Spider-Man: No Way Home
“Spider-Man : No Way Home”
Let me kick this one off by saying that if you haven't seen this movie yet SPOILERS AHEAD!!! I feel like there is enough that has already been circulating in the ether about this movie that a spoiler filled review is fine. This marks the third and easily the best feature film collaboration for the web crawler between Sony and Marvel studios to hit the big screen. This is a shining example of “if you give the people what they have been telling you they want they will give you all their money” judging by this films ridiculous opening weekend performance of $613 Million dollars world wide box office and it is sitting currently at $1.13 Billion World wide box office take! Folks those are record breaking numbers for a pre-pandemic world much less in a world still in the throws of one.
We pickup right were we left Peter after the events of Far From Home after being outed by Mysterio to the world. We of course have our usual cast of characters from the previous films in this series and they are all killing it. The real treats in this film are the returning players from the pre-Marvel MCU Sony only Spider-Man franchises who arrive via a botched Doctor Strange spell to erase the damage that Mysterio has done to Peters life by revealing his secret identity to the world. They are strangers in a strange land where things are similar to their world but still just a bit off. The one thing that hasn't changed in this multi-verse adventure is they are all still wanting to take a crack at Spider-Man. I cant state enough just how fun this movie is. Of course for a Marvel nerd and altogether super hero movie fan like me this movie is pure joy. The villains are complex and layered and of course it doesn't hurt that they are all played by incredible actors that all seem to have been genuinely thrilled to comeback and play again. Of course though the biggest and best treat of all is the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as the Spider-Men from their respective Sam Raimi and Marc Webb Spider-Man movie series.
They come together to help the MCU Peter put his world back right and to heal and return the villains to their respective Multi-verse homes not kill them. It is so much fun and to be quite honest Garfield’s Spider-Man steals this movie at the end. Which is something I was not expecting not being the biggest fan of the Webb Spider-Man films. They all get redemption and resolution to a certain extent and they do what the comics do best with the character. They give you laughs, fantastic stories and true and devastating consequences. This is about as good as a comic book movie can ever get and I truly hope that Marvel takes a cue from this movie and does something really fun to introduce the other franchises that they have reacquired from the 20th Century Fox buyout into the MCU. If this is any indication as to what we are going to get from Marvel for their future Fantastic Four and X-Men MCU versions then bring it on. 4 out 5
*This movie review was originally published in The Current River Observer as the River Reels article written by Jeffrey Riggs
