#A Web Of Genuine Character Drama And Fan Service

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is at its best and its worst when it’s recalling other movies. Not only does it adopt many, many lines of dialogue from the Raimi films, it also dips into the trippy visuals of “Doctor Strange,” giving its (admittedly still flat and uneven) aesthetic a pop of excitement. There is a childlike joy to seeing Molina repeat his character’s most famous lines (“the power of the sun … in my hand”) but also a gross sadness to seeing that line so separated from its context that it plays like satire. “No Way Home” can’t resist poking fun at the heightened drama of the Raimi films, with your usual glib one-liners about people’s “real names” and “being careful which toxic vats you fall in.” But despite the smugness it’s inherited from its MCU brethren, there’s an aw-shucks sincerity to Holland’s Peter Parker that continues to charm, and shines brighter in the face of outsized villains like Dafoe’s Green Goblin. Dafoe slips into the role as if he never left, wielding that same unhinged grin and wide, unblinking eyes, falling right into that creepy Goblin voice he adopted for the dark side of Norman Osborn. It’s no surprise that Dafoe is the villain that runs away with the movie, and takes becomes the primary driver of Peter’s conflict.

And yet, despite its flaws, despite the blatant nature of the fan service, it works. As clunkily executed as it can be, fan service doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing, especially when it services a larger thematic purpose: grappling with Spider-Man’s legacy. The multiversal villains are fated to die at the hands of Spider-Man, Peter Parker learns. Wherever Spider-Man goes, “death and destruction follows,” J. Jonah Jameson blusters. Later on, Peter has to confront himself and confront his legacy in a way that plays to the nostalgia for the past two “Spider-Man” series, while actually serving Peter’s character. It’s a happy marriage of fan service and character writing that ultimately works — despite the overlong winking banter and riffs between certain characters.

If you poke too many holes in the narrative, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” starts to become undone. But if you take it at face value, it’s a sweet, moving swing of a “Spider-Man” film that (mostly) manages to land.

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10