Spider-Man: No Way Home

 

Synopsis: Spidey asks Doctor Strange for a favor and gets more than he bargained for: an unleashed multiverse. (Streaming on Apple TV+)

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spidey takes a break from thwarting street crime because Peter Parker is busy filling-out his college applications. We can’t really blame him, after all he’s a student, not a cop.

Spidey (Tom Holland), his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), all classmates at a magnet school in Queens, have the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as their top college choice. With an acceptance rate hovering around seven percent, they have their work cut out for them. And then some.

Remember in the Last Spider-Man movie, Far from Home how Jake Gyllenhaal (aka Bad Ex-Boyfriend of Taylor Swift) as Mysterio completely screwed over Peter Parker by outing him as Spider-Man? No Way Home opens up with the ramifications…

The paparazzi and reporters follow Peter Parker relentlessly, disrupting his days. And city rag, The Daily Bugle, hammers away at the narrative that Spidey killed Mysterio/Quentin Beck.  A damnable lie! 

Spidey visits the New York Sanctum — a fine piece of real estate in the Village–to see Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch).  Maybe he will implore him to use his magic to create some housing for the city’s homeless. No; he wants Dr Strange’s supernatural help to get into MIT. Geez, Peter, spare us the drama. Just go somewhere in New York’s public university system. But the University at Buffalo is Peter’s safety school, so it’s MIT or bust!

Peter enjoins Dr Strange to cast a spell that will give him and his friends a “fair” chance in admissions. Uh, somehow I don’t think that magic is a “fair” way to get into your top choice school. Acting grateful, but also entitled, Peter drives Dr Strange to distraction and things don’t go quite as planned. Doctor Strange even has to chase that scamp Peter through the Mirror Dimension. Remember the Mirror Dimension from Doctor Strange? Benny had to course after Mads Mikkelsen in a Manhattan that went all trippy and kaleidoscopic. 

Peter seems to be ready to do anything short of a felony to get into MIT. He puts on a suit, prepares his pitch and actually tracks down an MIT admissions officer so that he can ambush her in a car stalled in traffic on a bridge. As one does. 

As a result of a spell gone awry, multiverses are all a-jumble and the space-time fabric of the universe may be about to rip at the seams. So now Peter’s selfishness has caused planet wide wackiness and potential doom. But it’ll all be worth it if Peter gets into Massachusetts Institute of F***ing Technology!

I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I’d have to stop talking/writing about No Way Home right now unless I let you in on a post-premiere night open secret…ready for it? The plot has a lot to do with people from other multiverses possibly finding their way to our current universe where Tom Holland is Spider-Man. Will there be villains we have met before? Ones who are easy to forget like Sand Guy or Lizard Guy?

Okay, we do see Willem Dafoe at one point and that is downright scary. His Green Goblin is scary too, flying around on his sky Segway and arguing with his bullying Green Goblin mask.  He even frets about his son, Harry Osborn/James Franco because he has been cancelled what with his sex pest bullying of women at his acting “school.”

So, yeah, there are villains. About two-thirds of the way through the movie, the screenwriters become aware that the bad guys need to have some common villainous objective, ie., a reason to try and kill Spidey.

So, you may be wondering about rumors of other multiverse Spider-Men and Spider-Men love interests. You will have to see No Way Home and see for yourself. But what’s more important, as the fate of the planet, or at least New York City, hangs in the balance: does Peter get into MIT?

P.S.  Tom Holland and Zendaya are continuing the tradition of Spidey and his gf matching up IRL… Tobey Maguire & Kirsten Dunst and Andrew Garfield & Emma Stone.

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade: A-

Cut to the Chase: Yes, see it and be glad that we’re not bludgeoned with all the Avengers tromping around onscreen for the umpteenth time.

Humor Highlight: Quite a few good one-liners, with Doctor Strange slaying with ill-tempered quips.