Spider-Man: No Way Home Review - 7 Ups & 3 Downs
1. It's A Fine Example Of A Nostalgic "Legacy Sequel"
It wouldn't have been remotely surprising if No Way Home was a complete mess, because pulling three cinematic Spider-Man universes together while also paying off the three-movie arc of Tom Holland's Spider-Man is no easy feat.
On top of that, the outrageous amounts of fan service and nostalgia-baiting could've easily made it feel like a lazy, low-effort, pandering sequel made more out of desperation than creativity, not unlike the recent Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
But No Way Home is a testament to how enjoyable the "legacy sequel" can be when it respects what came before without letting it upstage the new(er) characters.
There are certainly moments where the script falters and doesn't totally nail the balance, but for the most part other studios and filmmakers could learn a lot from this film's trade-off between its legacy and contemporary elements.