On December 17, 2021, the highly anticipated movie Spider-Man: No Way Home dropped for people across the United States to see. Just like so many, I was at the theatre ready for the cinematic experience of seeing one of my favorite heroes on the big screen again after the cliffhanger in the end credits scene of the last movie. 

So what did I actually think of the movie? Going into a film as highly anticipated as this one, you could find yourself leaving the theatre disappointed like you were expecting something more. That was not the case with this movie. I left the theatre absolutely blown away — it completely exceeded any expectations I had for the movie. It was a nice piece of the puzzle fitting in wonderfully with the rest of the Marvel Comics Universe (MCU). 

This movie has had theories surrounding it since its announcement, whether it be characters who might show up in the film, how it will fit into the rest of the universe, and, on the more saddening end, who might die. Marvel has been desperately trying to keep all of these surprises under wraps, and it was worth the wait. So, if you have any desire to see this movie and you haven’t seen it yet, I would recommend waiting to read the rest of this article and reading another until you get the chance. 

My overall rating: 9.3/10 

-SPOILER ALERT- 

Our movie begins where Spider-man: Far From Home left off with the villain of the last film, Mysterio, revealing Peter Parker’s identity to the world. The world was quick to turn on Parker and his friends, making their journey to attempt to get into colleges especially difficult. I honestly loved how small this issue felt next to everything else that has happened in the movies because it was; it puts it into perspective that Parker is still just a kid trying to live the most normal life he can. 

As his world seems to crumble around him, coming with the suspicion of murder placed on him, Parker has police officers interrogating him, people protesting against him, and people throwing bricks in his window. He’s advised to lawyer up and his lawyer winds up being none other than Matt Murdock, also known as Daredevil. You could feel the excitement in the theatre when the camera panned to his face. The introduction of Murdock into the MCU opens up so many possibilities for the future, even if he wasn’t in the film for more than one scene. 

When Parker actually goes to meet Dr. Strange to fix his problem with his identity reveal, the spell goes horribly wrong. Even though it gets contained, of course, some people slip through the cracks. When Peter is on the bridge trying to explain why his friends should still be able to get into MIT and Doc Ock shows up, even though you saw Doc in the trailer, it was incredible to see him on screen. Throughout the film, Alfred Molina gave a wonderful performance as his character just as he did in the early 2000s. 

After the encounter with Doc Ock and, briefly, Green Goblin on the bridge, Parker is assigned to collect the villains from other universes and bring them to the sanctum with Dr. Strange. He is perfectly fine doing this until he finds out that if they send them back, that the villains will die in their respective universes. This leads to a beautifully crafted scene where he fights Dr. Strange so he won’t have to send them back because he believes he can cure them. This scene was cool to watch and had nice callbacks to the original Dr. Strange movie with all the effects.

With the help of his friends and his Aunt May, they start the attempts to cure the villains. They succeed with Doc Ock, but it can never be that easy, so of course, something goes wrong when they try to cure Green Goblin. This leads to the villains other than Doc Ock turning their backs on Peter’s original plan to cure them. 

This leads to the death of Aunt May. I remember during the scene hearing her say: “With great power comes great responsibility.” At first, I was thinking about how nice it was that they had her quote uncle Ben until I remembered what happened to Uncle Ben. I thought it was really clever to include that line for her to say as foreshadowing. You know she’s injured, but at first, you think it’s just an homage before what is about to happen sinks in. 

Her death leads Parker to go silent on his friends, while his friend Ned Leeds attempts to summon him, he accidentally summons who everyone was wondering would turn up in this movie: first Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man and then Tobey Maguire’s. The moment Garfield’s Spider-man took his mask off the entire theatre was cheering, the same thing happened a few moments later with Maguire’s reveal. 

When Tom Holland’s Peter Parker eventually meets up with the other two, the chemistry between all of them is incredible. They all played their characters awkwardly in the best way just like the character was written to be. With wonderfully witty interactions from all of them leaving the entire audience cracking up. Such as the moment with Maguire’s Parker actually shoots the web out of his arm, something completely foreign to both Holland and Garfield’s Spider-Man. 

As they prepare for the final battle there are plenty of allusions to the previous movies. Maguire’s Parker calls Garfield “amazing,” just like in the title of his film.

As the final battle commenced, I loved how the humor was tied in with all the action. But then Holland’s Spider-man’s MJ falls from the bridge; just like in Garfield’s movies, the scene was clearly designed to mirror the fall of Gwen Stacy. As Holland’s Parker is knocked out of the way, unable to save her, Garfield’s Parker is able to. He finally gets a second chance, not to save the girl he loves this time, but this time to spare another version of him that same pain. 

Maguire’s Parker also undergoes a form of healing through the movie, as he prevents Holland’s Parker from killing Green Goblin, which he believes was a mistake in his universe. Maguire’s Parker is clearly played as the older and wiser one, which worked really well in this movie, as both other versions needed a mentor at this point in time. 

As the world’s memory of Peter Parker is erased to stop the entire multiverse from collapsing into one universe, Holland’s Parker says goodbye to the people he knew and cared for. The ending leaves a bittersweet but hopeful taste in your mouth. However, it also leaves a lot of questions: Will we ever see the other Spider-man’s again? What about Matt Murdock? What’s his future role to play? After a slight reference to Miles Morales, will we see him in future MCU films? How will Parker keep his promise to make his friends remember him? All of these of course aren’t going to be answered for a while, but I’m hoping whatever movie or movies answer these questions will be just as worth the wait as this one.