Spider-Man: No Way Home - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Spider-man: No Way Home



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
I’ve mentioned it in the past several months, but “memberberries” style of infusing old cast members into new films to revitalize them are all the rage. However, just because there are memberberries in the film doesn’t make it bad. Some movies do it out of desperation in hopes of saving a dying franchise, and others do it deftly and more maturely in a way that honors both the old and the new (ala Ghostbusters: Afterlife). Spider-Man: No Way Home is probably the largest version of old and new, and much like Ghostbusters: Afterlife, does it exquisitely in a way that wraps up Tom Holland’s teenage trilogy from Phase III of Marvel, as well as brings in some MASSIVE nostalgia by tying in the Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire universes as well in an epic 2.5 hour film that has every long standing Spider-Man fan giddy with joy.

The film ends shortly after the evens in Far From Home, with Mysterio’s dying breaths transmitting a video that exposes Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) identity to the entire world. Now the world hates your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man due to the fact that they didn’t see all of the trickery that Mysterio pulled. J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons reprising his iconic role, but this time, in this universe, as an Alex Jones conspiracy theory fringe media outlet) is on the warpath, and Peter’s actions are now affecting his friends. Not only does he not get into MIT, but both MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) also are refused entry. Tearful and frustrated, Peter goes to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and asks that he cast a spell that makes everyone forget who he is. In typical Spider-Man fashion he ends up interrupting the spell, which opens up rifts in the multiverse, and dropping off multiple badguys from the Maguire and Garfield universes.

Capturing all of the villains (including Sandman, Electro, Doc Ock, Lizardman and The Green Goblin, all played by the original actors) Peter finds out the horrible truth. Not only did he pull in villains from another universe, but villains who all have died at the hands of the other Spider-Men. Feeling a spark of sympathy fueled by Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) Peter decides that he’s going to help the villains get cured of their various super powered curses, and send them back for a second chance at life. However, that plans goes to hell in a hand basket when The Green Goblin and Electro decide that they don’t WANT to be cured, forcing Peter to have to team up with some surprising allies to get them all cured, and home in one piece.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is a fantastic story, and probably the BEST of the Tom Holland Spidey films. I’ve been critical (and so has the fan base) of his previous two solo films. Tom Holland worked quite well as an add-in to the Avengers and their flicks, but his solo films have been underwhelming. Spider-Man: Homecoming was a solid flick, but Far From Home just really didn’t work THAT great. Not to mention Holland as a leading man was sort of shakey. The movies suffered from being too much of Tony Stark’s influence, and the classic Spidey that we all knew and loved just felt like an extension of Iron Man. So much so that many people dubbed him “Iron Spider”. However, the film does a really impressive job of using the multiverse to mold and change characters across the board, including some of the old villains from previous films as well. We get to see the classic costumes for Electro and Green Goblin (Electro finally gets the classic yellow and green in a nifty twist. Although I DID get a little annoyed and relieved that his personality changed as well to more of a Jamie Foxx vibe rather than the goofy character he was in The Amazing Spider-Man 2).

I loved that all of the original actors resumed their roles as the respective ensemble villains cast as well. You can tell that Aldred Molina was just eating it up as Doc Ock, and Jamie Foxx was having a blast. However, the one character that stood out of all of them was Willem Dafoe. Holy cow did he just steal every scene he was in as Norman Osborne/Green Goblin. Dafoe has always been an enthusiastic actor, but he was just EATING the scenery up and cackling like it was 2002 all over again. Not to mention he does a great counter balance as the tortured Norman who is cracking under the weight of having the monster sharing his head.

This next paragraph has some mild spoilers, so if you want to stay spoiler free just skip ahead to the next paragraph. Anywhoo, we all knew from the leaks and hints that we were going to see Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprise their roles as Spidey as well. What I WASN’T expecting was just how massive a role they were going to play in the film. They come in at the 1.5 hour mark and stay the next hour as main character who help and guide Tom Holland’s Peter to finish the mission. As a huge huge fan of the previous two spidey franchises (well, sans Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2) it was glorious to see Andrew and Tobey step into the roles and just have fun winking and nodding at the other universe. Tobey was looking a little piqued and definitely rusty being that he’s been out of the acting game for a while, but Andrew was just having a blast and both men were huge additions to the film. This whole film was simply a massive group effort, with everyone sharing screen time equally and allowing each other to shine. The villains, the heroes, they all were there in spades, and nobody felt like a nobody cameo (except for possibly Rhys Ilfan as Lizardman).




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, some language and brief suggestive comments




4K Video: Video:

No Way Home sported a picture perfect 1080p transfer, and it’s no surprise that this 4K UHD endeavor blows it out of the water in many ways. The color output and the detail levels are very impressive here, as the color gamut is just that much wider and showcases more vibrant and vivid colors thanks to the Dolby Vision and HDR. Check out Spidey’s reds and blues in the final scene, or the glimmering red and orange shades of the nano suit attaching to Doc Ock’s arms. Black levels are deep and inky, with no signs of crush or banding to the naked eye either. The resolution boost is also quite noticeable, showing off so much more nuances on the super hero outfits, as well as the big gigantic battle in the mirror universe. The stability and razor sharp clarity really sets it as the superior image, making the 4K UHD disc EASILY the winner here.



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Audio:

The Dolby Atmos track is a bit of a fine tuning and tweaked addition to the already stunning 5.1 DTS-HD MA track that’s found on the Blu-ray. It’s not super wild or crazy, but it uses the overheads and surrounds with some really neat shifting elements during the battles, but otherwise is very very similar to the 5.1 mix. The presentation is rich and full of life, with high octane battles that really stretch the limits of the immersion, as well as offer a very balanced and punchy LFE track. I did notice that the LFE is not AS pounding and ferocious as other films, but it is still a very impressive mix, especially when you add 0.5 or 1.0 DB’s to your receiver’s LFE channel. Vocals are crisp and cleanly located up front, and I ALMOST gave this a 5/5 rating if it were not for the very slight weakness on the ULF power.











Extras:

• Bloopers & Gag Reel
• Alternate Reality Easter Eggs
• 7 Behind the Scenes Featurettes
-- Action Choreography Across the Multiverse
-- A Multiverse of Miscreants
-- A Spectacular Spider-Journey with Tom Holland
-- Enter Strange
-- Graduation Day
-- Realities Collide, Spiders Unite
-- Weaving Jon Watt's Web
• 2 Special Panels:
-- The Sinister Summit - Villains Panel: Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Jamie Foxx sit down for a roundtable discussion of their sinister characters.
-- A Meeting of the Spiders - Heroes Panel: The Heroic Spider heroes sit down for a roundtable discussion on Peter, Stunts, and skintight suits.
• 3 Stories From The Daily Bugle
-- Spider-Menace Strikes Again
-- Spider Sycophant
-- Web of Lies
• 2 Stunt Scenes Previsualization
-- Apartment Fight
-- Shield Fight

Final Score:
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The film isn’t perfect, but it’s so close to being so that some minor dialog issues (the Hannibal Buress scene really made me wince) and pacing issues in the center act were easily over looked and forgiven. At the end of the day Spider-Man: No Way Home is one of the best of the newer Spidey entries with a nice hefty setup for Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness and some great redemption story arches for old characters that we all know and love. The 4K UHD disc is amazing, with stunning video, great audio, and some hefty extras to enjoy. Definitely grab it if you are in any way a fan.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Tobey MaGuire, Willem Dafoe, Jamie Fox
Directed by: Jon Watts
Written by: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), Portuguese DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish, Thai DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Thai
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 148 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: April 12th, 2022

Recommendation: Awesome Buy

 

[mechman]

Yet another movie that should have left several scenes on the cutting room floor. Long for the purpose of being long.