One of the latest additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” premiered in theaters on Dec. 17 with wild theories and anxious fans encouraging others not to spoil for what was to come. Now, nearly a month later, Marvel fans are still on the edge of their seats for what’s to come. For those of you who still haven’t seen the film, turn back now, this is your last chance.
To start, I want to express that as a long time Marvel fan, I went through a lot of emotions watching this film. It covered a ton of ground, and seemed to solve the issue of the two Sony owned Spider-Man franchises. I was curious to see how this issue would be solved plot wise since the release of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies — and honestly I was pleasantly surprised.
While I was a little young for the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, my deep rooted love for the Marvel comics comes partially from the previously non-canon “The Amazing Spider-Man” movies with Andrew Garfield, despite its own set of jarring issues. However, I was over the moon to see both of these faces pop up on my screen again. While some have said their appearances were done haphazardly, I think they were done well and made a lot of sense for the plot of the film, as well as the universe they had stepped into. The choice to have the two previous franchises now make sense in the grand scheme of the well-built Marvel Cinematic Universe brought me so much joy, since my love for Marvel did not necessarily begin with “Captain America: The First Avenger” or “The Avengers.” I know that some felt the same way, since both appearances were met with some applause in the theater I saw it in.
With that being said, another face I was overjoyed to see was that of Matthew Murdock. I wasn’t one that guessed his appearance from the teaser trailer, but I am so glad to see that Daredevil will join the MCU –— and will be played by the incredible Charlie Cox. I was a fan when the show came to Netflix in 2015, watched every season (including the “Defenders”) –— and was definitely upset when I found that after a pretty successful run of the show, it would be left alone, without acknowledgement in the MCU canon. And while this still does not necessarily mean that the Netflix produced shows for the Defenders are a part of the canon, the fact that the door is kicked open for them is exciting enough for me. I credit this show to another chunk of my deep rooted love for Marvel. For those reading who haven’t watched “Daredevil” yet, I cannot express enough how much the show is worth a watch. While I hope that Matthew Murdock and his compatriots in Hell’s Kitchen will be put in the right creative hands, I am so excited at the possibility of seeing him more often.
Now, outside of all of the mess that Jon Watts and Kevin Feige seemed to fix in one fell swoop, the film itself really impressed me. While I will agree with the fact that the film is not perfect — and is filled with many references from across the extensive cinematic universe, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was a fabulous bookend to Marvel’s phase four. The plot did wonders for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, since he gets to revert back to the street-level hero Spider-Man is, without going back on the different and clever plots that Jon Watts established in the last two films Holland stars in. I enjoyed the acting from the entirety of its core cast — and their ability to tackle this darker storyline after the last two films, without going back on their lighthearted performances that made the last two Spider-Man films work so well. There was even some cinematography that I was quite impressed with, which for me saying that about a Marvel movie says a lot. The bones I have to pick are minimal, but have been pointed out by several fans that I agree with.
One is that there are a couple of huge plot holes in the film, that unravels pretty much the whole plot. Not only could Peter have just wished Mysterio away when talking to Doctor Strange, he also simply could have just called MIT to get his friends into college on his behalf. Second, while I can write essays about how good of a film this was for the Marvel franchise, it is unfortunately pretty muddled with references across multiple franchises that simply would make no sense to the average movie goer. One hill that I will die on is that Marvel films can afford to be more accessible, and this film should be no exception due to how popular it got. However, outside of this, despite the dark and rather sad storylines that this particular film presents in the scheme of the MCU, this quickly shot to my top 10 favorites.
If you know your way around Marvel projects and haven’t seen this yet– — what are you doing? If you don’t — good luck.
