Ahh the Tom Holland Spider-Man films. You either love them or you don’t. For the final entry into the MCU trilogy, director Jon Watts was “far from conservative” in his scope for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

As the film opens, it picks up right after the end of its penultimate entry, Spider-Man: Far from Home. Peter Parker has been outed by Mysterio as Spider-Man. This starts to ruin his life, leading to his eventual arrest. Peter and Aunt May end up getting a really good lawyer in Matt Murdock (Murdock, aka Daredevil, has his role reprised from the Netflix show by Charlie Cox). After the exposure of his identity ruins Peter, Ned, and MJ’s chances of getting into MIT, Peter decides to take his troubles to his “good friend,” Steven Strange.

After convincing him to cast a spell on everyone in the world to hide his identity, he keeps asking for revisions to exclude his loved ones. Peter’s requests mess with Strange’s ability to properly cast the spell, causing a mistake that would expose the complexity of the Multiverse. This infuriates Strange and he kicks out Spider-Man, with seemingly no damage done, as he traps the spell in a lockbox. 

After the spell fails and the Multiverse opens, Peter has his motive for this film: to save his friend’s lives and return them back to normal- just an average crisis for Spider-Man. Along the way, some old friends show up: Dr. Otto Octavius, “somewhat of a scientist” in Norman Osborn, Electro, The Lizard, and Sandman (all being played by their respective actors from previous adaptations). Their goal is simple: finish off the spell so the multiverse will be ripped open into every conceivable reality.

With the help of Strange, Peter is able to trap all of these iterations of the “Sinister Six,” tree included, in cages to wait to be sent back to their realities, and in most cases, to die. This leads Peter to fight Strange and eventually trap him in the mirror dimension while he attempts to save all of the villains from their fate. With this, Ned ends up with Strange’s ring (used to cast spells). Using Stark tech and the help of Osborn, Peter finds a way to save Octavius, but with Osborn and Electro attacking Peter, it leaves him to fight to protect his Aunt’s life, as well as his own. To everyone’s shock, Aunt May ends up getting killed by an explosion, sending Peter spiraling. 

Meanwhile, Ned and MJ have possession of the spell box and were desperately waiting for Peter, knowing that if something started to go wrong with his plan, they would have to release the spell. Ned accidentally conjures a portal which, at his request, shines through to show Peter Parker, but something seems off. When he jumps out, it is clear what has happened; Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man has ended up in this universe. Even more confused and scared than before, Ned casts a spell to find “Peter Parker” and another shadowy figure appears and much to everyone’s surprise, Peter Parker, played by Tobey Maguire, appears and has a confrontation with his other self.

The new group is able to find the right Peter and they get to work making cures for all of their old villains. The final set piece takes place at the Statue of Liberty with a newly added Captain America Shield instead of the usual torch. After an awesome final battle, and more than a few funny moments between the trio of Peters, the spell box starts to lose control of the spell, and to save the universe Peter decides to make everyone forget him- EVERYONE. The final scene of one of the most ambitious and fun MCU movies ends with sadness, but that’s okay. 

This film has everything a superhero movie should have: fun, action, heartbreak, excitement, shock, and re-watch value! Tom Holland is a more than enjoyable Spider-Man, although Tobey and Andrew steal the show. For me, Spider-Man has always been my second favorite superhero, behind Batman, and this movie does the character justice. All in all, while this film will probably be seen at a fan service in the future, it is extremely fun, especially for Spider-Man fans. On top of that, with the Infinity Saga in the rearview, this film sets up a plethora of desired offshoots in the future, including Multiverse versions of characters we’ve seen in the MCU before. To close, if you haven’t seen this movie, it’s too late as you’ve read this article, but even without the shock of the latter half, it is still a phenomenal watch. 

9.2 / 10