A completely accurate ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ review

First things first, HUGE spoiler warning! 

But if you haven’t watched it by now, what are you even doing here? Go watch it.  

‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ with a budget of $200 million, broke box office records, earning over $1.8billion at the time of this article’s publication… Although it has not surpassed ‘Avengers: Endgame’ or ‘Infinity War,’ it still holds much more value to a true day-one “Spider-Man” fan. The comparison to this movie and the other Spider-Man films is a big one. ‘No Way Home’ has to be considered the best of all time. Still, we can’t forget it would have never been possible without Sony messing up so much. So, let’s all take a minute, and thank Sony. They (unintentionally) were the cause of the greatest film made by man.

But, this does not mean the film did not have its flaws. 

The first thing that confused me was why the Sandman and the Lizard stay in their CGI form the whole time. Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Lizard (Rhys Ifans) never even appeared on set at all. I have compared and contrasted, and it seems they used previous clips from ‘Spider-Man 3’ and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ for the characters during their on-screen time… If you have watched both of those older films, you’re aware that Dr. Connors and Flint Marco were in their human forms for a good portion of the films. Visual effects supervisor Kelly Port has not released much reasoning behind the lack of appearance on the two or this fan theory. Confirmed information and in-depth explanations of the CGI behind the movie and characters will be linked here!

Then, of course, Matt freaking Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox) shows up. It is now canon that Peter and Matt live in the same universe together, which was kind of proven as well when we saw Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) featured in ‘Hawkeye’ following his debut in ‘Daredevil.’ But, I thought it could have been a look-alike variant. 

I’m hoping to see Spider-Man and Daredevil cross paths in the future trilogy because their friendship in the comics is hysterical. If you want to read more on Matt Murdock, check out “3 years after cancellation, Daredevil is a must-watch once again” featured on 42Fifty. 

The movie had a fun sense of humor between the villains while including well-known memes, which was entertaining for the knowing generations. We got the amazing acting and the character development we never knew we needed from Dr. Octopus/Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), Green Goblin/Dr. Norman Osborne (William Dafoe), and Electro/Maxwell Dillion (Jamie Foxx). 

Electro taking on the role of the comedic relief was a good move on the film’s part. His little remarks and comments were very funny along with seeing more of his new personality (and a makeover, including the whole not-being-blue-anymore thing). 

Norman spoke his famous and often-memed line, “You know, I’m something of a scientist myself.” Not many people caught on to that. But, almost everyone did find Peter one, two, and three recreating the pointing at each other Spider-Man meme very appropriate. 

Back to the villains. One of my favorite scenes was Peter using his peter tingle to sense Norman switching into Goblin. The pan out of the camera, the blurry visual effects, and the acting on everyone’s part were amazing. William Dafoe was scarily remarkable in this scene. I’m so glad that they tapped more into showing Norman’s split personality turning him into Green Goblin. Along with Goblin finally showing how strong of an effect the Oscorp serum had on him mentally and physically. He was stronger than an average man in ‘Spider-Man 3,’ but was nerfed nonetheless.

Everyone knows Tom has proven to be the strongest Spider-Man amongst the three, yet Goblin was Batista bombing him through concrete and smiling at his punches. Which might I add, was quite scary. Not long after, he kills Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). This was not too shocking. I saw it coming, but I did indeed sob. 

There was a slight rewording to the iconic movie quote, “With great power comes great responsibility” to “With great power, there must also come–great responsibility.” They reworded the quote so it is now accurate to the comic! In the original comic, Uncle Ben worded it this way. This means they changed it to the true words of Stan Lee. Crying again. 

Then five minutes later, I was crying tears of joy from Garfield and Maguire getting introduced on screen. I didn’t even have time to process everything happening. It was an emotional roller coaster. 

Nearing the end of the movie, we get a lot of screen time with the Spider-Men. Garfield said that he has always wanted brothers, and them talking regularly about their lives with one another was so heartwarming. The different displays of each of the Spider-Men, such as the landing poses, suits, and personalities; were perfect. 

Now, everyone loved Garfield catching MJ as his redemption for losing Gwen the same way. Do not get me wrong, I loved it too. But do I happen to be the only one who thought it was rushed? I think they should have taken the time to slow-mo the scene more and create more dramatic suspense. I did notice he took a different approach to save MJ after his web hand did not catch Gwen in time, understandably. But the scene lasted six seconds, I just wished it was longer. 

Nonetheless, I was in such a good mood the whole time after. That is until Holland turned completely dark after seeing Green Goblin for the first time after May’s death. He wasn’t holding anything back, and the acting performance was so real and terrifying. Bully Holland..? 

I am glad Maguire stopped him from committing murder, but after Goblin stabbed him… 

That just gave me trust issues. If Maguire would have died, I would’ve rioted. 

Watching Peter lose all of his loved ones and need to start over completely made me so sad. He went through so much at such a young age; Marvel needs to pay for my therapy. But as viewers, we can all say we’re excited to see Peter grow up and mature on his own. This will cause a ton of character development and perhaps a more comic-accurate Spider-Man.

New love interests will be introduced, which I am really happy about. Love Zendaya and Holland’s relationship, but I have the pass on MJ and Peter. No one can top Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy) and Andrew Garfield for me, but I sure would like to see them try. Lastly, his new suit is amazing, and we only saw a little glimpse of it. That makes up for the strong disliking I had for his suit used in ‘No Way Home.’ I can’t be the only one who thought it was ugly. 

If you’re interested in reading more on Spider-Man and Marvel takes, we have many articles featured on the 42Fifty website, go check them out! 

Final Thoughts 

1. Peter should never have said math is cooler than magic, that just isn’t true.
2. Instead of a ‘Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness’ trailer, there should have shown scenes from Tobey and Andrew in their universes. 
3. Marvel tried tricking me into believing Ned and MJ had developed a relationship at the end of the movie; not cool. 
4. Lizard’s CGI kind of looked dumb; I preferred ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ look.
5. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone should have gotten married in real life; love is dead. 
6. Matt Murdock is a really good lawyer. 
7. I loved this movie. 

Let me know your thoughts and opinions, please and thank you.