Spiderman: No Way Home
Carolina De La Rocque
Recap
This is the first time the general audience got to experience the “unimaginable possibilities in the Marvel multi-universe” in movie theatres, with one of the most historic crossovers of all time. Spiderman: No Way Home starts immediately following the post credits of Far From Home, when Mysterio reveals Peter’s identity to the world. Peter resorts to Doctor Stephen Strange to adjust the consequences of his identity being unveiled; his memory spell has unforeseen consequences and leads to visitors from other universes — who knew that Peter was Spiderman — being pulled into Earth 616.
Review
These visitors include legendary villain Peter needs to fight against: Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Sandman, and the Lizard. These are all the villains from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy and from The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2. Later in the plot, introducing some of the MCU’s most legendary cameos, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s versions of Peter also appear to team up with Tom Holland’s protagonist and to fight against the villains from their universes.
However, to close the multiversal rifts that threaten to tear reality apart, Tom Holland’s Peter makes the ultimate sacrifice and asks Doctor Strange to make everyone forget who he is. The closure of the film depicting the consequences of his sacrifice can tie into Doomsday by representing one of its main thematic arcs — of characters that will inevitably need to sacrifice themselves to stop the multiverse from collapsing. Apart from no one knowing his secret identity, one of the other reasons why Peter Parker is not a part of the team of Avengers: Doomsday is established in Brand New Day, as the post credits scene reveals that the character is in space.
Overall, Spider-Man: No Way Home demonstrates the tangible consequences of messing with the multiverse’s balance. The movie also provides context for multiversal vulnerability, showing how easily some wrong decisions — here, simply the wording of a spell — can lead to the appearance of new threats and cause rifts between universes.
Spider-Man: No Way Home has always seemed to me as one of those films that are great because of its epicness, but too reliant on fan service and not a necessarily outstanding script. With regards to writing and overall production, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is inherently stronger, as it has a more cohesive and layered storyline. However, the main cast and the majority of the cameos present deliver great performances, with Willem Dafoe being as outstanding as usual.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, the importance of this film is due to Avengers: Doomsday is having, at the time and now, the ability to introduce concepts of the multiverse to the general audience that is already familiar with Marvel’s most well-known hero. You should watch it if you wish to understand the consequences of messing with the multiverse’s stability or simply revisit some characters (including Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman) that are rumoured to appear in Avengers: Doomsday.
The Road to Doomsday Part 9 — Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
- Writing - 8/108/10
- Storyline - 8/108/10
- Acting - 9/109/10
- Music - 10/1010/10
- Production - 7/107/10
