quite well. While out of this world methods are used to bring these characters to screen, they are portrayed in the most humanizing ways possible, making you understand some of them a little better and even empathize with them. The easiest example of this is Mellina’s Doc Ock, who in many ways you can see was always someone who could have been a Spider-Man ally, or even hero in his own right, and his turning evil is treated more as a mental condition in this case. Jamie Fox’s Electro is also given new life in this film, essentially being recreated to fix everything wrong with his original version and making him at the very least, charismatic and arguably one of the funniest characters in a movie that’s chalk full of jokes. The stand-out however, is Defoe’s Goblin, who by this point might just have cemented himself as the best Spider-Man villain of all the movies.

Like Doc Ock it’s shown more how the Goblin serum essentially gives him a split personality, and behind the cackling, calculating psychopath of the Goblin is a man who’s essentially a imprisoned in his own body. This does make you feel sorry for Goblin, but also makes him far more dangerous, as you can’t know which side of him you’re interacting with or fighting. This movie also cements him as the villain capable most capable of getting into Spider-Man’s head and breaking him down at a cerebral and emotional level. Sandman and Lizard are given less to do on the character development side, but still stick to who they are and what they believe in the most satisfactory ways. In fact they’re both given interesting moments to shine that highlight their ideologies and relationship to Spider-Man, which makes them more than worth the inclusion as well. And for those of you scared of the “too many villains” trope that made Spider-Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man 2 fail, well here it’s not a problem. In fact you even get to see the villains bond and interact in ways similar to how the Avengers generally hang out and honestly it’s one of the most fun things to see.

As we mentioned before , this film is essentially a celebration of everything that makes Spider-Man great as a character. It highlights everything important about him, from his optimistic outlook , to his relationship with New York City, to even his outlook on villains and the fact that at the end he’s just a kid(17 years old in this one to be exact). This celebration even continues to how the movie addresses the audience, having a sort of tongue-in-cheek humor that points out absurd things about Spidey, the MCU itself or whether you should call Dr Strange a wizard or not. There’s even a meme that  even non Spider-Man fans might get which is hilarious in how it’s implemented, and all those little moments will leave you wondering if the writers stole some notes from Deadpool’s Script. And even if they didn’t , it makes the script incredibly enjoyable and adds to the overall experience of what this movie is meant to be.

And that’s Spider-Man No Way Home. Again, there is a LOT more to talk about, action scenes that combine practical and CGI effects in ways that take the MCU to new heights, moments of sheer hype that will make u scream in your seat, cameos that show you the MCU is embracing parts that many thought it never would (hint: watch this week’s Hawkeye episode) and an ending that will leave with a bevy of mixed emotions. We’ll talk about it more in our non-spoiler review(or should we make it a twitter space so you guys can join in? let us know on our twitter page). Either way, this movie IS worth the hype. It does knock it out the park in almost every way and it leaves a new path for Spider-Man that I feel will create an amazing future for him both in and possibly out of the MCU. All we can say is buckle up, because if you’re going to watch this movie(which you should) you’re in for an amazing ride.

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