Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home is the third film in the Tom Holland series as Peter Parker following a brief debut in Captain America: Civil War before getting his own film with Homecoming in 2017 and then with Far From Home in 2019. Holland has been consistently great in all of his Marvel appearances and his Spider-Man films have all been a lot of fun but have somewhat lacked emotional edge of Sam Raimi's films with Tobey Maguire, which No Way Home seeks to put right.

The story here jumps in right after the ending of the last film as Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio reveals to the world that Peter is Spider-Man causing his world to fall into chaos and take a negative impact of the lives of his friends around him. Hoping to put things right with a little bit of magic, Peter approaches Doctor Strange to find a way to keep his identity secret but things start to go very wrong for him causing more than a few old faces to reappear. 

Returning director, Jon Watts, successfully finds a way to offer us one of the most creative and adventurous Spider-Man films ever, perfectly balancing nostalgia with character development that all serves the story, while taking the genre to new heights in what I almost dare to call one of the best MCU films to date. Tom Holland also delivers his best performance to date and so can I say for much of the supporting cast who are all terrific in a film that will please fans in a way that feels earnt in a time when nostalgia can be a cheap gimmick. 

Throughout all of the three Spider-Man films, Watts has managed to keep a sincere, almost indie, spirit to the three films that have the grandiose spectacle of Marvel while still remembering Parker is just a kid at the end of the day. It's an endearing quality and stays in No Way Home all the way through until the very end but Watt isn't afraid to bring a darker tone the film with one of Willem Dafoe's best performances to date. Without too many spoilers, the man is simply menacing and it could the fan in me who first remembers watching him on my video take of the 2002 Spider-Man but to have him, and others, back is a real treat. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home delivers a thrilling, heartfelt 148 minute rollercoaster ride that never dips in one of the most creatively ambitious Marvel films to date and it really should be seen in the cinema. I'm not sure where the Holland's webslinger will go to next but I hope this isn't the last we see of him, and a few others...