“Spider-Man: No Way Home” – Nick’s review with LOTS OF SPOILERS
** WARNING **
** DOUBLE SECRET WARNING!!! **
** SERIOUSLY, SPOILERS AHEAD!!! **
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Ok, non-spoiler first! I told my dad, Tom, that I was going to see the movie. My dad is 74 and the only Marvel movie he’s ever seen is “Black Panther”. Here’s what he told me about SpiderMan:
My dad’s review of #SpiderManNoWayHome (a movie he hasn’t seen and that’s not in theaters yet):
— Nick McIlwain (@NickMcIlwain1) December 14, 2021
“Spiderman flew around and solved some problems.”
Again, PLEASE STOP reading this if you haven’t seen the movie yet. I’m going to write about many of the details!
Regarding “No Way Home”, here are few thoughts, in no particular order:
They handled the re-introduction of the other Peter Parkers SO incredibly well. We saw the best of what Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield brought to the role when they wore the Spidey suit. It was nostalgic without being schmaltzy and reminded me why I loved Tobey and really really liked Andrew. I got emotional just LOOKING at those guys a few times. Their interactions with Tom Holland were perfect. The connections to Uncle Ben and MJ and Gwen and the other MJ and Aunt May were touching and showed the strength of Peter’s heart.
The villains were terrific, too. Willem Dafoe is such a great actor with so much range, but my only complaint from the original movie was that the Green Goblin mask covered his face too much! I love seeing that guy emote and his facial expressions are a HUGE part of what make him as good as he is, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see a lot of that 20 years ago. In this movie, we saw it over and over and I LOVED IT!
Jamie Foxx stopped overacting and let his skill shine. Alfred Molina was flawless. I mean FLAWLESS. He picked up right where he left off in 2004’s “Spider-Man 2”. Thomas Haden Church and Rhys Ifans were cool, even though we didn’t really see their non-CGI selves very much.
They (and by “they”, I mean MCU guru Kevin Feige, as well as the writers and director: Jon Watts, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers) didn’t over-villain this movie. “Over-villain” is a new word. Try to use it in a sentence today. Tobey looked great. Andrew looked great. And um, when Tom Holland took his shirt off at the beginning of the movie, wow. He must do sit-ups.
I LOVED the score and was humming Michael Giacchino’s theme as I was falling asleep when I got home after the screening. Here’s a fun little post from his Twitter account:
Happy @SpiderManMovie week!! Check out ol’ Christopher here, killing the Spider-Man theme on #trombone ! Love it. Nice playing, @classicalbone ! https://t.co/E510Igtce0
— Michael Giacchino (@m_giacchino) December 14, 2021
The bonus/extra post-credits scene was the first time (I think) to be a flat-out commercial for the next movie. I mean, it wasn’t a brief glimpse or scene for the next Dr. Strange movie; it was a flat out teaser trailer for “Multiverse of Madness”. Of course, it looks incredibly cool, but that wasn’t a coda to “No Way Home”; rather, it was “here’s what’s coming next!”
I can’t wait for more friends to see this movie so I can talk to them about it!
One friend who DID see the movie, Craig Liggeons of the Comic Book Gurus, shares his thoughts:
I saw a movie tonight 🤫 pic.twitter.com/4irsKd8P8w
— Craig Liggeons (@CraigLiggeons) December 15, 2021
“WORTH IT. The trailers. The speculation. Even the spoilers. Even if you already know who’s going to be in it and what happens; Doesn’t matter! This film matches the hype! Best Spider-Man movie ever (and that includes INTO THE SPIDERVERSE)!”
And for more from the Comic Book Gurus, check out their Twitter account!
You’ve been warned #SpiderManNoWayHome pic.twitter.com/yaNREOhSZS
— Comic Book Gurus Podcast (@ComicBookGurus) December 14, 2021
ICYMI:
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME – The Official Trailer