'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Review: Things get dark for Peter Parker in emotional spidey film

Things can't end better than this for Holland if at all this is his last outing as the web-slinger
Zendaya and Tom Holland as MJ and Peter Parker in a still from 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' (Sony)
Zendaya and Tom Holland as MJ and Peter Parker in a still from 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' (Sony)

Spoilers for 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'

For someone who's watched all the 'Spider-Man' movies so far, including the ones that saw Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield starring as the web-slinging superhero, 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' starring a baby-faced Tom Holland is a bit of a tearjerker. This is the culmination of the whole 'Homecoming' series, and Peter Parker, as the world famously knows him, sees him go through his darkest and emotional phase yet. There are quite a few spoilers embedded in this review, so here's another warning after the customary alert.

Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is now a branded vigilante. He's dubbed to be the unnecessary evil especially after Mysterio unmasks his identity and dies a hero. The news becomes the only thing the world is interested in and threatens to destroy not just Peter's life, but also his bestie Ned (Jacob Batalon) and his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya). Things take a turn for the worse when he approaches Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for a spell that can reverse all of it, only to botch things up spectacularly.

Just when Strange begins to cast a spell against Wong's (Benedict Wong) instructions, Peter makes quite a few changes as he begs to not include MJ, then Ned, followed by his aunt and even Happy. So the spell fails, and the worst comes in when others from the Multiverse manage to wade their way in. The rogue group includes Norman Osborne/Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Dr Otto Octavius/Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) and Max Dillon/Electro (Jamie Foxx), and when there is a solution at hand, he just manages to make things messy despite his good intentions.

What 'Spiderman: No Way Home' does is offer immense fan service, that evokes cheers, whoops, and gasps in equal measure — something that was sore absence after the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the whole of 2020 and leaving skepticism even though the virus is brought to control. The movie is certainly, and stating the obvious, a moolah raker. It saves the day for the movie biz and does so without disappointing the world. Jon Watts is back to add his own dose of magic that is brought to life with screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Summers adding the freshness.

The crisp writing makes for wonderful viewing. Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon make this another scintillating affair, and the villains and the surprising cameos (Matt Murdock fans, rejoice) will surely leave the audiences stunned. To be frank, this movie, although will breach the billion mark, certainly deserves to make so much more. Things can't end better than this for Holland if at all this is his last outing as the web-slinger. 

'Spider-Man: No Way Home' releases December 17 in the US.

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