“Which Peter are you talking to?” “Spider-Man No Way Home” breaks records by pouring fan-service into almost every scene.
In the newest installment of Marvel’s fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), “Spider-Man No Way Home”, there was not a second in the film that did not include fan service. Fan service is when a company will cater to the fans and what they want to see.
The film alludes to many of the Marvel TV series that have been released on Disney Plus over the past year. Watching those series plus the prior films give way to a better understanding of the films.
The film starts with Spider-Man/Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, running to hide with his girlfriend MJ, played by Zendaya, after his identity is revealed by Mysterio, the villain from the previous Spider-Man film. Peter Parker and his friends are applying for colleges, finding out that his identity being released to the world made it harder for them to get into MIT. This frustrates Parker, making him wish the world never knew who he was. Parker goes to see an old colleague of his, Dr. Steven Strange.
Dr. Strange is known as a powerful sorcerer who can manipulate space, time and reality. He fought with Parker as well as the Avengers and many others at the end of Phase three. Parker hatched a plan to ask Dr. Strange to make the world forget who Spider-Man truly is. While Dr. Strange was casting the spell, Parker manipulated the spell by changing the parameters multiple times. This caused the spell to be botched, creating a rift from multiple universes.
After the spell was botched, villains from older Spider-Man movies began showing up. The first villain Tom Holland’s Peter Parker interacted with was Doc Oc, who is from the original Spider-Man 2. Doc Oc is also known as Doctor Octavius. Parker was chased by Doc Oc until he was found to not be his Peter Parker who was played by Tobey McGuire, not Tom Holland. Dr. Strange helps Parker catch Doc Oc and put him in a cell reminiscent of jail.
Dr. Strange then asks Parker and his friends to capture everyone who came from other universes and trap them into similar cells. The group begins to watch for disturbances around the world only to find Electro and Sandman appear out near a power station. Electro is from “The Amazing Spider-Man” films and Sandman is from the Tobey McGuire Spider-Man films. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man captures both villains, sending them to their jail cells.
After catching the two villains, Parker’s Aunt May calls him to tell him the last one he was looking for was with her. This villain is the Green Goblin, one of the more powerful enemies in the original Spider-Man series. Aunt May suggested helping save them as they are people too. Green Goblin wanted to help Parker with his goal of saving the villains instead of killing them, then Goblin turned on him, in turn killing Aunt May. This was the saddest part of the movie, bringing tissues with you to the theater.
After the passing of Aunt May, Parker sets out to kill them all. While Parker was trying to fix the villains, MJ and Ned were busy dealing with finding Andrew Garfield and Tobey McGuire’s spiderman using Dr. Strange’s ring portal. They were originally trying to locate their Peter Parker (Tom Holland).
After each person introduces themselves, they ask where their Peter Parker would have gone. Andrew Garfield and Tobey McGuire’s Spiderman say they enjoyed going to the tallest building to let their emotions out and get away from everyone. They find Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in a tall building. MJ and Ned hug him and give him a chance to grieve his loss. The two other Spider-Men introduce themselves.
All three Spider-Men agree to try and save the villains if at all possible. Each one had thought of serums to revert or undo their abilities. They begin to work on their serums.
A long-awaited moment was given to the fans as fanservice. This was the moment where each individual Spiderman was pointing at the other spiderman, asking the question “which Peter Parker are you talking to?” The rest of the movie was spent saving the Spidermen villains while dealing with Dr. Strange trying to contain the spell that broke out of the box again.
Each villain is saved even after Tom Holland wants to kill Green Goblin for killing his only living family member. Strange completes a spell for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man to ensure no one, not even MJ or Ned, will remember who he is. Parker drops out of high school, rents his own apartment and makes his own suits. He begins to renew his name as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
This movie was great. It had action and many acts of fan service. It had moments of hilarity and moments of sadness. The only aspect that was not enjoyed by all would be the lack of use of Ironman’s weapons. Granted Parker could not use his weapons anymore because of what happened with Mysterio, there must have been more that he could have potentially used. Overall the movie is worth the watch. Just be sure to bring tissues to the theaters.