Despite its enormous runtime of just shy of three hours, the pacing is something of the struggle for No Way Home. It introduces the important thing conflict, the returning villains, and establishes Peter's day-saving plan all inside a whirlwind opening act that flies by at breakneck speed. Fortunately, consistent with the two prior films, the film requires a hard left turn at the halfway mark and it is an excursion de force of fan service in the future. The only regretful thing is the fact that, with the exception of the first 10 mins, we do not see a large amount of Peter's school life which I felt were a few of the strongest parts of the first two films.
To say the film doesn't suffer slightly from overcrowding will be a lie, with so many villains on board, the film scrambles for any focal point before thankfully buying the strongest from the lot in Doc Ock and Norman Osborne-roles you would not believe Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe had spent decades absent from. The others are simply there and serve to heighten Peter's struggle and add a little bit of levity, but they ultimately don't enjoy the lion's share from the spotlight. No Way Home, while being a vehicle for lots of soon-to-be iconic on-screen Spider-Man moments, also offers a great sense of humour and it's a load shouldered by the entire cast.
The film's three acts are punctuated by blockbuster-level action scenes that are all wonderfully choreographed. As someone who often zones out during the 'boom-crash' segments, all of the key set pieces are visually pleasing-especially the stoush between Dr. Strange and Peter within the mirror dimension, featured heavily in the trailers, as they struggled for treatments for the MacGuffin device that holds the capacity to send the villains the place to find suffer their predetermined fates.
There are several instances where it's super obvious a green screen is involved, but I believe that the film ultimately looks terrific considering a few of the extremes it goes to. I expect these to sell a lot of toys as the suits in No Way Home are all pretty rad, specially the recon suit Peter wears in place of his paint-splattered get-up. The score and sound design are expectedly top-notch, particularly our first encounter with Electro-the almost unnatural warbling of his power surge made our theatre seats rumble. Michael Giacchino's score is characteristically epic as he bounces expertly from the film's bolder moments to the surprising amount of tender, heartfelt scenes.
There are plenty of commendable acting chops on display by no means Home. Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe take up their respective guises as if they'd never left them behind while Tom Holland elevates to another level and delivers an at-times powerful performance as Peter, supported ably by both Zendaya and Jacob Batalon.
Spider-Man: Not a way Home dives down into the rabbit hole without fear, taking out lots of tricks from the hero's storied cinematic past. Despite its problems, it seems like a worthy closing chapter to the Homecoming trilogy all the while opening new doors for Tom Holland's Peter Parker who, it was announced recently, will return for an additional three films.
