Holland a very good Spidey as Marvel tangles with multiverse
Casting Tom Holland as Peter Parker was one of the sharper decisions to emerge from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What a business model! These movies are designed to never, ever end. Always another intramural sequel or spinoff option. It can get a little wearying, and I say that with the knowledge that, for millions, there is no weariness, only rapture and delight. I’m happy for those people. We all need something.
Holland provides the glue and the webbing for the latest Spidey outing, “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” He’s physically nimble, quick-witted with his darting comic timing and an all-around easygoing presence. When the movie treats the mayhem and brutality for real, he’s there with the right degree of anguish.
Director Jon Watts and screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers deliver an extremely busy, generally entertaining venture into the MCU multiverse of alternate timelines, competing versions of the same character and swirling trippiness. If you caught the animated 2018 “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” you’ll get the idea.
At the end of “SpiderMan: Far From Home” two years ago, Peter’s climactic unmasking turned Spidey into a tragically divided public figure: good guy or murderous vigilante? At the beginning of the new film, he’s home, uneasily, with Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). Half of Peter’s high school classmates
want him locked up, or worse. The other half still supports his crime-fighting efforts and general friendly neighborliness.
Peter, along with girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), have applied to MIT. Distraught, and pondering whether there’s a way to dink with the time-space continuum to make everyone forget his true identity, Peter pays a visit to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch),
who reluctantly complies with an enchantment. The spell goes awry, and suddenly the multiverse busts out all over, with a variety of previous films’ Spidey villains stopping by.
The casting “surprises” in “No Way Home” will last approximately “one more minute.” Suffice to say Peter meets his match(es) and the movie has fun with that. Elsewhere in its nearly 2 ½ hours, the movie takes the multiverse outpouring into sincere
grief counseling territory. This, too, is effective, though I’ve often found the mood swings in many of the MCU products to be a matter of bait-and-switch.
Peter contends with the reappearance of a very full roster of characters, including Alfred Molina as Doc Ock from “SpiderMan 2,” all of 17 years ago. Sam Raimi remains the Spidey director to beat for the staging, pacing and velocity of the action. Director Watts succeeds best in the comedy. There’s at least one or two too many protracted battle royales in these movies for my taste. But Watts has done an admirably lively job with all three of the Holland Spideys, and while I like the middle one best, well, that’s in line with the Raimi-directed “Spider-Man” trilogy. Not to mention the initial “Star Wars” trilogy. Not to mention “The Godfather” movies. Michael kills Fredo in the second “Godfather” film, for the record. Sorry, I just really needed to spoil something.
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic. mjphillips@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @phillipstribune
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sequences of action/ violence, some language, and brief suggestive comments) Running time: 2:28
Where to watch: Now in theaters