Amidst the laughs and the tears is a deep, heartfelt empathy that’s felt missing not just in the early MCU, but in the Spider-Man films that preceded this one.

His character - like the rest of the villains who find their way into Peter’s (Tom Holland) universe - is given a new depth that was never explored in previous Spider-Man films.īuilt around performances like Dafoe’s - Alfred Molina’s Doc Oc and Jamie Foxx’s Electro aren’t anything to sneeze at, either - is the root of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s success. Willem Dafoe nails everything he does, but his reprisal of Norman Osborn is something for the MCU history books. But, whether it be the pandemic or No Way Home's lack of buildup from other installments in the MCU, the performances here feel like something different. Some of the best actors in the world now hold their own respective Marvel roles. The MCU as a whole has never been a slouch when it comes to casting. That’s due in no small part to stellar performances across the board. You’ll find no spoilers here, but the film will remind you repeatedly that there are a whole lot of reasons that Sony and Marvel kept the details of this one as close to the vest as possible.ĭespite the fact that there’s so much we can’t talk about here, we can still find plenty of tidbits to discuss, because there’s truly never a dull moment in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Spider-Man: No Way Home is somehow a perfect harmony of a Saturday morning cartoon and the deep drama that we’ve come to expect from these epics. Once-in-a-lifetime films are pipe dreams for most studios, yet, here’s Marvel showing off the fact that they have us all in the palm of their hands yet again.

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