Spider-Man: Please Come Home

By Josh Lancman ‘24
It’s not difficult to imagine how “Spider-Man: No Way Home” got started. Anyone who’s ever watched a Spider-Man movie in the past twenty years has had the thought in their head. It’s practically the ultimate superhero movie fan fantasy; what if all three cinematic Spider-Men— Tobey Maguire, from the first “Spider-Man” trilogy, Andrew Garfield from first and second “The Amazing Spider-Man’s, and now MCU’s Tom Holland, were in one movie together? The possibilities are endless. 

And yet, when they all finally get together, it’s only for a few brief and predictable minutes. 
More spoilers follow. 
As was obviously expected from the very moment Disney gained near complete creative control over the Spider-Man intellectual property, many of the characters from the previous two Spider-Man series are prominently featured in this film, including, as fans have fantasized about for years, the two previous Spider-Men: Tobey Magurie and Andrew Garfield. How the movie introduces them is, however, a surprisingly creative and ingenious method that perfectly fits in with the Tom Holland Spider-Man character. 
At the end of the previous film, “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” Spider-Man was framed for a terrorist attack, and, most importantly, had his secret identity of Peter Parker revealed to the world, which messes up not only his life, but his friends’ and his family’s. News helicopters circle around his house; his aunt is accosted on the street; his friends are denied entrance into every college they apply to. To say this flips the character’s entire world on its head is an understatement, and while “Far From Home” was a bland superhero movie mainly designed to transition out of the mind-numbing climax of “Avengers: Endgame,” the after credits scene where this game-changing event took place left me with at least a little excitement for how “No Way Home” would execute on that premise. 
And execute this film does. Holland’s Spider-Man, as his previous films have shown, is immediately willing to lay his life on the line to help others. His heroic ethos is revealed in his very first scene, as he attempts to justify the reasons for his heroism to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s original superhero, Iron Man. “When you can do the things that I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you,” he says. It’s a fantastic restatement of the classic, “With great power comes great responsibility” line, and it shows us who this Spider-Man is. He’s not someone who might give up the mantle because it’s taking up too much time from his life, instead he’d be willing to give up that life just to save a few innocent civilians. 
That he resorts to magic spells (from Dr. Strange, in a brilliant moment of world-building) in an attempt to undo the damage his identity reveal has done to all those around him fits with his character perfectly. The rest of the film, as he tries to repair the mistake of casting that spell, builds on his character, and the surprising climax where he practically sacrifices his life feels like a completely natural conclusion. 
Most importantly however is how the characters from other Spider-Man franchises are integrated into “No Way Home.” This movie accomplishes that on a vague technicality, but it speeds along so quickly from an explanation that it really doesn’t matter. Something something magic, something something multiverses, Doc Ock and Green Goblin are in the MCU. 
The plot then revolves around trying to undo the spell and stop the supervillains. 
That this would be the plot for “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is both predictable and surprising. It was a guarantee from when this movie was first announced that earlier versions of characters would be in it; the how, with an ingenious multiversal device caused by the main character’s own totally plausible mistakes, is what makes this film feel completely fresh. Yet despite that, it suffers under the weight of its own ambition. 
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is the culmination of over twenty years, eight films and three actors of Spider-Man, and it certainly wants you to feel that. The film is imbued with a grandiose sense of its own importance: it believes that Spider-Man is the most important character in cinematic history, through the lingering establishing shots of reintroduced fan-favorite characters, each begging for audience applause, the pandering restatements of famous quotes (if they say “The power of the sun, (dramatic pause) in the palm of my hand” one more time…) and the retconning of the bad Spider-Man movies (despite what Garfield may say, Jamie Foxx’s Electro was not the sweetest guy ever in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”, and in spite of Maguire’s assertions, “Spider-Man 3” was not heartbreaking), this movie really wants you to love its main character. 
And how can you not? 
“No Way Home” may be full of itself, and the basic premise of its plot might be predictable, and it maybe has too many moments referencing past ones to pander to fans, but gosh-darn it, I am a fan and I can honestly say that I love Spider-Man, and this movie makes me love Spider-Man even more. At least, sometimes it does.
The self-referential moments do drag the film down one too many times. While it might be intriguing to think about how Garfield and Holland might react to seeing Maguire’s natural web-shooters, it’s cringe-worthy to see on screen. And while it excites me to see Alfred Molina as Doc Ock talk to Maguire again, it feels odd to see it in a movie not directed by Sam Raimi. 
In fact, the same goes for all characters coming from the original “Spider-Man'' trilogy; they feel more at home with the bright colors, wacky editing, grand music and cheesy dialogue of Riami’s movies, and seem oddly out of place in the gray world of the MCU. In fact, for those few characters from “The Amazing Spider-Man '' series, they have to be completely changed so as to not ruin this movie like they did their own. Foxx drags down “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” as Electro, and Garfield is a surprisingly boring and uninteresting Spider-Man in his own movies. Yet those characters in “No Way Home'' feel fully fresh; it’s like they were completely rewritten and repaired for this movie. 
“No Way Home” tends to rely mostly on references to the past films, which in turn makes it feel self-inflated. The constant idealization of Spider-Man and his mythology will turn off anyone who doesn’t already love the character. 
Yet most people do, so this movie works incredibly well. The glorification of Spider-Man feels completely natural, because, as any fan of the character believes, he deserves to be glorified with a self-important film like this. “No Way Home” is like a narcissist who’s actually a great person; it's understandable why they’re so self-absorbed, and so we can’t help but feed their ego. 
But what “No Way Home” mainly suffers from is not self-inflation by Spider-Man, but by plot. It is too big and far reaching a story to do in even two-and-a-half-hours without making something feel missing, and here, what’s missing is comprehensibility. While shockingly well paced and decently well edited, “No Way Home” moves so quickly from plot point to plot point that none of the ideas have any time to really sink in. Even the premise of the film, that Peter’s revealed identity is ruining his and everyone around him’s lives, is slightly rushed to get to the meat of the story. It feels overstuffed. 
Holland’s three solo films as Spiderman have increased in scale as they’ve gone on. “Spiderman: Homecoming’s” main villain, the Vulture (Michael Keaton), was a normal criminal with some advanced technology trying to pull off a heist. “Far From Home’s” was a disgruntled genius, Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhall), who attempts to become Earth’s next superhero without any powers. 
Now, “No Way Home” has five villains and the stakes revolve around the destruction of the entire multiverse. These films get far too big, far too fast, without a natural progression, making “No Way Home” overblown.
“Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse,” the animated Spider-Man film from a few years prior, accomplishes combining numerous disparate elements of the Spider-Man mythos and character into a real movie in a far better manner than “No Way Home,” without feeling overstuffed. In fact, seeing this most recent film has just made me want to watch “Into the Spider-Verse” again. But despite its high quality, nothing can beat the raw emotional intensity of “Spider-Man 2,” the best Spider-Man movie ever made. See this film if you love or even like Spider-Man, but watch (or most likely, if you love Spider-Man already, rewatch) those two films because they are the best available cinematic representations of this character. 
While Holland is immediately the hero, Maguire and Shameik Moore (as Miles Morales in “Spider-Verse” must struggle realistically with all the consequences and effects of being Spider-Man. And that sort of realism is what I love about this character. I only get that in “No Way Home” infrequently, and it moves far too fast to ever sink in. 
6/10