On December 17, 2021, the long-awaited third movie to Marvel’s well-loved, friendly neighborhood superhero was released. After experiencing “Homecoming” and fighting battles “Far From Home”, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker reprises his role as Spider-Man as he tries to help out some familiar villains who have “No Way Home”. I had the opportunity of seeing this movie in theaters and am here to share some of the thoughts that I had during and after the film.

This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

This movie begins right where it left off at the end of Far From Home: Spider-Man’s identity is revealed to be high school student Peter Parker. Of course, this causes many problems for his friends and family with all of the attention and police questioning circling them. To mend this chaos, Peter seeks Dr. Strange’s help to cast a spell so the world would forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. However, as Dr. Strange is casting the spell, Peter keeps changing his mind, causing the spell to get out of control and ultimately leading to villains from other dimensions come pouring into their universe.

Viewers get to see some familiar faces as the villains start making their appearance. Peter meets the Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Sandman, Lizard, and Electro, all of whom were in the previous Spider-Man movies with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. This movie was truly a mix of all the Spider-Man franchises jam-packed into one exciting movie.

Throughout this movie, Peter grapples with an interesting moral dilemma when he must decide if he wants to send the villains back to their alternate universe (essentially a death sentence) or try to “cure” the villains before sending them back so they’re not just going to die. With advice from Aunt May, Peter chooses to cure the group of villains. However, this does not fully work as planned because Green Goblin turns on them, leading to Aunt May’s death. I was in absolute tears at this moment because I was not expecting it. Aunt May has always been there for Peter, from being a hip mother figure to an avid Spider-Man supporter. Before her death, she shared the famous quote, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Further on in the movie, as Ned is trying to summon Peter with the magic ring he got from Dr. Strange, the viewers get something even better. The theater erupted in cheer as Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man walked through the portal, following Tobey Maguire. It was truly a celebration of three generations of cinema. When all together, the three Spider-Men had a wonderful dynamic that I loved, and it was so nostalgic for fans who have been following this superhero since the very beginning. Before watching No Way Home, I rewatched some of the Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire movies just in case, and it paid off. However, people who didn’t watch the previous movies might have felt a little confused or left out. It might not have been the best idea to include so many characters from past films since new viewers need a lot of background information.

In the final battle with all three Spider-Men against the whole squad of villains, it almost felt like the ultimate fan fiction, not so much a Marvel movie. It was hilarious when Andrew Garfield’s “I love you guys” came out so naturally, and neither Tobey nor Tom said it back. Later on in the fight, my heart melted when Andrew’s Spider-Man rescued Zendaya’s MJ as she was falling from the building, which paralleled Gwen’s fall in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 when Peter couldn’t save her.

Meanwhile, Dr. Strange finally returns after being stuck in the mirror-verse for most of the movie when Peter trapped him there during their fight. Being that Strange was not in the movie for the majority of it, it felt a little weird. Now that he is back, Dr. Strange can’t keep the spell together, resulting in the world “breaking” and a multiverse catastrophe. To fix his mistake, Peter makes the selfless decision to sacrifice his friends and family by making it so he never existed. Although the ending was slightly disappointing because his friends had to forget about him, he made the right decision to keep his loved ones safe. It hurt my heart to watch Peter talk to MJ, Ned, and Happy when they didn’t remember him anymore. It made me even sadder when Peter decided not to read the long letter he wrote for MJ even though he promised.

Compared to the other two Spider-Man movies, No Way Home was not as lighthearted with a school dance or class trip. Now, no one knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, and he has to start a new life by himself in his own New York apartment. He no longer has any mentors to support him, and he must be independent and have his own suit since Tony’s version never existed. Because Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is not affiliated with the Avengers anymore, it paves the way for what Sony wants to do in the future (Venom was already introduced in the post-credits). There is potential for Spider-Man to be separated from the MCU. I would want Tom Holland’s Peter Parker to stay with the MCU because I feel like there are better opportunities, and the different character dynamics they can form with a variety of MCU heroes would be interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed Spider-Man: No Way Home. It addresses the acceptance of loss and coming of age in an action-packed movie. Although it was hard to see all of the relationship development Peter and his friends have worked towards in the past movies get erased, this film was, nonetheless, well-executed.