Before we start, I need to confess something: I completely forgot to write a revisiting review for “No Way Home” before “Multiverse of Madness.” I was following the timeline order on Disney+ but didn’t even notice the movie wasn’t included in it, and then I found the movie isn’t even on Disney+ at all (which I find stupid since we have Venom and even Morbius on there, but I digress). 

Anyway, with that established, let’s begin where the movie picks up after the aftermath of “Far From Home.” After Mysterio revealed Spider-Man’s identity to the world, basically most of the world turned against him or otherwise made his life more difficult. In this case, no college would accept Peter or even his friends, prompting him to turn to Dr. Strange for help. However, when a spell to erase everyone’s memory of Peter’s identity goes awry, all the villains from the other Spider-Man movies get sucked into our reality. With extremely dangerous foes such as Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin on the prowl, Peter has to round them all up and find a way to save them from their fates. 

Pro/Con #1: The Characters

Some people may consider this movie as nothing but pure nostalgia-bait, and that’s mainly because they brought back all the characters from all the Spider-Man movies. Regardless, there’s no denying the heart and passion behind this decision. Not only did the directors bring back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spideys, but they also brought back all the original actors for the villains. From the aforementioned Willem Dafoe to Jamie Foxx, each actor carried the same personality and aura from their original movies, as if we were watching a sequel to the Maguire or Garfield Spider-Verse. For instance, even years after his premiere, Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock is just as cold and cynical as ever! It was truly thrilling to see him stomp out of the smoke before ruthlessly beating the brakes off of Peter, even threatening to decapitate him with a live helicopter blade, which definitely feels like something he would do in “Spider-Man 2.” Further, it was great to see his personality continue to shine after being captured, with him constantly belittling Tom Holland and refusing help. Finally, it healed my heart to see the old Otto come back after being cured, just seeing the warm light in his eyes return after all the arms put him through was amazing. Speaking of amazing, this review wouldn’t be complete without talking about the legendary Dafoe and his Green Goblin. I love how Norman Osborne and the Goblin had that argument in the alleyway, with Norman smashing the mask as a symbol that he seemingly conquered the Goblin. That’s probably why it was so surprising when, after nearly an hour of lowering my guard with the vulnerability of Osborne, the Goblin came back with his creepy voice and chilling dialogue. The Goblin’s views on power are evident in his monologues on the villains’ powers, Peter’s attachment to May as a weakness, and Peter “thanking him later” for blowing up May. The most spine-tingling moment for me, though, was when Peter was absolutely wailing on Goblin, but he smiled and laughed as if I was watching “The Dark Knight.” Overall, the whole cast was amazing, not just because of their popularity, but how well they portrayed their characters. It was very interesting and satisfying to see them all interact with each other, providing natural chemistry in spite of the fact that they’re all from different universes, stories, and timelines. 

However, in spite of legendary actors and characters’ returns, they’re not without at least some drawbacks. Specifically, with the villains, they’ve either been changed significantly enough or robbed of their full potential. Take Doc Ock, for example. Aside from that awesome fight scene on the bridge, thats’s pretty much the only time we see him be evil. For a good chunk of the movie afterwards, he complains about everything and hurls insults whenever he can, coming off as whiny and annoying. And again, while it was heartwarming to see him cured by Peter, it’s a little anticlimactic to see his villain arc resolved so quickly. As another example, consider Jamie Foxx’s Electro. In Andrew Garfield’s film, Max Dillon was a timid but quietly angry person until the accident that turned him into a supervillain. After becoming Electro, he became a lot more violent, cold, and menacing. But, in “No Way Home,” a lot of that was lost. Throughout the whole movie, Electro was a lot more chill and casual, even in serious moments. For instance, when Dr. Strange said he could send everyone back even though they might die, Electro’s response was: “Nah man, imma pass on that.” Later on, when he appeared at the Statue of Liberty, he said, “How do you like the new-new” and eventually, “Don’t make me a murderer, Peter.” This dialogue not only doesn’t match the original Electro’s personality, but it also makes him a lot less threatening than he was in his 2014 debut. Of course, it doesn’t help that he lost his blue body, which also added to his terrifying presence. Finally, there’s the issue with Sandman and Lizard. With Sandman, he was only in his sand form instead of the iconic “human wearing a green striped shirt” form. What bothers me about this is mainly how it’s difficult to read his emotions, especially without seeing the vulnerabilities in his human face. In “Spider-Man 3,” he had that look of sorrow and desperation to accompany his sad, gravely voice. In “No Way Home,” we barely even see his face due to his sand form, making it hard to fully sympathize or get a read on the character. As for the Lizard, it was especially disappointing how little of a role he played in the story. Not only that, but he barely had any lines, much less any screen time. All he did was get captured by Dr. Strange, agreed with Peter’s plan, only to turn on him five minutes later and then get cured. While I understand that Covid, money, and scheduling were mainly behind what happened with Sandman and Lizard, I still wish we got more out of these two. 

Pro/Con #2: The Story

I know I’ve said this for the past few reviews, but in projects like this one, I absolutely love how they continue the stories of beloved characters like Spider-Man. Throughout Peter Parker’s journey in the MCU, we’ve seen him grow from an overly ambitious and reckless superhero, to one who has slowly learned that “with great power comes great responsibility.” He learned it by sticking closer to the ground in “Homecoming” and bravely upholding Tony’s legacy in “Far From Home,” which is why it’s so amazing to see it finally culminate in this film. For instance, while he’s learned to put others’ needs above his own, this movie really puts him to the test with the challenge of curing all the villains. Peter could’ve sent them all back and saved face, but after hearing how they might die in their worlds, he knew he had to help them. However, things wouldn’t go so well when most of the villains turned on Peter and escaped, with Green Goblin ruthlessly blowing Aunt May up. Even after all that, even after Peter actually considered it, Peter still worked to save them all. Aunt May’s final words of “with great power, comes great responsibility,” along with the wisdom and sympathy of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, would drive him to stay true to his heart. All of this would lead to Peter making the ultimate sacrifice to keep the whole world safe: making everyone forget who he is. It was the hardest choice, horrible that all his relationships would disappear, but that’s who Spider-Man is. And that’s what I love most about this story: staying true to Spider-Man’s character. In the comics, Peter had the worst crap anyone could think of thrown at him, but every single time, he would get back up and fight for the lives of others. In this case, the world turned against Peter, he tried to help villains but got his hope crushed, Aunt May dies, and everyone would forget he ever existed. In spite of all that, Peter did. Not. Give. Up! Not on the villains, not on himself, and not on his duties as Spider-Man. People may complain that the heroes don’t kill their villains, but Spider-Man is the kind of hero who cares enough about his villains to not only hold back on his strength, but also help them whenever possible. Saying Spidey should kill his villains would be a slap in the face to Spider-Man’s character, as well as Stan Lee’s legacy. 

Yet, while not exactly a slap in the face, there’s still one glaring flaw that kinda makes the story ultimately irrelevant. Specifically, the fact that this whole mess with the multiverse could’ve been easily avoided . . . if Peter had just talked to the MIT Vice Chancellor in the first place! At the very least, he should’ve established the parameters of who can still keep their memories before letting Strange do the spell. While I understand Peter is just a kid, and thus might not first think of the rational thing to do, he’s still a very smart kid so I feel like this should’ve at least crossed his mind. After all, we saw Strange continuously add exceptions while casting the spell. So if he could do that mid-cast, it wouldn’t be improbable to set those conditions before getting started. Honestly though, I’m still surprised that Wong, being the new Sorcerer Supreme, actually allowed Strange to do something so dangerous. Even though they’re best friends and have used the spell to erase some party they had, I feel like it would’ve been more believable if they kept that scene in the trailer where Wong tells him no, Strange says yes, but then does the spell anyway. If nothing else, even though he might not have saved her if the villains were never brought here, he could’ve done the mature thing by going to the heads of MIT first before asking Strange to “brainwash the entire world.” Aside from that, I must admit that I was a little disappointed with the way they handled the repercussions from “Far From Home.” Most of the violence, protests, and bad luck against Peter mainly felt forced and rushed. Because of that, we didn’t get a whole picture of how bad everything was, so it was very hard to connect or sympathize with what should be traumatic events. Worse than that, we don’t even really touch back on it that much after Spidey talks to Strange. There are a few references and callbacks here and there, but for the most part, the Spidey controversies were largely dropped and overshadowed by his multiversal shenanigans. Speaking of overshadowed, Mysterio was also pretty much forgotten for the rest of the movie. Again, a couple references and namedrops, but nothing after Matt Murdock visiting Peter’s apartment. Even though this was a great movie and a tie-in to the multiverse, I personally would’ve preferred if we at least had one movie where the the disastrous result of Mysterio’s revelation a bit further. 

Pro/Con #3: The Callbacks

One thing I love the most about this film is when they included many references to previous Spidey films. From the Macguire trilogy, to Garfield’s two movies, to even Holland’s MCU, there is something for everyone. One amazing example that comes to mind is the scene where all the villains are gathered up in Dr. Strange’s dungeon, when Doc Ock mentions Osborne should be dead. That’s when Sandman chimes in and elaborates on how Osborne impaled himself, and then how Doc Ock drowned with his machine. Finally, we have Doc Ock talking about his experience fighting Spider-Man and remembering everything until that scene in “Spider-Man 2” where he has him by the throat, and that pause before saying he ended up in the MCU is always spine-tingling. Electro talking about his own experience was also satisfying to hear, and just like Doc Ock, that pause mixed with the realization on his face is chilling. I also love how Lizard asks Electro if he dies too, because it makes a seemingly feral animal more human, by drawing out the fear in his face and voice. Another great example is towards the end of the movie, where all the Spiders meet up for the first time. I absolutely loved when they talked about the deaths of Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy (which almost made me cry when I saw Andrew’s expressions and voice cracking), talking about their various villains like Venom or Rhino (which I appreciate they at least confirmed, even though the reveal and ending was anticlimactic in that film), but what I love the most comes during the climax of the final battle. Who could forget the moment in “Amazing Spider-Man 2” when Peter tried to save Gwen, but tragically ended with the snap of her neck? That’s why, and I’m pretty sure I speak for every fan, that it was not only satisfying but heartwarming to see Andrew redeem himself by saving MJ from her own fall. Just seeing his tearful smile as he looked down at her was everything to me, but also breaks me a little since it makes me wish he saved Gwen too. Regardless, I would argue that is one of the greatest callbacks in the whole movie or even the MCU. 

However, one thing that was completely unnecessary was Venom’s cameo in the end-credits scene. First of all, while I love the character, I absolutely hated his portrayal in the Sony trilogy. I don’t wanna turn this into a review of the Venom movies, but Eddie Brock was very boring, uninspired, and just very forgettable. He just did not resemble the Eddie Brock from comics at all, and Venom himself is somehow worse. He’s way too goofy, always making snide remarks, and never shuts up about wanting to eat people. With the cringy dialogue, terrible and rushed plots, and comically inaccurate dynamic between Eddie and Venom, why on Earth would I want Venom in such an amazing movie like this? Somehow, that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that the guy basically showed up for like five minutes, and then was just transported back to his dimension. One reason why this is so disappointing is the setup from “Let There Be Carnage,” in the end credits scene where Eddie wakes up in a hotel room, sees Peter’s identity revealed to the world, then Venom snarls as he recognizes the Spider. Given the trailers released for “No Way Home” at the time, we knew that Venom probably wouldn’t have a huge role to play in the story. Nevertheless, fans were hoping for at least an interaction of some kind between Hardy and Holland. At the very least, it would’ve been cool to see Eddie transform into Venom onscreen. Instead, we get a five minute scene where Eddie talks to some street vendor, and Venom only appearing in voice alone. Eddie mentions wanting to talk to Spider-Man, but we never find out what his intentions were as Venom is too focused on being drunk, and then both of them disappear back to their own dimension. The only bright side to this was the fact that a piece of the symbiote was left behind, which introduces a whole new world of possibilities and theories for the next Spider-Man story. Ultimately, though, it’s pretty disappointing to bring Venom back if they were only gonna have him goof off before leaving behind an important plot point. Venom didn’t need to have a huge role in the story, but it would at least give his cameo more purpose. 

Conclusion

Overall, this movie was a great watch and I would strongly recommend it for anyone getting into the Spider-Man mythos. I really wish we could’ve gotten all the villains fighting at once like a Sinister 6, but everything done with them and the Spider-Men were so well-done and satisfying. Spider-Man has grown into a much more mature hero than he ever was, and I’m very excited (but also anxious) for what comes next in his story.