Spider-Man: No Way Home
Depending on one’s familiarity with the time-space continuum, this Spiderverse is a joy ride – or all a bit too much.
Certain phrases crop up in Spider-Man: No Way Home. "With great power comes great responsibility." “When you help someone, you help everyone.” But there’s one popular maxim that goes unheeded: “Less is more.” That is not to say this latest Spider-Man offering is not enormous fun, or even quite touching at times, but it just fails to fly (pun intended). Tom Holland remains one of Marvel’s most engaging and likeable superheroes (he still seems so young!), Zendaya is as sweet as mānuka and a rich supporting cast adds emotional heft. However, what the fans will be talking about are all the surprises in store, enough to challenge No Time to Die. But whereas the latter had its boots rooted in a rough approximation of reality, No Way Home leaps into the beyond.
A working acquaintance with quantum physics might help the viewer to navigate the numerous narrative potholes, not to mention the multiversal portals conjured up by Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange. And what is it with Benedict Cumberbatch? If the star of The Power of the Dog and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain were not so phenomenally talented, one might have labelled him a show-off. But here he is again, jostling shoulders with a string of stellar co-stars, not all of them British (even Tom Hardy and Chiwetel Ejiofor get a look-in, mid- and post-credits).
Many of Spidey’s arachnid anoraks rate the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) as perhaps the best Peter Parker picture, and so No Way Home borrows liberally from that ‘toon. There’s also more than a dash of Christopher Nolan in the temporal and physical leapfrogs through and across the known cosmos. You have to keep up – or just take on trust the surreal, corkscrew twists in the scientific logic on display.
Frenetically, the new film jumps off from where the last one ended, when Spidey’s anonymity is exposed and Peter Parker held accountable for the terrorist attacks on London – actually orchestrated by Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). Branded a web-headed war criminal and ‘The Spider Menace’, Peter Parker – and those closest to him – are hounded by the media and police. When all seems lost, Parker, his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and his best mate Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) enter the Manhattan townhouse of Doctor Strange, which is currently suffering from an interior blizzard blown in from Siberia. Such are the climatic drawbacks of operating in a fluctuating space-time continuum. But Strange – or ‘Stephen’ to his new intimate Parker – has a wild idea…
Wild is the operative word here and No Way Home is an unrelenting express ride that belies its 148-minute running time. It is audacious (perhaps even bonkers) escapism with a big smile and a zip in its stride. It’s hard to be bored when so much is happening, but in spite of the film’s array of vivid and engaging characters, the sheer weight of the plot and mental gymnastics bog down any sense of true excitement. The New York public has little interaction with the shenanigans and this being a cosmic, inter-galactic affair, the human touch is largely missing. You’ll believe a man can soar, spin and twirl, but will you care? Tom Holland, discharging earnestness like flying silk, almost wins round our emotional commitment, but not quite.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire, Thomas Haden Church, Rhys Ifans, Charlie Cox, Angourie Rice, Arian Moayed, Paula Newsome, Martin Starr, J.B. Smoove, J.K. Simmons, Mary Rivera, Carol Dines, Mallory Hoff, Tom Hardy, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jake Gyllenhaal.
Dir Jon Watts, Pro Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal, Screenplay Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, Ph Mauro Fiore, Pro Des Darren Gilford, Ed Jeffrey Ford and Leigh Folsom Boyd, Music Michael Giacchino, Costumes Sanja Milkovic Hays, Sound Ken McGill, Tony Lamberti and Chris Diebold, Dialect coach Richard Lipton.
Columbia Pictures/Marvel Studios/Pascal Pictures-Sony Pictures.
148 mins. USA. 2021. UK Rel: 15 December 2021. US Rel: 17 December 2021. Cert. 12A .
