‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’: Power and Responsibility
You have a gift. You have power. And with great power, there must also come great responsibility.
After a month and a half of hard lockdown fueled by the Omicron variant, I finally saw Spider-Man: No Way Home. Of course, I got the entire movie spoiled for me (thanks, Twitter!), but it didn’t really matter. Jon Watts’ Spider-Man films have been heavily criticized for always relying on other Marvel Cinematic Universe characters to be integrated into the story, without genuinely focusing on our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Tom Holland). Though, this time around, No Way Home concentrates not only on Spider-Man but on the sentence that solidified him as one of the greatest comic-book heroes of all time and the reason why so many people unite around him.
Here’s the thing: our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is just a kid and still learns what it means to be a hero and the responsibility that arises when you join a team to the level of The Avengers. Unfortunately, he doesn’t understand the responsibility and keeps royally screwing up whenever he thinks he has the chance to do good. In Homecoming, believing he’d be able to confront the Vulture (Michael Keaton) on his own was a mistake, and so was trusting Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Far From Home. But these were “minor” mistakes compared to what happens in No Way Home, where he asks the help of Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast the spell that’ll make the entire world forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.
He doesn’t understand that if the spell is screwed up, it could have massive repercussions for his world and the others in the vast multiverse, which it quickly does. Doctor Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) and Norman Osborn/Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) show up, which then adds Max Dillon/Electro (Jamie Foxx), Curt Connors/Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and Flint Marko/Sandman (Thomas Haden Church). That’s a big problem that Peter can quickly solve. Strange has the spell (and the box) to send the villains back to their worlds. However, Parker believes the villains can be cured, so their fates aren’t predetermined when they return.
But you can’t tempt fate. And our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will learn about this the hard way. And where Spider-Man: No Way Home fails in its nostalgic wink-wink scenes, it more than makes up for it through its emotional core and incredibly memorable action sequences. As much as it was obnoxious to hear Willem Dafoe say, without much thought, “You know, I’m something of a scientist myself,” just so the audience could clap (or backflip), something else clicked. I became quickly enthralled by the movie’s examination of what it truly means to be Spider-Man and how responsibility will always come straight back when you touch upon unfettered power.
At first, it was mildly enjoyable. It’s a nice continuation to Far From Home’s cliffhanger ending, with some neat fight scenes along the way. The mirror dimension fight between Strange and Spidey is staggering, wonderfully scored by Michael Giacchino, and looks utterly nuts on an IMAX screen. But it can only go so far without starting to feel redundant. But when it starts to feel that way, that’s when screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers completely shatter expectations and bring in a more mature version of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man than ever before.
That moment occurs when Parker senses something sinister after curing Octavius and Dillon. He doesn’t know what he’s sensing, but it’s not good. This is where the Green Goblin comes crawling back, with Norman “on sabbatical, honey.” Willem Dafoe has never been better as the popular comic-book villain and, dare I say, gives a much more terrifying performance than he did in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. The emotional shift that dissociates Norman and Goblin is even more chilling than Spider-Man. In that movie, he learned to embrace the Goblin. In No Way Home, the Goblin completely takes control of his personality, and he doesn’t even realize the trauma he’s inflicting on Peter by killing his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei).
Of course, it was bound to happen at some point (since Uncle Ben was already dead), but the way it happens was quite surprising. First, there’s the clichéd “With great power comes great responsibility” line, but it hits even more on a purely emotional level when May falls to the ground, with Peter thinking she survived Goblin’s attack and dies. This is all on him. He thought he’d change who these villains are but quickly realizes that this would not happen without any help. Otto could be changed because it wasn’t his fault that his suit malfunctioned. Still, you can’t change the inherent personality of a megalomaniac like Norman Osborn, and, unfortunately, Parker’s moral quest will come to a halt. It’s one of the most shocking scenes of the movie, wrought with emotional power, which then comes to an Apex when Parker fights Osborn again during the climax.
Gone is the “friendly neighborhood” Spider-Man we’ve come to know and love in the MCU. Instead, here’s a more mature Spider-Man finally realizing that with great power comes great responsibility, and if he’s not willing to be responsible, then the power he holds has no weight. He learns that from Aunt May and two generations of Spider-Men, played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Is it nostalgia-bait? Sure. But didn’t it feel great to see three Spider-Men fight villains together? Hell yes. Garfield looks to be having the time of his life and beautifully balances the strong emotional catharsis of the second act with a powerful monologue on grief processing and loss. His Spider-Man is redeemed when he saves MJ (Zendaya) from possible death, as he learned from his mistake when he attempted to save Gwen (Emma Stone) from the Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan), but ultimately fell to her demise.
Every hero learns something about themselves that it isn’t the only power that defines who they are, but how they use their power for the world's good. From the beginning of the movie, it becomes clear that conspiracy theorists will warp what Parker did to the world through his fight with Mysterio. But as Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock brilliantly says, a court of public opinion is stronger to the public’s eye than a legitimate court of law. So Peter will have to prove to the world, once again, that he’s a hero and will have to carry on without anyone by his side anymore. This is the most tragic part of the film, where Peter has to completely give up being “Peter Parker/Spider-Man” and attempt to live two different lives, or else he will keep putting his friends and the remaining family he has left in danger.
The final confrontation between Goblin and Parker is an all-timer, especially when Tobey’s Spider-Man comes out at the very last minute to prevent Holland’s Parker from killing him. He knows the rage fueling inside Parker at this moment (having experienced that same rage in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3) and knows that it’s a scary thing to carry. The best way to kill the Goblin is to cure Osborn because even a psychopath like him deserves a second chance. Norman’s fault wasn’t that he killed May (the Goblin took the better of him), and even if Peter knows it, his rage wants him dead. It’s been a while that I’ve seen a superhero movie this mature and unafraid at dealing with themes of trauma and loss head-on. It naturally leads to Peter’s transformation from teenhood to adulthood, learning never to rely on anybody else but himself and becoming the hero he was always meant to be.
Sure, Spider-Man: No Way Home may seem like a shameless exercise in weaponized nostalgia. In many cases, this type of nostalgia doesn’t work at all (look at The Book of Boba Fett). It’s cheap, disingenuous, and too unconfident at telling a story that focuses on a sole character. But those who are focusing too much on the nostalgic aspect of the movie prevent themselves from looking at the film's emotional crux. It is a surprisingly heartfelt and moving celebration of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, with Tom Holland’s most extraordinary portrayal of the hero yet and contains some truly incredible action sequences we will never see again. There’s never been a better representation of the series’ famous quote than in No Way Home, and I will stand by it for years to come. It was more than worth the agonizing month and a half lockdown for this.
