After seeing Spider-Man: No Way Home twice in theaters, once before it came out on December 16th and now January 2nd, and being an avid Marvel watcher since birth, I feel somewhat qualified to give my take on the biggest dominance of the cinemas in the entirety of 2021. Making its way into the 10th highest-grossing movie ever at the domestic box office in only its third week, the beautiful callbacks to its counterparts Spider-man and The Amazing Spider-man have been proven successful amongst many other things.

  The movie started off with an almost direct continuation of Tom Holland’s last movie Spider-Man: Far From Home where Mysterio had just outed Spider-Man’s identity as Peter Parker to the public. With heroes like Captain America and Black Widow, the public knew their identity as Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff but Peter was the only hero with a secret identity and in the MCU, heroes don’t hide behind pseudonyms. However, he actually had reasons to keep his identity a secret; he values his normal life and he wants to keep his loved ones out of constant danger and keep them out of the burden of being a public figure; it’s an essential part of his character.

  Mysterio revealing this turns his world upside down; Peter now has to deal with the court of public opinion. He had dreams of living a normal life, getting into MIT with his friends, and living in Boston, but that can’t happen now due to today’s modern world obsession with celebrity culture which brings a modern take to the film not explored in past Spider-Man’s.

  After the group’s rejection from MIT due to the “controversy” surrounding Peter’s true identity, all Peter wants is to take back the information that he was ever Spider-Man so he goes to Doctor Strange to help wipe the minds of the public. Obviously, this doesn’t work and in trying to use the Runes of Kauf-Kaul, the spell was corrupted and Strange had to contain it using the ancient relic Machina de Kadavus. With this spell, a rift in the multiverse had unleashed several enemies of Spider-Man in alternate realities such as Doc Ock and Electro. That was a lot of words. 

  Yet, we’re somehow just getting started. For starters: String theory. Multidimensional reality. And matter displacement. All real? Knew it! An alternate timeline has been comparatively explored in other marvel movies as laid out by the Ancient One in Doctor Strange and confirmed by He Who Remains in Loki, the MCU exists in a world “without end.” In short, the MCU’s multiverse is infinite. However, we have yet to truly explore that like they did in Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

  Not to mention, the build-up itself was unlike any other. It’s unusual not to know significant cast members until after the movie is released and of course, with marvel movies, trying to get the cast members to spoil something is one of interviewers’ and fans’ favorite pastimes. Which, might I add, is definitely entertaining considering Tom Holland’s history of spoiling just about everything with endless amounts of complications on YouTube of him giving away so much unwarranted information. 

  This time, however, the cast and crew must’ve seriously trained Tom because if I’m not mistaken, he didn’t spoil anything this time around. Okay, well actually, he spoiled kind of a lot but you know what? He tried. 

  Unluckily though, the internet, specifically Twitter, is the place for leaked information since teenage girls can FBI investigate anything these days. Photos and videos leaked all over social media, some real and some not. This Spider-Man in particular had such big hype and expectations that everybody was trying to gather any information possible. Everyone knew but nobody knew. 

  Watching Peter Parker cubed (this is what I’m choosing to call the trio of Toby Maguire, Andrew Gartfield, and Tom Holland from now on) interact was hectic yet simultaneously cathartic and the writers definitely capitalized on their opportunity to make this as hilarious as possible. I mean, come on, “Cool Youth Pastor?” When Andrew’s Spider-man cracked Tobey’s Spider-man’s back like two casual friends before the movie’s final battle? Absolute gold.

  Not only did they use comedy to their advantage, they also explored Spider-Man’s past hardships commonly experienced between the 3 friendly neighborhood Spider-Man’s. Moments of the film drew you back to the previous movies, with the perfect parallel of MJ’s fall seemingly mirroring Gwen’s in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, however Andrew’s Spider-Man gets the redemption he was longing for in an emotional display of grief that made watchers quite literally cry their eyes out. 

  Bringing these three together along with the villainous opposition of Doc Ock, Electro, Sandman, Lizard, and Green Goblin brought such a thrilling energy to the theater with fans screaming for joy as Andrew’s Spider-Man goes through Ned’s portal. The movie itself brought back so much nostalgia from 2002 (I was nonexistent then but I can still appreciate it!) and possibly the start of a new era of multidimensional reality that I can’t wait to watch!

  After over a year and a half of COVID tanking the cinemas, Spider-Man: No Way Home brought back the authentic experience watchers longed for while watching on streaming sites like Disney+ and Hulu. Being the first film in the pandemic to hit $1 billion in global box office receipts, it has given us the hope of recovery of the box office and aroused the appreciation for the cinematic experience we haven’t had in so long.