Undisputedly the superhero event of the year, Spider-Man: No Way Home is a breakneck collision of past and present that explores the generational legacy of Spider-Man in unrelentingly entertaining fashion. The script from Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers wastes zero time, hitting the ground running as No Way Home picks up precisely where the previous endeavor, Far From Home, left off: with Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) identity revealed to the world by Daily Bugle alt-news tyrant J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons). Desperate to undo the fallout from his being unmasked, Peter turns to Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to conjure up an amnesia spell that would make the world forget his identity.

Nothing goes according to plan and the two Avengers accidentally cause a rift in the multiverse, allowing Spider-Man’s biggest adversaries (dead and alive) to come crawling into this timeline. To explain further would be to venture into spoiler territory but, sufficed to say, there has been rumors and speculation of who may and may not appear in this feature since essentially its announcement and it’s impossible to imagine that fans will feel let down by what director Jon Watts has cooked up and who makes their way onto the ledger.

An Avengers-level team up movie featuring the Tom Holland MCU universe of characters as well as legacy Spider-Man characters from both the Tobey MacGuire and Andrew Garfield iterations of the character, Watts has crafted a web-slinging greatest hit track that pulls from every single live action film to date. It’s ambitious as hell and largely executes on that ambition, course-correcting and poking fun at some of the biggest gaffs of the series without going too far into meta self-referential commentary. Resurrected from the grave is Alfred Molina’s Dr. Otto Octavius, Jamie Foxx’s Electro, and – the MVP of the whole endeavor – Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn/Green Goblin. There’s other characters as well, but, since they don’t appear on the IMDb page, I’m going to leave them unmentioned. Though skirting around some of the bigger “reveals” makes writing about what makes Spider-Man: No Way Home work as well as it does a bit of a challenge, it’s safe to say that there is a level of investment in the storytelling that, while undeniably fan-servicey, really makes all the beats feel earned. Even when there’s gaping plot holes, attention is fixed on the emotional honesty of the character work and the genuinely funny repartee that the character is known for. Whereas too many superhero mashups confuse appearances for actual narrative, the “reunions” that take place here work because of a shared history and deeper understanding of the characters’ backstory. Those who have stuck through watching this character rebooted three times since 2002 will find plenty of Easter Eggs, sure, but it’s the emotional underpinnings that make Spider-Man: No Way Home the most enjoyable of Holland’s turn as the character and the best superhero movie since Avengers: Endgame.

This is far and away the biggest of the Spider-Man films on a purely technical scale but the emotional stakes are as high as any amongst the MCU. As Peter grapples with the polarity of a public that can’t decide if it loves or hates him, his infamy bleeds over to his faithful girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and trusty sidekick Ned (Jacob Batalon). The trio find their fates tethered together. Both in terms of global annihilation and college acceptance, the friends sink or swim in tandem.

A striking score from Michael Giacchino helps steer the sonic offerings away from what is so often total tonal blandness and the sometimes moody cinematography from Mauro Fiore digs into the angst of the character. Holland’s run to this point has been very lackadaisical and ground-level. Even when he was disintegrated into a million little pieces, we knew his return was neigh. Spider-Man: No Way Home has the gall to actually fundamentally alter Holland’s Peter, charging him with new responsibilities and forcing him to reckon with loss in a way that feels sincere. The MCU catches lots of flack for its Sunday morning, rinse-repeat cycle of storytelling but by the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, one feels like something has actually changed.

Admittedly one to usually zone out during the long-winded third act fight scenes that too often drag a Marvel movie down, I found myself wholly engaged with the CG-heavy battle royale acrobatics that No Way Home builds to. Airdropping in other characters with already well-constructed back stories helps elevate our investment but there’s a fluidity to the staging that underscores what makes Spider-Man such a timelessly entertaining character. Superhero movies often feel flat by virtue of their invincibility, by our knowledge that while “everything might change”, nothing really does. This time around, something’s different. Something has changed. And now there’s a whole multiverse of possibility.

CONCLUSION: A legacy sequel that overdelivers on its promise to wrangle the three generations of Spider-Man together, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is essentially a live-action Spider-Verse film that, while juggling a ton of balls, manages to be the best superhero movie in some time.