Spider-Man: No Way Home is a perfect mixture of nostalgia and fan service while still bringing its own unique elements to the table. It has exciting and emotional moments which can be appreciated by hardcore and casual fans alike. The film just feels like the ultimate Spider-Man experience. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home follows Peter Parker (Tom Holland) after the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home, when his secret identity as Spider-Man was exposed. He now must deal with a myriad of troublesome consequences that come with his situation. To solve this issue, he seeks the help of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and asks him to cast a spell that will make the whole world forget he’s Spider-Man. But when Peter makes too many demands for this spell it goes horribly wrong, cracking open the multiverse and bringing in heroes and villains from alternate universes that Spider-Man must deal with.  

The failure of the spell leads to the appearance of villains from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, as well as from the two Marc Webb Spider-Man movies. Featured among these returners are Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), Electro (Jamie Foxx), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and The Lizard (Rhys Ifans). All of these villains have a core aspect about them that Spider-Man feels he can fix so that when they get sent back to their home timelines, they might not still be the doomed enemies they were originally. It all plays into the main theme of the movie, redemption. 

This theme can also be seen in the heroes brought in by Doctor Strange’s spell, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man from the Raimi films and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man from the Webb films. Each of these Spider-Men have a regret from their own movies that they rectify in this one. For Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, he was unable to save his love interest, Gwen Stacy, so in this movie he redeems himself by saving Tom Holland Spider-Man’s love interest, MJ (Zendaya). As for Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, he redeems himself by preventing Tom Holland from killing the Green Goblin, something he was unable to prevent in his trilogy. 

If there is one thing that can be criticized about this film, it does feel like quite a few things happen just for plot convenience. Especially towards the end of the movie, it feels like many things just fit perfectly into place so the climax can be reached. It isn’t a big deal especially when invested in the movie, but it’s something to point out and can seem a bit lazy when thinking about it. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home is a perfect combination of all the live action Spider-Man properties. There are so many parts that, years ago, would feel like they are impossible to achieve but are executed perfectly in this movie. It uses older characters in superb ways that don’t just feel like nostalgia bait like other movies, but instead are properly developed to fit into the film. It all culminates into a flawless movie.