Instantly loathing the publicity of being outed by the press, Spider-Man hits up the Sanctum Sanctorum to ask Dr. Strange for some mystical assistance. They cast a spell of wiped memory and screw it up, reality is torn, familiar faces invade different spaces... you know this, you've seen the trailer. It's the Sony/MCU equivalent of X-Men: Days of Future Past, with a stream of old band members coming out of retirement for a jam-packed farewell concert.
One might hope that the results are a smidge better than that old X-Men reunion, and they are, but No Way Home also suffers from many of the same problems. Primarily, the overwhelming urge to stuff as much crap on the screen as possible, even when the audience is already exhausted. It tries to serve too many masters and, in the end, sufficiently serves none. There's fun to be had, especially when the oddball mix-and-match super-characters get the chance to escape the trappings of a broader storyline and simply converse as individuals. Those accessible human interactions have been a big strength for the two preceding Marvel Spider-Man flicks, and they reap great benefits here, each time the old guard mingles with the new.
I wish we had more such moments, but the push to turn the MCU's most grounded franchise into another big-time tent pole attraction demands otherwise. In reaching for the next major event, they've overlooked the "neighborhood" part of "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man." Actually, they might've forgotten the "friendly" part, too, because there's a whole bunch of angst spinning around Tom Holland's central performance. But that's more excusable: Peter Parker goes through a lot over the course of this hundred-fifty minutes, he progresses and matures as a character, and he's experienced equally dark times in the comics.
No, the performances aren't the issue here, nor is the dialogue, which remains snappy and delightful. The primary culprit is the plot, bloating and careening in indeterminate (and often mindless) directions, making a lot of noise but not making a lot of sense. Dr. Strange hand-waves many explanations under the guise of mysticism, which is basically his thing, but so do the various Spider-Men. Important members of the supporting cast are marginalized and under-served. The city of New York, once an essential ingredient, is now barely a backdrop. Goalposts are moved, overshadowed, and then moved again. Rumor has it that script re-writes were still underway during filming, and it shows.
This is messy. Lots of fun on certain occasions, but stifling and sludgy in others. It's a mixed bag, leaning more to the positive than the negative, but I don't know that I'm content with the way everything wraps up in the end. Where Homecoming and Far From Home both left me charged and anxious for the next step, No Way Home put me in a place of quiet acceptance. Feels like the franchise has aged, and that's not a great thing.
One might hope that the results are a smidge better than that old X-Men reunion, and they are, but No Way Home also suffers from many of the same problems. Primarily, the overwhelming urge to stuff as much crap on the screen as possible, even when the audience is already exhausted. It tries to serve too many masters and, in the end, sufficiently serves none. There's fun to be had, especially when the oddball mix-and-match super-characters get the chance to escape the trappings of a broader storyline and simply converse as individuals. Those accessible human interactions have been a big strength for the two preceding Marvel Spider-Man flicks, and they reap great benefits here, each time the old guard mingles with the new.
I wish we had more such moments, but the push to turn the MCU's most grounded franchise into another big-time tent pole attraction demands otherwise. In reaching for the next major event, they've overlooked the "neighborhood" part of "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man." Actually, they might've forgotten the "friendly" part, too, because there's a whole bunch of angst spinning around Tom Holland's central performance. But that's more excusable: Peter Parker goes through a lot over the course of this hundred-fifty minutes, he progresses and matures as a character, and he's experienced equally dark times in the comics.
No, the performances aren't the issue here, nor is the dialogue, which remains snappy and delightful. The primary culprit is the plot, bloating and careening in indeterminate (and often mindless) directions, making a lot of noise but not making a lot of sense. Dr. Strange hand-waves many explanations under the guise of mysticism, which is basically his thing, but so do the various Spider-Men. Important members of the supporting cast are marginalized and under-served. The city of New York, once an essential ingredient, is now barely a backdrop. Goalposts are moved, overshadowed, and then moved again. Rumor has it that script re-writes were still underway during filming, and it shows.
This is messy. Lots of fun on certain occasions, but stifling and sludgy in others. It's a mixed bag, leaning more to the positive than the negative, but I don't know that I'm content with the way everything wraps up in the end. Where Homecoming and Far From Home both left me charged and anxious for the next step, No Way Home put me in a place of quiet acceptance. Feels like the franchise has aged, and that's not a great thing.