Did you skip seeing Spider-Man: No Way Home in theatres out of concern for the pandemic? Probably not, given the film’s astounding box office. However, there must be a few of you out there, since that number includes myself — which is why I’m delighted to finally watch the opening of the movie. Even if you have seen it, it’s well worth rewatching.
In case you’ve been hit in the head by a rock and forgotten it or were living under said rock and didn’t know, No Way Home begins at the same moment the previous film, Far From Home, ends, with J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) revealing to the world that the secret identity of Spider-Man is 17-year-old Peter Parker (Tom Holland). Between that and Mysterio’s doctored video, in which Spidey appears to kill the supposed hero, the lives of Peter, Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), M.J. (Zendaya), and Ned (Jacob Batalon) are completely upended and require the services of a certain lawyer…
As cool as it is to finally see the official entrance of Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) into the MCU — and I did laugh out loud at the “I’m a very good lawyer” line — what I’m really impressed with is how efficient the opening of the movie is, moving at top speed from J. Jonah’s broadcast to the paparazzi, feds, and a crowd of people (who are shockingly cool after discovering they’re standing next to a super-powered murderer) hassling the four, and moving right to Murdock telling Peter he doesn’t need to worry about the murder charge, but he does need to worry about, well, everything else. It’s a wonderfully economical way to get right to the movie’s premise, in which Peter asks Doctor Strange to cast a spell to make the world forget that he’s Spider-Man, which goes awry to say the least. (Although I would sort of have liked to know why the murder charge was dropped.)
If you’d like to watch the rest of the film, Spider-Man: No Way Home’s digital release arrives tomorrow. If you want the DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K version, you’ll have to wait until April 12.