This is my first foray into anything MCU this whole year. I missed out on "Shang Chi" while it was in theaters, and I still haven't yet managed to watched the prolific "What if..." anthology yet. Anyway, I am glad to say that "No Way Home" reflects a return to form for this Spider-Man series. I had honestly had this series pegged as yet another "Iron Man" trilogy where it was just a case of diminishing returns with each returning installment. The underwhelming "Far From Home", which basically played like a bootleg "If Looks Could Kill", certainly filled me with a whole lot of doubt, but I'm glad that my doubts were eventually cast aside.
Far From Home starts off right where No Way Home ended: Mysterio, in a last ditch attempt at revenge, outs Spider-Man's secret identity, and now the whole world is suddenly aware that he's Peter Parker. Unlike the usual peril for his loved ones that tends to be occasioned by such a reveal in the comics, here it just proves to be an unbearable nuisance to those associated with Peter.
People familiar with the comics will be aware that the MCU has attempted to adapt the much maligned "One More Day" storyline for the big screen. In that outing, Peter in his ever self-sacrificing way makes a deal with the Devil (Mephisto) in order to save Aunt May's life. The MCU doesn't typically translate these storylines to screen verbatim, and in this case, Dr. Strange is used as a welcome substitute for Mephisto. Dr. Strange, appearing to be of a more mellow demeanour towards Peter since Infinity War (& Endgame), opts to help him out by basically making the world forget about the secret identity. The MCU's Spidey is still pretty much a child, so of course he tries to throw all kinds of caveats at Dr. Strange about people who should be unaffected by the "forgetting spell", and this ultimately messes the spell and throws his reality into disarray.
This is a return to form for Spider-Man; the "home" series has been lacking that Je ne sais quois of what we've come to expect from Spider-Man. This was basically spelled out in Captain America: Civil War where during our introduction to Peter, in his first talk with Tony Stark, he basically stumbled over the "With great power comes great responsibility" pitch. They then proceeded to basically write out Uncle Ben and handed over this surrogate parent role to Tony Stark. Spider-Man is a great hero because he's basically had to handle most of his adversity by himself, and the MCU basically knee-capped him by making him a Tony Stark fanboy. In Homecoming, he spends his time trying to earn Tony Stark's favour; in Far From Home, he finds himself living in Tony's shadow, and still ends up making the biggest rookie mistake. And why on earth are they referring to his Spidey sense as "the Peter tingle"? (Most annoying change ever!)
The great thing this time around is that there isn't a single mention of Tony Stark. Sure enough Stark-Tech is still involved in the MCU, but even the memorial murals that seemed to permeate Far From Home are gone now. After Peter makes his debacle, he goes about fixing it in the most adult pragmatic fashion possible with the best outcome for everyone involved. From the trailers, you'd know that the mechanics of this story involve "The Sinister Five" - Doc Ock, Sandman, Electro, Lizard, and Green Goblin - drawn in from their different corners of the Spiderverse, and ensuring good outcomes for this disparate group of villains poses a high stakes game that will take everything in Spidey's arsenal and more. A superhero is only as strong as his rogues gallery, and the foil against which he is compared. Alfred Molina's "Doc Ock" and Willem Defoe's "Green Goblin" are the standouts in this movie. Both of them are tragic figures born of intellectual hubris; where they differ is that "Doc Ock" is still fixated on his goals, whilst "Goblin" is psychotic and vengeful. These two provide the most poignant moments and it really is great to see them rehash their performances from the Raimi side of the Spiderverse.
The villain who really gets the biggest makeover is Jamie Foxx's "Electro". The all-rage-all-the-time demeanour of a fanboy turned villain from The Amazing Spiderman II was a rather poor take on the character; this time around he's played as a straightforward snide character with an unfortunate penchant for being literally power-hungry. He doesn't get too much time in the movie, but every bit of it is deeply redeeming.
I have to say that the most beautiful elements in this movie was the addition of Dr. Strange. His mysticism is such an eclectic bag that allows him to fit in well within any portion of the MCU; the addition of the trippy Inception-esque visuals also manages to seemlessly fit in to the story, and always enthrall. With the events that this story sets into motion, the MCU have done more than enough to whet our collective appetites for the Dr. Strange sequel that's due to come out later this year.
The story is very well written and fast-paced, and the action is top-notch. The only gripe I had with the movie is that Marvel can sometimes be indisciplined when it comes to lingering over their jokes. One time during the finale, it got so bad that it took me out of my suspension of disbelief. Shaving out a few minutes of this indiscipline could very well have given us a tighter story; other than that, there was a great deal of fan service draped out for all the fans on this outing. Truthfully, you can't please everyone, but I think you can achieve a fine balance that caters to the masses.
The trailers managed to keep most of the story under wraps, so I will end the review here, and save the rest for a "Spoiler" review; but suffice it to say, this is the strongest Spidey offering that the MCU has ever put together. This is the most mature presentation of Spider-Man thus far, and a delight to watch. Definitely gets an "A" grade from me.
God Bless.
