The turning point to greatness happens when Spiderman wants to “cure” the villains before they are sent back. Either by getting rid of their evil powers or helping their minds. It works in this movie which surprised me. We get great little scenes with specific villains that make fun of the past movies a little bit. There’s an amusing scene where Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Electro (blueless Jamie Foxx) talk about how they were created. It might be too fan fiction at times, but I don’t care since it’s entertaining.

All of the action scenes are excellent. My favorite was the fight sequence between Holland and Dafoe at the apartment complex because it looked the most realistic and brutal. These action scenes serve the story as well. The apartment complex sequence ends with Aunt May’s unexpected death. Holland shows his acting chops here, and I can finally say that Spiderman is in good hands. I always found Holland too whiny and uninteresting, but he is given much better depth here. It helps that they ditch a lot of the supporting characters from the previous Holland Spiderman films since they always felt like dead weight to me. Michelle and Ned are fine, and I don’t have a problem with them this time around.

With Holland now lost and Marisa Tomei (love her) being missed, his best friends are able to bring both Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire together via Dr. Strange’s magic, and the theater collectively lost their shit. The marketing erased these guys from the trailers, and I initially thought that Marvel/Sony would screw it up if they showed up, but guess what? Marvel/Sony succeeded. I was troubled with how they handled Quicksilver in Wanda Vision, so I figured it would be similar to that, but there is so much respect and love for these other Spiderman franchises. They also don’t mind poking fun at them, whether it be Tobey’s busted back or Tobey and Holland repeatedly saying that Garfield is “amazing.”

It all culminates in a final fight with all three Spidermen fighting against all the villains, and it’s pure cinema gold. Tobey is still my favorite Spiderman, and Holland is finally growing on me, but Andrew Garfield steals the show. It pisses me off how much Sony screwed Garfield over his unbelievably bad movies. He was always a great Spiderman, but I was shocked at how much he acted circles around EVERYBODY in this movie. Bravo. Some people complained that Tobey was phoning in it, but don’t listen to those people. Tobey was a veteran who has seen it all as Spiderman, so he is not going to be as emotional as his fellow Spidermen. Both him and Garfield end up helping Holland very much by guiding him with their past experiences that will help him further down his life. Pretty genius.

The ending is questionable. To send back the villains, Dr. Strange has to unleash the spell where everyone forgets Peter Parker. Peter allows the spell to occur, and it does what Dr. Strange says it does. My problem with that is what about all of the evidence showing Peter Parker existed? Pictures, birth certificate, Yearbook photos, passport, credit cards, streaming service accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, Tumblr, Youtube, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, Linkedln??? Maybe it will get explained in the next one, but this allows Holland to become the amazing Spiderman.

Would I watch it again? Definitely, this film has a crappy first act, but once it gets to that apartment complex with all the villains, it’s pretty damn great. Holland and Garfield are the highlights. The action and overall idea are clever, and they work. They were finally able to make a successful Spiderman movie with a plethora of characters. It is not boring at all either. Sony needs to make Amazing Spiderman 3 with Garfield and do it right this time.

EDITORS NOTE: I complained that Tobey phoned in his acting. I want to point out that Joe is biased in his love for Tobey. I cannot even count the numerous times he said if there is no Tobey, this movie will suck. I’m sorry I spoke poorly of his man crush. I stand by my opinion.