I knew as I was walking out of the theater that it was my favorite of all the various Spider-Man movies we've gotten over the years. No, it doesn't really stand on its own in any way -- though, of course, few sequels do. Still, it does an outstanding job of picking up the batons passed to it and running with them in clever, meaningful ways. It does this so well, in fact, that I found myself comparing it to Avengers: Endgame more and more. And that's when it really clicked for me:
This isn't just the best Spider-Man movie. It's the best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
That's a bold statement for some, I'm sure. And I intend to back it up. But it will simply be impossible to be coy and dance around spoilers while doing so. So, if you still haven't seen the movie, I'll point you to the virtual exits now with this parting thought: I give Spider-Man: No Way Home an A. It's great.
For those still here for the SPOILERS, here you go. In a nutshell, what makes No Way Home so great is the sheer number of meaningful character arcs the movie includes. It's hard enough for a superhero movie to include important moments for any non-super-powered sidekicks in the main character's orbit, but this one includes "best of trilogy" moments for both MJ and Ned, while giving two of the movie's most powerful dramatic scenes to Aunt May and (unlikely as it might seem) Happy.
But No Way Home is just getting started. It does what very few superhero movies do successfully, giving important character growth to the villain(s). Maybe in this case, the movie actually had to do so, to entice so many actors to come back who in no way needed to be in this movie. In any case, we get a powerful redemptive arc for Doctor Octopus -- Alfred Molina getting to refine the character who was already the most sympathetic villain in the Spider-Man films. Electro gets to be a more menacing foe than last time around, Jamie Foxx more threatening than he was with even less screen time this time around. And the Green Goblin is truly positioned as the apex predator of them all, Willem Dafoe delivering an even better performance with bigger emotional swings.
Of course, the big (and yet worst-kept) secret surprise was the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as their prior versions of Spider-Man, and No Way Home somehow makes room for them to do a lot in this movie without ever taking the focus away from Tom Holland's incarnation. In particular, Garfield gets his best moments ever in the role: fun comedic banter with MJ and Ned, and a dramatic moment of redemption when he rescues MJ in the final battle. (Andrew Garfield does so much in five seconds with virtually no dialogue, it's unreal.)
It's all so skillfully woven together, and that's before you even consider that the "degree of difficulty" here was off the charts. Yes, Avengers: Endgame was the culmination of 20 films, needed to give "a moment" to dozens of characters, effectively say goodbye to some of them, and be entertaining. But everything leading up to that film was under the complete creative control of the Marvel Powers-That-Be. No Way Home took on the baggage of five prior Spider-Man films that the MCU creatives did not control. And in some cases, it really was baggage -- dour tone, unconvincing villains, bad narrative choices. Writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (and surely many others who don't get a screen credit with them) took so much of both the good and bad, and used it all.
Plus, there were fun moments for still more characters I haven't even called out. And fun callbacks to earlier films. And non-oppressive setup for future MCU films. It seems impossible that this movie could come out anything but a garbled, disjointed mess. That it's actually great creates almost a feedback loop that makes it feel even greater in my book.
So, there you have it. Why I think Spider-Man: No Way Home is the best film of the MCU. I give it an A.
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