Directed by Jon Watts (Spider-Man: Homecoming; Spider-Man: Far from Home; The Onion News Network) and starring Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Homecoming; Spider-Man: Far from Home; Captain America: Civil War; Avengers: Endgame; The Lost City of Z; The Impossible), Zendaya (Spider-Man: Far from Home; Spider-Man: Homecoming; The Greatest Showman; K.C. Undercover (TV Series)), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog; The Imitation Game; The Mauritanian; The Courier; The Current War; August: Osage County; Sherlock (tv series)), Willem Dafoe (At Eternity's Gate; The Florida Project; Shadow of the Vampire; Platoon), Alfred Molina (Spider Man 2; Promising Young Woman; Don't Let Go), Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man; Spider-Man 2; Pleasantville; Brothers; Wonder Boys; The Great Gatsby; The Cider House Rules) and Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge; The Social Network; The Amazing Spider-Man; Never Let Me Go; The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus).
Action / Adventure / Fantasy; 148 mins; 12+
In this third instalment of the current franchise, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and his friends, including MJ (Zendaya), will soon be leaving school and want to get into MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, staying together as friends.
However, Spider-Man's real identity has just been revealed to the world, ad is made out to be a killer: this turns his, and their, life upside down. Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) arrives on the scene and vows to solve the problem by casting a spell that would mean that everyone would forget who Spider-Man was.
No problem so far, except that Peter then asks Doctor Strange for some of his (Peter's) closest friends to not be affected by the spell so that they would remember his true identity, his alter ego. However, with Peter constantly interrupting, the spell goes badly wrong and the consequences result in the opening up of a vortex into the multiverse, other parallel universes, from which various people (and their alter egos) with whom Spider-Man has had altercations over the years, arrive. These involve such unsavoury characters as the Green Goblin, aka Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) and Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina).
So far, the storyline is relatively straight-forward. And it does not get much more complex than that at all. Apart from, that is, a couple of friendly foe and welcome aquantiances of Spider-Man, a clever twist which leads to some of the funniest lines in the film.
Thus follows a series of escapades in which special effects come to the fore with some incredible action scenes, on a bridge and swinging through trees, just to mention a couple, with a finale on (and around) the Status of Liberty...
If you like a storyline which is fairly thin, a number of super heroes / action heroes at the height of their super powers, and a two-and-a-half hour film over the holiday period, then this is for you. Arguably more entertaining than any other Spiderman film, "No Way Home" also offers adventure and friendship in one serving, with a multitude of characters to boot.
Currently screening at Kinepolis Luxembourg and Cinextdoor.
