For the first time in over a year and a half, I found myself in a movie theater. The Pandemic had kept me away from a place like the movie theater this entire time, yet I felt pulled into the theater by Spider-man: No Way Home. Marvel and Disney were promising a thrill-ride through movies that really meant something to me growing up. Plus, who doesn’t love Spider-Man?

So I dragged my wife to the movies and braved a world with no sleep the day after because of the late-night premiere. And while I really enjoyed the movie, I didn’t leave the theater feeling fulfilled. I left feeling that something was really missing from a series I’ve loved.

Here are some issues I had with Spider-man No Way Home

Warning: Beyond this point is a web of spoilers.

No Home Left

I’m pretty sure that the last movie I actually went into a theater to see was Spider-Man Far From Home. While there have been other Marvel movies since, this is the first one that I wanted to see on opening night, and not have to wait until it hit the streaming services.

While many felt that the MCU Spider-Man movies (Homecoming, Far From Home)are lacking a little, I left always the theater happy. Were they my favorite MCU movies? No, but they were high on the list. I didn’t feel like that this time.

This time, I felt a little beat down by Spidy’s adventure. By the end of the movie, he had learned the age-old Spider-man lesson: With great power comes great responsibility. Yes through his journey this time he helped out his friends, but he isn’t left with anything else except responsibility.

Through this journey, he has lost all of his friends, all of his family, all of his tech, and his home. He lost all his fun and hope for the next adventure. I haven’t felt this sad about an MCU movie ending since Infinity War.

In Spider-Man Far From Home, Peter’s lamented Tony’s death, but he still got something positive out of the journey. This time, Spider-Man No Way Home felt like he lost a lot and gained little.

The Next Leader of The MCU

When watching Far From Home, it felt like Marvel was spinning up Tom Holland and Spider-Man to be the next driving force of the MCU. The entire run of the last Spider-Man movie, Fury (not really Fury?) tried to get Peter to understand that he was the next Iron Man or the next big protector of Earth. Peter spent the movie avoiding that, trying to stay a kid, but by the end, he took up the mantel Tony left him. He stops Mysterio and gets the girl.

By the end of Spider-Man No Way Home, it didn’t feel like Spidy would be leading the MCU. Everyone in the world knew who Spider-man was, but they don’t remember Peter Parker. So who is going to bring together the hero’s when the next Avenger’s level threat comes?

This felt more like Marvel hedging its bets against Sony, who owns the rights to Spider-man. After Far From Home, Sony tried to cut ties with Marvel and take the property back for themselves. Luckily, the two companies worked out a deal for more movies, or to at least let this trilogy conclude and have Spider-Man included in one more Marvel movie. After that, Spider-Man’s future is unknown. Unless the house of mouse tries to buy Sony.

I hope that something can work out because I do enjoy Tom Holland’s take on Spider-man, but I’m fearful for what Sony would do without the creative hands at Marvel. Plus, I don’t want to see a rebooted Spider-man again.

Spider-Man, Meet Spider-Man

I’m not sure what I thought would happen when I figured that all these Spider-men would be in the movie, but the way that the other Spider-men showed up, left me lacking as a writer. It just felt like deus ex machina, Ned waves his hands, and these other Spider-men show up out of nowhere? There are no emotions there.

What if MCU Spidy was fighting one of the villains and the other comes out of nowhere to save him? I’m more invested, the tension is higher, and the payoff is bigger. When that Spider-man counsels MCU Spidy, there’s a connection there other than just being, “Hey, I’m Spider-man too!”

More than that, I didn’t feel like these Spider-men from their own universe acted like I remembered them acting. It wasn’t that the acting was bad, although there were moments that felt way too cheesy for me.

I would have liked more development on the Spider-men from those other universes.

No Emotional Catharsis

One thing that I found weird, I didn’t have an emotional catharsis at the climax of the final battle. I’m not sure if, once again, the development of the bad guys got passed over for time because there were so many characters. But I didn’t care as I did with the past Spider-man movies. I didn’t feel like there were too many bad guys like in Spider-man 3 or The Amazing Spider-man 2, but I didn’t feel as connected to the bad guy as I have before.

Of course, you know that Spider-man is going to win. But it is that emotional battle that the character must overcome to save the day, and it didn’t win me over this time. Look, Willem Dafoe acted his ass off. He was amazing in his return as the Green Goblin, but I didn’t really care. It was someone else’s Goblin, someone else’s claim to an emotional hurdle. While even typing that sentence, it doesn’t make sense to me. Goblin tortured Peter. He took away his home and comfort in a way that no one else has in the MCU. But I sat there watching, and I didn’t feel attached.

I don’t know if having an MCU version of the Goblin would be able to top what Dafoe has done, but it just didn’t feel earned to me. I wish it had felt more personal to Tom Holland’s Spider-man.

That’s all pretty funny because the thing that made me want to see this Spider-man movie was the return of all the past villains. If I had written this movie, and I’m no professional author (yet), I would have tried to have the main bad guy connected to the MCU Peter and have him bring through the other villains somehow. This would have grounded the main threat in the same world.

But this movie had that- kind of. For most of the film, Spider-man and Dr. Strange are at odds. This culminates in a battle between the two in the middle of the film. This was another fight that I didn’t really feel vested in. I didn’t understand why Strange wouldn’t listen to Peter, why they fought at all. It just felt like an artificial way to ramp up the tension.

Overall Verdict of Spider-Man No Way Home

Overall, I didn’t leave the film wanting to watch it again. I’m sure I will watch it again and soon. But this movie didn’t leave me with much hope like the last few. I feel bad for Spider-man. I’m wondering how he will weave through the MCU in the future since no one remembers that Peter Parker is Spider-man. I don’t think he will be the Iron Man type figure that we were led to believe he would be after all.

I’m not trying to give this movie a bad review. In fact, I enjoyed most of the ride. I just didn’t connect to it like I have the other Spider-man movies. With all the hype going into the movie about reaching back in time and through different iterations, I just wanted more of a connection from a Spider-man that has made his place at home.

Post Article Scene

Here’s your post credit scene for this article. I love that they are bringing Daredevil from the Netflix series back but so far it just feels weak. I was hoping that Matt Murdock would have more of role in the movie when he showed up. His two minutes of screen time got quiet a clap in my screening, but he didn’t really do much. I would have liked to see him weaved through the narrative a little more. Maybe even suit up and fight at the end battle? If you haven’t seen episode 4 of Hawkeye, we have Kingpin making an appearance as well. I hope they are setting up something cool for the characters. After all, the last few season of Daredevil were pretty great. Here’s hoping that the plan will do them justice.