Reel Review Roundup

Spider-Man: No Way Home (M)

Directed by: Jon Watts

Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch

Review by: Julian Wright

Fan service packs an emotional punch in this epic finale to the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man trilogy.

Now that Spider-Man’s true identity has been revealed (as per Spider-Man: Far From Home’s cliffhanger), Peter Parker (Tom Holland) finds that his life, and the lives of those he loves, is impacted even further.

The entire world is now watching the awkward teenager as he tries to live a normal high school life, he and his family are interrogated by the Department of Damage Control and his friend’s MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) applications to colleges are immediately rejected.

Peter turns to Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help, but a spell to make people forget that he is Spider-Man is corrupted, which brings in villains from alternate universes.

Bringing in characters from past iterations of the big screen Spider-Man stories appears to be blatant fan service at first – let’s face it, everyone loves a good easter egg and a call-back these day – but writers Chris McKenna and Eric Sommers and director Jon Watts take care to make sure they are woven into the story to be an intricate part of it.

This isn’t nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia and the chance to please a bunch of fanboys with a quick cameo or six – they begin to impact Peter’s emotional state, help him discover things about himself and challenge others. They also, in turn, get their own moments to develop and grow – and interact with each other once again or for the first time, with great emotional resonance.

Without giving too much away, some of these moments are cinematic highs that even the most casual superhero viewer can appreciate.

No Way Home evokes memories of when The Avengers finally brought all the Marvel superheros, established in their own individual films, together and the satisfaction that they all had equal screen time, had opportunity to contribute to the story and were allowed their moments to establish pathos among the word-saving.

It is a sensationally satisfying ride of action, humour and most importantly emotion that is sure to make even the most fatigued cinema-goer fist pump the air and shed the occasional tear.

This entry was posted on December 19, 2021 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.