Why Some Fans Think No Way Home Might Be The Worst Spider-Man Movie In The MCU
Unless you were living under a rock toward the end of 2021, there's a good chance you might've heard of a little movie called "Spider-Man: No Way Home." Following in the footsteps of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's previous Spider-Man outings, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Spider-Man: Far from Home," the film sees Peter Parker, after having had his identity revealed to the world at the end of the previous film, seeking help from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to have his world turned back to normal, only for their actions to create greater consequences by allowing various "Spider-Man" villains from other universes to appear in theirs. While 2021 saw theaters cautiously open their doors again to varying degrees of success after a lengthy worldwide battle with the COVID-19 pandemic, "Spider-Man: No Way Home" was finally the home run that brought fans coming back in droves.
Earning nearly $2 billion worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), the film shattered box office records, becoming the first film during the pandemic to reach $1 billion (via Variety) as well as the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time. On top of that, both audiences and critics fell in love with the superhero sequel. On Rotten Tomatoes, "No Way Home" sports an electric 93% Tomatometer rating and an even brighter 98% audience score. With such gargantuan levels of success, it's impossible to think that anyone would find the film to be lackluster. As it turns out, some fans have some strong opinions on what could have made "No Way Home" even better.
Fans feel like the film didn't deliver as much as it could have
"No Way Home," despite being mostly loved, has its detractors. Not only have critics writing for such outlets as Vulture and Newsday criticized the film heavily, but even fans have expressed their dissatisfaction with the picture. Take Redditor u/SuccessfulManifests, who makes the bold statement that "No Way Home" is the worst of the Tom Holland trilogy. In particular, they feel that the characterization of the MCU's Peter Parker and the villains included left more to be desired and found the much-anticipated meeting between Holland's Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield's and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Men lacking in its impact.
Plenty of others' thoughts aligned with this sentiment. Many users went straight to the point with their opinions, such as u/EHEBERK, who replied, "I think you are right. Everybody says it was good but to me it was a fan service and as you [said] it was childish." Others, like u/New_Try7036, were relieved to come across someone with a shared viewpoint.
Redditor u/Dummpling46, who was only familiar with the Tom Holland movies beforehand, felt the film catered to older fans of Tobey Maguire's and Andrew Garfield's respective films. As a result, to them, "watching it felt like it completely de-railed. It felt like a generic, any-other [S]pider[-M]an story instead of the uniqueness of what the first two did. ... it's not original. It could've been more."
Perhaps the cast and crew were somewhat blindsided in their intentions — Andrew Garfield himself only agreed to be in the film if Tobey Maguire was on board (via Deadline). While it was clear that plenty of love and care was put into "No Way Home," seeing different sides of the coin is undeniably valuable.