Hype is defined as promoting or publicizing (a product or idea) intensively, often exaggerating its importance or benefits.
It has always been my belief things are more overhyped than overrated. There comes a point where the hype is so big, nothing can live up to that expectation. We have seen this in the movie industry for decades, so when something gets hyped, such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, it can never live up to those expectations, but let me tell you as one of the privileged people in attendance last night at the world premiere in Hollywood, it gets pretty darn close.
At this point, I am giving a…
LIGHT SPOILERS WARNING!!!!!
I will not be giving any major plot twists or surprises, but if you want to go into the movie totally blind, I’d suggest stopping here because I will be speaking on a few plot points.
The key to any movie is the protagonist and the antagonist. You have to care about both to make a movie work. I always thought Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was a little handicapped as a protagonist because he never seemed like the star in his own movies. The joke is he is Iron Man Jr, so he doesn’t have his own identity.
I am not sure if Marvel heard those complaints or this was their plan all along, but in NO WAY HOME, you see the real Peter Parker and the real Spider-Man and what that really means to people like myself who have grown up watching Spider-Man for 20+ years. Tom Holland gives his best performance ever. If this weren’t a Superhero movie, it would be considered Oscar-worthy. He is truly that good in the film. It harkens back to Spider-Man 2 who many agree is the best Spider-Man film of all time, and that is because Tobey Maguire goes through so much before really understanding the complexity of what it means to be a superhero that you have to give up a lot. You know, with Great Power comes Great Responsibility.
Sadly, the antagonists in the movie (The Sinister 5) don’t work as well, but it appears their purpose wasn’t so much to be great foes to Spider-Man but to give him an opportunity to find out what type of Spider-Man he wants to be going forward. Jamie Foxx brings the comic relief and does have a few excellent one-liners. You can tell Alfred Molina and William Dafoe are LOVING being back in the universe. Sandman and The Lizard are in the movie, but that is about as much as I can say about them, nothing to write home about.
The movie’s general plot is pretty much what you see in the trailers. There is nothing tricky about it. Peter is outed by Mysterio, which causes major problems for his family and friends. He asks Dr. Strange to make people forget he is Spider-Man. The spell is messed up, allowing the villains to enter into his universe.
Strange wants to immediately send them back even if they die in their own universe, and Peter wants to save them.
That part is pretty straightforward, and one of the critiques of the movie is the Mysterio part is wrapped up quickly, I mean really quickly, as in they spend almost no time wrapping it up with little to no explanation of how Peter who was accused of mass murder gets to walk away from that so easily.
One of the things that all Spider-Man franchises have gotten correct is the dynamic between the Spider-Men and their MJ or Gwen.
It was the best part of the Amazing Spider-Man franchise, and it was the glue of the Sami Rami movies. It was slow-moving with Tom Holland and Zendaya’s Spiderman and MJ in the first two movies, and at times it seemed a little forced and unnatural, but in this movie, it clicked 100% and maybe that is because they are dating now, but the chemistry and maybe more importantly the angst Peter feels for bringing MJ into his world is really felt on screen. In the comics, it is something Peter always deals with. He is always trying to protect MJ, and MJ is always trying to protect him in ways that have nothing to do with being a superhero.
They really nail it here, and it carries long parts of the movie when it is just him, MJ, and Ned. The scenes with Aunt May and Happy, where he isn’t Spider-Man, but just Peter Parker, ground the movie.
The plot of this movie is not mind-blowing. The action sequences are things you have seen before, if you have been following things on the internet you won’t be surprised by certain aspects of the movie, but it gives the fans what they want in a Spider-Man film. Sometimes, in the effort to be different and edgy, directors and movie studios forget why people love certain characters so much. It is why certain franchises have died because they try to change too much of the core things people like about the movie.
In the first two MCU movies, Marvel had to make a tough decision in realizing there are so many origins stories you can do. How do we make this different? They did it to a lot of financial success, but as I stated earlier, it still always felt like Spider-Man was a background character in his own movies.
I applaud director Jon Watts and Marvel Studios for realizing it was time to take the training wheels off Spider-Man (no pun intended) and let him be his own man.
In a Spider-Man movie, you expect him to struggle, deal with loss. He isn’t Superman, so he won’t win every fight. You want to see him use his brain to outsmart his opponents, and most importantly, you expect him to make the hard choices that aren’t best for him but what is best for everyone else.
In the end, there is a LOT of fan service in No Way Home. Trust me, you will get everything you wanted and a little more, but the reason the movie works isn’t the fan service and it isn’t all the villains. It isn’t Dr. Strange. It is because, at the end of the movie, you are going to feel for Peter Parker, just a kid for queens who was given this amazing gift but was willing to sacrifice his happiness for the sake of everyone else’s while dealing with the burden of losing people he loves simply because he is Spider-Man.
There was a lot of cheering at the premiere, and there was some crying (some real tears, I was worried for one lady). The movie is two and half hours long, there are at least 20 moments that people will be talking about for a long time, but for me, the final two scenes of the movie are what really sell the point that this is no longer Iron Man Jr.
This is no longer the kid who is just happy to be on the Avengers.
Peter is no longer in the shadows. He is now what he has always been the face of Marvel and now the MAN who can carry the MCU going forward.
The way the movie ends, the next time you see Spider-Man (who I really hope is Tom Holland), he will be totally different for reasons you will see in the movie. I hope they age him up in his early 20s (college years) when he is almost PRIME Spider-Man. I don’t want to give anything away, but it is really genius how they will be able to lure you into another trilogy but how because of the events of this movie, it will feel totally fresh.
There are TWO post-credit scenes, so don’t leave the theatre early. The first one sets up what people have been waiting for a long time for, and the second will get you hype for a new project coming soon.
This was by far the best Spider-Man MCU movie, and I don’t think the Spidey train is slowing down any time soon, and I’ll swing to that.
4.5 out of 5 BSO stars.