Why Spider-Man: No Way Home's Reviews Are So Good

Warning! SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home

Sony and Marvel Studios' latest collaboration, Spider-Man: No Way Home, was released to stellar reviews this weekend, as critics praised the Marvel movie's abundance of emotion and humor, as well as its well-executed plot. No Way Home is the follow-up to 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home and concludes Tom Holland's first MCU trilogy as the newest iteration of the web-slinger. No Way Home's good reviews set the MCU back on its near-perfect track record of critical acclaim after Eternals marked the MCU's first "Rotten" certified movie.

Spider-Man: No Way Home picks up right where Far From Home left off, following Peter as he deals with the aftermath of his secret identity as Spider-Man being revealed by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). To spare those closest to him from the consequences of his superhero life, Peter seeks the help of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to erase the memory of Peter Parker from the minds of everyone on earth. As customary of superhero films, Strange's spell breaks and causes a multiversal calamity, as villains from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man franchises start coming into the MCU. The result is arguably Marvel's most ambitious movie as it attempts to tie together three generations of Spider-Man adaptations.

No Way Home currently stands at 95% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with 221 reviews and has already received the "Certified Fresh" stamp. This makes it the highest-rated live-action Spider-Man movie of all time, and the second-highest-rated MCU movie behind 2018's Black Panther (96%). The almost perfect score proves that Marvel and Sony managed to succeed in finally creating a Spider-Man trilogy where each film is revered by critics and fans alike, as all three MCU Spidey films have a Tomatometer score of 90% or above. Here's what some of the positive No Way Home reviews said about the movie:

Screen Rant:

"Spider-Man: No Way Home is ultimately a joy to watch, with spectacular action, a lot of heart, and a grounded hero’s story that paves the way for exciting things to come."

ABC News:

"Tom Holland is better than ever in his surprise-packed, third solo outing as a teen hero in a onesie who's out to save the world and a faltering pandemic box office. But this time the generic thrills are tempered with genuine emotion."

IGN:

"Spider-Man: No Way Home hits all the right notes as the MCU's latest entry. Stellar performances meet what feels like a Saturday morning cartoon rife with all the devastating punches we've come to expect from this sneaky universe."

Nerdist:

"It’s hard to live up to the expectations of a film like Spider-Man: No Way Home. And yet, somehow Jon Watts’ charming, emotional, and funny third Spidey movie does just that."

AV Club:

"Suffice to say, No Way Home hits its hoot-and-holler beats about as skillfully as Endgame did. There are moments here that will probably inspire comparable choruses of applause. Marvel and Sony have made something like an all-purpose Spider-Man sequel, shrewdly designed to hit a whole range of nostalgia centers."

The Wrap:

"The most superheroic feat on display might be the film's ability to keep human-sized emotions and relationships front and center even as the very fabric of time and space twists itself into knots."

Spider-Man No Way Home Villains Kevin Feige

The Spider-Man: No Way Home reviews make it clear that aside from being a great superhero movie, what critics loved the most about the film is how it managed to tell a deep and emotional personal story while weaving in multiversal Spider-Man characters and a universe-ending scope. The concept of the multiverse usually entails that the creative team has infinite choices and, thus, infinite possibilities for failure. This is why the reviews praised No Way Home's director, Jon Watts, for being able to navigate through the chaos and produce an end product that is more than satisfactory. However, not every review for No Way Home was positive. Out of the 221 reviews analyzed by Rotten Tomatoes, 12 reviews have been categorized as rotten. Here are some of the more negative takes:

Giant Freakin' Robot:

"Spider-Man: No Way Home feels like the worst kind of comic book storytelling: it only exists to heap fan service upon the viewer and create a new foundation to build upon."

Little White Lies:

"Due to a plot with more holes than Swiss cheese, iconic villains barely getting a look in, and lackluster action scenes, and No Way Home feels like a greatest hits package specifically designed to hit every fan service button. It doesn’t give us any indication of where this story is going, or why we should care."

NOW Toronto:

"Dimension-hopping bad guy assemblage, heavy doses of nostalgia, and ugly CGI grandeur are nothing new in the MCU. But it’s light years detached from what makes the best Spider-Man movies so affectionately fun."

No Way Home's bad reviews mainly criticized the amount of fan service that the movie chose to include, a criticism that was present in some of the film's positive reviews as well. The negative reviews also claimed that the film was hard to follow, which is to be expected with such a massive cast of characters as Spider-Man: No Way Home has, while also trying to introduce the concept of the multiverse in the MCU to audiences for the first time on the big screen. Additionally, No Way Home faces a problem similar to Avengers: Endgame, where it requires audiences to have seen dozens of past Marvel films - except this time, the cinematic backstory is not limited to MCU canon. While these criticisms are not devoid of ground to stand on, it was a conscious decision by all of those involved with the making of No Way Home to make it feel like a celebration of Spider-Man's 20-year presence on the silver screen, which will not please everyone.

No Way Home is bound to garner mass appeal and become a global event, and most viewers will undoubtedly enjoy the spectacle Marvel Studios and Sony have put together. There will be those who believe that the Spider-Man's multiversal plot is too complicated and detracts from the emotional story the film is trying to tell. However, the movie's personal story, paired with its well-executed plot and nostalgic characters, is the main driving factor behind Spider-Man: No Way Home's stellar reviews.

More: What's The Next MCU Movie After Spider-Man: No Way Home?