Spider-Man: No Way Home

Loser Parker heads for happiness and for the good of everybody else. A grand finale with all the trimmings. Bringing magic into Spider-Man means lots of impressive scenes with villains we know and love, but the high point is jumping around in the mirror dimension. Arrivals from older series pump nostalgia into your veins, making fans’ dreams come true, and they all seem much better than in their original appearances. Demonic Dafoe’s acting is on a higher level even than first time round and his Goblin as Parker’s trainer is the biggest trump card. No Way Home is full-on to bursting (it really features almost everybody you can think of) and sometimes it seems a shame that the movie isn’t any longer, despite the fact that in some places it drags on rather slowly. This lure to watch the sequel to Dr. Strange, who screwed up badly last time, heightens expectations to the limits of our universe and maybe even beyond. (17/12/2021)

Hectic, whiny, Spider Man soap opera. Or when you don't know what to do with the story, make a hodgepodge with time planes and multiverses, everything goes better afterwards because it can basically be about anything – and you have unlimited space for action set-pieces. I don't understand the enthusiastic reactions because it's a grueling 150 minutes. A fine return of friends and some tried and true bad guys, but in real time there's absolutely nothing going on. (27/03/2022)

In the context of the comic-book movies made so far, Spider-Man: No Way Home is a miraculous phenomenon. Unlike other superhero movies, it doesn’t conform to the dad ethos of aging fanboys, but instead exclusively targets millennials and younger viewers. What’s more, it even adopts their values and, on top of that, confronts them with the essentially evil and instructively corrosive black-and-white duality of older films. Like today’s (or any) younger generation, the Spider-Man of No Way Home is rashly hyperactive, naïve and idealistic. Besides its hypermedia nature and the motif of friendship, a more fundamental shift is manifested in the transformation of Spider-Man’s values and message. Though there is the inevitable facetiously adult proclamation “with great power comes great responsibility”, Holland’s Spider-Man does not have to give up his youthful view of the world within the coming-of-age story arc. Rather, his view permeates the whole film and underscores the central motif of its narrative, which is the effort not to fight the bad guys, but to find ways to help them. (08/01/2022)

One of the most overrated films of recent years, rivalled in this respect perhaps only by Joker and Bohemian Rhapsody. It does have a fine idea about the weight of the superhero's fate and its impact on family and love life, but otherwise it's a surreal and far-fetched borefest. One big bag of synthetic fan-service that brings back old favourite characters from other movie worlds in a childish plot that, while it sort of fits Peter's character development, mostly just makes the otherwise normal characters look like morons and treats the returnees like they're in a Saturday Night Live sketch. A great scene in the mirror dimension, an initially unpredictable lead-in, and a few heartwarming moments for the most hardcore fans (no one else can really like it) don't redeem the lack of adult humor and any emotional believability – except for Peter, who actually repeatedly acts contrary to how a protector of our planet and dimension should behave (and the impossibly imbecilic Strange, perhaps played by Cumberbatch this time online from vacation, puts the crown on that), all the characters are flat and uninteresting. Parker's relationship with MJ suffers as well, but partly because of the unconvincing Zendaya, who can only pretend to be ironic with various subtle variations. If it was just fun and full of eye-candy, I would put all these 'little things' behind me, but not even that. For the first time, the world of the MCU is starting to look really stupid and illogical, and it's driving me crazy that a film with such a pandering concept is dominating financially at a time when truly inspiring and rewarding titles from directorial mavericks are making a splash in theaters. I'd give it a 2*, but that probably wouldn't be entirely fair given some of the even worse Marvel movies I've given 3* to - though those were at least funnier and snappier. (15/01/2022)

I enjoyed the new Spider-Man movie at the cinema. I enjoyed the return of old friends, and I was equally happy that some characters, for whom I had practically expected no more than a cameo, were surprisingly given quite a lot of screen time. However, this movie beautifully mirrored Martin Scorsese's words about how the MCU really IS the equivalent of an amusement park. That is because this movie, for all its flashiness, has no more depth than an empty amusement park ride, with well-known characters popping up to get the viewers to react emotionally. While I am willing to go along for the unpretentious fan-service ride to a certain extent, I am not going to condone the trigger for the whole plot is that the two main "superheroes" act like the biggest idiots in the galaxy. This is something that no one gives a second thought to for the rest of the movie, and both characters barely show any self-reproach. Yes, I understand that the movie needed some sort of storyline; however, the whole thing (including the denouement) hinges on one screenwriting crutch after another. Plus, there is the lame prepubescent humor again, ha... ha... Again, I enjoyed it at the cinema, but "the nineteenth best movie of all time"? C'mon. (23/12/2021)