A big, crowd-pleasing superhero crossover that turns fan service into an emotional story about identity, responsibility, and growing up. It’s messy in places, but the scale, humor, and payoff make it one of the more satisfying MCU event movies.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Action · Adventure
Wed · 2h 28m
Director: Jon Watts
Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch
Overview
Peter Parker is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a super-hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
Director
Jon Watts
Cast
Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch
Curator Review
Verdict
A big, crowd-pleasing superhero crossover that turns fan service into an emotional story about identity, responsibility, and growing up. It’s messy in places, but the scale, humor, and payoff make it one of the more satisfying MCU event movies.
Best for
Spider-Man fans
viewers who enjoy multiverse crossover spectacle
audiences looking for emotional blockbuster nostalgia
people who like action-comedy with big crowd reactions
Skip if
you want a tightly focused standalone story
you dislike heavy franchise continuity
you’re tired of nostalgia-driven legacy sequels
you prefer grounded superhero films
Overview
Spider-Man: No Way Home is built like an event, and it knows it. The movie leans hard into the pleasure of recognition, but it works because it keeps tying the spectacle back to Peter Parker’s loneliness, guilt, and stubborn decency. The result is a blockbuster that is both noisy and surprisingly tender.
Worth noting
It’s also very much a “theater movie,” the kind that lives on gasps, cheers, and collective disbelief. The multiverse premise lets it juggle comedy, action, and genuine pathos, even if the plotting occasionally feels like a machine designed to trigger applause. When it lands, though, it lands hard.
Bottom line
This is not the cleanest or smartest Spider-Man film, but it may be one of the most emotionally generous. It understands that the character’s best stories are about sacrifice and starting over, and it uses the franchise chaos to sharpen that idea rather than bury it.
Top Letterboxd reviews
James (Schaffrillas) (4★) · 30659 likes
Never in a million years would I have predicted that Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker would be the best character in this movie
Patrick Willems (3.5★) · 23321 likes
Kevin Feige finally realized they’re never going to do a villain as good as Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and just went “fuck it, bring him back”
kait 𐚁₊⊹ (5★) · 14737 likes
the whole theatre ERUPTED, ya’ll know when. i cant breathe this was absolutely phenomenal best film of the year. i WEPT when andrew saved MJ and was talking about gwen. i swear to god i’m not okay.
davidehrlich (2★) · 11627 likes
Marvel is so good at getting people to do things for money in a way that reads like love. there's some very cutesy stuff here (most of it an ominous, logical continuation of the content snake eating its own tail), CGI New York City is a really a Character Unto Itself lolol, and Jon Watts is now unquestionably the worst director to ever make a Spider-Man movie. also, not a spoiler, lol at Pete and his friends for simply *assuming* they'd all get into MIT. a very cool premise for a $250 million movie.
jonathan fujii (4★) · 10642 likes
Do you all remember that scene in Ratatouille where Anton Ego ate ratatouille and was transported back to his younger self? That was me except replace ratatouille with Willem Dafoe tearing shit up
Themes
identity, responsibility, sacrifice, grief, nostalgia, multiverse, coming of age, redemption
Topics
superhero, action-adventure, multiverse, nostalgia, crowd-pleaser, coming-of-age, emotional, blockbuster, comic-book, fan service