Is Spider-Man: No Way Home the biggest Spider-Man movie ever? With as many as five super-villains fighting against Peter Parker, it could prove to be the best Spider flick featuring Tom Holland in the lead. It may or may not have multiple Spider-Men, but the way it handles the battles with the super-villains, that’s what makes it great!

The film begins with the secret identity of Spider-Man revealed and Peter Parker (Tom Holland) exposed as the ‘Public Enemy Number 1’. J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons) breaks the news to the world and Peter Parker/Spider-Man finds himself surrounded by people who believe he killed Mysterio.

In order to go back to his duties as a superhero minus the paparazzi, Peter Parker asks Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help. However, a confused ‘Parker’ botches up the spell and ‘invites’ super-villains from different universes to ‘his’ Earth.

Directed by Jon Watts, and featuring Zendaya as Michelle Jones (MJ) and Jacob Batalon as Ned, the third film in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man returns with a bang. With Marisa Tomei returning as Aunt May and Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan on his side, Spider-Man: No Way Home shows that no matter how many bad guys you have, they all can fit in one Spider web. However, how Spider-Man battles too many super-villains alone, is what makes this movie worth your money.

At times the movie seems quite overcrowded with villains, as Thomas Haden Church’s Sand-Man and Rhys Ifans’s Lizard Man do not get as much time as do Willem Defoe’s Green Goblin, Alfred Molina’s Dr Octopus or even Jamie Fox’s Electro. But whenever they get the chance to have their way with Spidey, they make it count.

While the actors playing the first two Spider-Man villains — Defoe and Molina — were aided by digital de-aging technology, the rest looked the same, but there was one thing common between them. The applause each super-villain received from the audience was proof of how much they were missed.

The action sequences were excellent throughout the flick, where every super-villain got their chance to shine. To summarise three multiverses into one was a huge feat for which the Spider-Man fans were prepared first by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and later by Spider-Man: Far From Home. It would be an added bonus if you had seen these super-villains in action, because that way you would not only be able to relate to their characteristics but also their motivations.

With nearly two decades of backstories, origins, motivations and unfilled desires, Spider-Man: No Way Home, has its moments, lessons, and achievements. Since Avengers: End Game, which came out in 2019, no film has made the audience shout, cheer and cry at the same time, and this Spider-Man flick does exactly that.

It is ‘the’ movie for the entire family, where each member can enjoy, in their own way.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 25th, 2021