Let me start by prefacing: I am not a huge Marvel fan. In fact, I’ve only seen like two other movies that are part of the Marvel franchise, but I love spider-man. I’ve had a strong appreciation for the superhero ever since I binged Tobey Maguire’s spider-man movies on an airplane. 

Debuting December 21, 2021, Spider-man: No Way Home had major success in the theaters, and for a reason. The movie revolves around Peter Parker in his senior year of high school. After Peter makes an epic mistake when messing with the universe, he needs to take down several villains from different universes. But he doesn’t do it without some familiar help. The film was outstanding. From the vibrant colors to the overall storyline, the movie was fantastic.  

The film earned itself an audience score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, which ranks it as the highest of films that Tom Holland has appeared as Spider-man. But what exactly made the film so spectacular?

The Boys Are Back!:

No Way Home reintroduced the Marvel idea of a ‘multiverse,’ which means there are alternate universes. With that idea, the story brought back iconic villains from both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-man movies. For those who’d never seen any of those movies, they’d still be able to follow along too. The nostalgia, even as someone who only watched the other films a few years ago, was strong. The complexity of these villains—how at some points, they wanted to be a good guy—was fascinating. Furthermore, each villain’s different power was extremely intriguing. In plenty of superhero films, there’s one main villain that had to be taken down, but in this case, there were several. They forced Spider-man to think outside the box and get creative, which eventually led to a sweet surprise. 

Andrew and Tobey Make Their Returns: 

Everyone has their favorite actor who played Spider-man. TikTok fangirls love Andrew Garfield, the newest generation has a soft spot for Tom Holland, and older generations adore Tobey Maguire. I’m more of a Tobey Maguire girl myself, but I still enjoyed Andrew’s films. When Andrew Garfield first hopped through the “portal thing,” I almost jumped out of my seat in joy.  It was clear that Peter Parker wouldn’t be able to take down all the villains alone, and the incorporation of the previous two spider-men was great. Their reunion was extraordinary and the bond they formed in such little time was epic. It was truly a blast from the past. 

Peter Parker’s Relationships:

Actress Zendaya is known for a lot of things, and one of those is playing this generation’s M.J., Spider-man’s main love interest. Peter Parker’s strong affection for M.J. seeps through in Tom Holland’s acting; you can feel the two’s strong love. However, it isn’t all romance when it comes to Peter. His tight connections with his best friend, Ned, and his aunt, May were also extremely passionate and adorable. Even with the friendships he made with the villains, there was something so real about them that made me want to grasp onto hope that they could somehow be friends. Peter Parker is a kid who you really root for, and seeing him happy with other people was something I loved to see as a viewer.

The Colors and CGI:

As one of the most advanced movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date, that meant the cinematography was also phenomenal. The clarity in the film was absolutely breathtaking. There was not a single blurry spot; everything felt so vivid. I could probably talk for days about the CGI as well. With so much of an action-packed plot, and the introduction of very otherworldly characters, strong CGI was necessary, and Marvel excelled at that. The machinery of Dr. Ock, Spider-man’s suit, and the green screen when they were on the Statue of Liberty were all breathtaking. Not to mention, the color scheme of the film was perfectly fitting and captivating.

The Backlash Spider-man faces:

Tobey Maguire’s Spider-man was loved by almost all; they treated him as a hero. Tom Holland’s spider-man did not get that same treatment. The way he was framed in the movie by prominent news outlets to be a villain was fascinating but reminiscent of some words the Green Goblin once said. “The one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall, die trying. In spite of everything you’ve done for them, eventually they will hate you.” Those words spoken more than a decade ago remained true. No matter how much Spider-man tried to help the citizens, they still hated him. That plotline got me involved, made me emotional, and I was angry at the citizens for hating him. I became emotionally invested, which made the film a lot more personal to me.

By no means was the movie perfect, but it was pretty close to fantastic. Director Jon Watts truly did an amazing job putting the film together and I have to give props to the story’s writers. An all-time superhero film was just made.