Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya… and a host of Spider-friends and foes

Directed by Jon Watts

Sony, out now

Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Everyone knows…

It’s been a long time since I saw a film where the audience reaction was one of sheer unadulterated joy. A long time since I’ve been to the cinema and the crowd has cheered and whooped and clapped, not once, not twice but three times.

I believe I may even have fist pumped at one particular scene.

Spiderman – No Way Home is a great film. It’s got huge plot holes, nonsensical mcguffins, borrows its plot from the outstanding Into the Spiderverse and has even a dose of after the fact head scratching, but that doesn’t change the truth that I loved every minute of it.

The pacing, the writing, the action are all perfect. It telegraphs its beats but it does so because it loves what it’s doing and wants you along for the ride. There aren’t any mysteries in this film (except the countless easter eggs) which is all the better because Spiderman’s best enjoyed when it’s freewheeling and web slinging its way through the story with a laugh on its lips and its huge heart on its sleeve.

Tom Holland is superb as Spidey and the film gets what’s best about Spider-Man down on the page and out onto the screen. Spider-Man is your local hero, the kid who wants to get to college, who wants to live a normal life but is, somehow, burdened with all this power. He’s brought up by people who understand the danger of power and who are concerned with the powerless and with looking out for those who might otherwise be crushed.

Peter Parker has always fought with the idea of just being a boy, getting on with his own life and the challenge that comes from being someone who can change things for the better. This film has that conflict thread right through its soul – from the opening moments through to the closing credits the question Spider-Man and the audience are asked is this: would you still have compassion if, when you tried to help, people stamped on your heart because it made them feel good?

It doesn’t answer it with trite nonsense but faces the question head on and gives a nuanced answer that is all about boundaries, about who we choose to be and what we choose to let into our lives.

This sense of growing up, but also of finding meaning and doing what we believe to be right is the bones. The meat of this film is a script which just doesn’t miss an excuse to laugh, to ponder how absurd the idea of wizards and superpowers might be.

It laughs at origin stories, at how powers come about and even the physical toll of being a hero and growing older. The script never loses sight of that fun – even when grappling with the moral elements that form Peter’s journey.

All of the various characters have something meaningful to do and a line about a lawyer got the biggest laugh. A lawyer. This is some top grade material.

The ending is interesting because the film doesn’t end with the final confrontation but with the aftermath. It explores the consequences of the choices made. This is wonderful because it’s executed really well – especially by Holland.

However, it’s also where the film is most obviously two competing franchises – that of Sony and Disney. The crafting here is so precise the seams show how another ending entirely was probably shot and they went with the version that matched the outcome of the acrimonious and quite public intellectual property negotiations between these two multi-nationals. It’s a shame because it’s the only piece that feels like a group of chino wearing men sat down and dictated what could and couldn’t happen in the last two minutes of the film and if there’s a let down, it’s to ride Spidey’s joy for 148 minutes and then have the last 2 end up being quite clearly mandated by someone outside the creative team.

Do you need to have seen the other films in spiderman’s long history? No. There are many easter eggs but they’re not important to the story. Two in particular do stand out – Peter Parker’s code and the music. There are call backs and layering throughout and it’s a delight to feel them swell as the movie moves into the third act. There’s even a shout out to Insomniac’s superb Spider-Man games and a reference to Miles Morales – again, if you don’t know what these are it doesn’t matter, but if you do? They’ll make you happy.

This is definitely a film for the fans but not in the horrible cynical way of Rise of Skywalker or the sickly retconning way of the most recent Ghostbusters. This is a film that takes its legacy and grows it, shows it on the screen to build on it not simply to point at it and say ‘look, that thing, it’s here too’. No Way Home takes its foundations and creates something new on the top while all the time remaining faithful to what makes Spider-Man glorious.

A final word – Spider-Man No Way Home is a film that wants you to feel joy and right now that’s an ambition I’m here for. Not only that but it does so in an inclusive non-gatekeeping way, arms open for newcomers and die-hard fans alike.

Verdict: Almost nothing is perfect but Spider-Man gets everything it cares about right and that’s enough for me.

Rating? 9 people who know Peter Parker out of 10

Stewart Hotston