ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

Reviews 

SPIDERMAN: NO WAY HOME – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger , , , , , , ,
0 Flares 0 Flares ×

Spidey swings again! The new sequel Spiderman: No Way Home topped $600 million, becoming the biggest hit in Sony Pictures history and ranking as one of the 10 top-grossing domestic hits of all time.

In this third go-round as the teenage web-slinger, Tom Holland’s likable Peter Parker loses his anonymity when malevolent muckraker J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) reveals his identity as a Queens, New York, high school student.

The media soon surround his apartment, harassing Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and bachelor-uncle Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), as Peter is accused of being a war criminal.

When guilt-by-association causes Peter’s plucky girl-friend MJ (Zendaya) and loyal pal Ned (Jacob Batalon) to be rejected by MIT, he solicits his mentor Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to use his Master of the Mystic Arts powers to make everyone forget he was ever Spidey.

Problem is: that spell opens up the Multiverse, creating an eye-popping, intergalactic rift between parallel dimensions.

Which means villains from past Spiderman films, starring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, suddenly re-appear. There’s Dr. Octopus (Alfred Molina), Electro (Jamie Foxx), Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church), Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and the Green Goblin/Norman Osborne (Willem Dafoe).

Surprises abound in this radical approach to a superhero movie, a caper that would have delighted the late comic-book auteur Stan Lee, who loved interlocking sprawling Marvel Comics backstories, exploring a multitude of characters.

Taking an outrageous creative risk were screenwriters Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers, along with director Jon Watts and producers Kevin Feige & Amy Pascal, hammering home lessons about how great power entails great responsibility and, often, great sacrifice.

Stick around for the mid-credits scene and post-credits trailer, heralding more chaos from the collective amnesia in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Dr. Strange and The Multiverse of Madness.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, Spiderman: No Way Home is an action-packed, nostalgic 9, jump-starting theater-going despite the Omicron variant.

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 0 Flares ×

Susan Granger

Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at R.K.O., M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures; her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M. As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O'Brien and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, Phi Beta Kappa, with highest honors in journalism. During her adult life, Susan has been on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic. Her newspaper reviews have been syndicated around the world, and she has appeared on American Movie Classics cable television. In addition, her celebrity interviews and articles have been published in REDBOOK, PLAYBOY, FAMILY CIRCLE, COSMOPOLITAN, WORKING WOMAN and THE NEW YORK TIMES, as well as in PARIS MATCH, ELLE, HELLO, CARIBBEAN WORLD, ISLAND LIFE, MACO DESTINATIONS, NEWS LIMITED NEWSPAPERS (Australia), UK DAILY MAIL, UK SUNDAY MIRROR, DS (France), LA REPUBBLICA (Italy), BUNTE (Germany), VIP TRAVELLER (Krisworld) and many other international publications through SSG Syndicate. Susan also lectures on the "Magic and Mythology of Hollywood" and "Don't Take It Personally: Conquering Criticism and other Survival Skills," originally published on tape by Dove Audio.