Calling Spider-Man No Way Home a sequel to the previous MCU Spider-Man movies is both accurate and inaccurate. While it breathes the same DNA of its MCU Spider counterparts, it also incorporates the DNA of previous Spider-Man movies that have come before it.

While Sony and Marvel have shared their Spider-Man (Tom Holand) for the sake of fans everywhere, the fact remains that all previous iterations of live-action Spider-Man films belong in their own universe owned by Sony. However, Sony and Marvel worked some serious strange magic here where a spell gone wrong allows for the creation of a multiverse that merges the two separate iterations of Spider-Man villains to gain a foothold into the MCU.

No Way Home sees the return of Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Jacob Batalon as Ned, Zendaya as MJ, Jon Favreau as Happy, and Marisa Tomei as Aunt May. As mentioned before No Way Home allows for the return of many previous villains of the past five Spider-Man movies, bringing back William Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Alfred Molina’s Dr. Otto Octavius, Rhys Ifans’s Dr. Curtis Conners, Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman, and Jamie Foxx’s Electro interact with current Peter Parker as he fights the ghosts that haunted the post-Spider-Man’s pasts.

If you already felt that the amount of information revealed was a lot to process, No Way Home continues to provide surprises, as the second you thought you had this movie figured out, another bomb will drop. While agonizing as it is waiting for the other shoe to drop, the reward is worthwhile as by the end I was in shock at how they put such a complex plotline into what seemed like such a short movie.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to write this review without spoiling the whole thing as there’s not much I can tell you without revealing some worthwhile and amazing reveals but I will say that watching the characters you love most struggle between making life-altering decisions that either benefit them or destroy their very existence to save others really changes the meaning behind the word Hero. Spider-Man No Way Home is truly a remarkable movie and one we’re gonna remember forever. Your friendly neighborhood spider-man has done it again.

It’s funny to think that this movie that has engrossed over 1 Billion so far almost didn’t happen due to Sony and Marvel having disagreements over funding and terms. However, thanks to the backlash and pleading of the devoted fans, Sony and Marvel chose to set their differences aside. Looking towards the future, we now know that there will be a fourth Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland and that Spider-Man will remain part of the MCU and part of Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU). A pleasant surprise gleaned from this movie, is that we learned that all of the Netflix Marvel hero’s and villains are officially part of the MCU, all because of a certain devil who made an appearance.

As typical with any MCU movie, stay for the end credits for a look into possibly yet another venom movie and a look into the upcoming Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. I recommend this movie to all ages, it is PG-13 and it’s 2hr 28min long.