WARNING: the following article contains major spoilers for the movie “Spider-Man: No Way Home”  and the other Spider-Man movies. If you haven’t seen these movies yet and want to avoid spoilers,  please refrain from reading this article.  

It’s the movie everyone’s been waiting for, and it’s finally hit the big screen. But the big question is:  was it worth the wait, and is it worth 148 minutes of your time?  

Spider-Man: No Way Home is the 9th movie in the Spider-Man franchise. It’s quickly climbing the  charts, standing as the eighth-highest grossing movie in history with $1.5 billion globally! It picks up  at the ending of Spider-Man: Far From Home. In Far From Home, the movie ends on a shocking  cliffhanger, where the movie’s villain, Mysterio, uses his last breath to not only convince the world  that Spider-Man is a villain, but also reveal Spider-Man’s true identity to the entire globe. In No Way  Home, Peter Parker is faced with the many, many challenges of being Public Enemy #1. With only  his best friend, Ned, his girlfriend, MJ, and his Aunt May, Peter struggles to fit in with everyone else,  and is faced with both fans and haters of Spider-Man.  

In a desperate attempt to turn his life around, Peter turns to Dr. Steven Strange to use his magical  abilities to change the past and make Spider-Man’s identity a secret once again. But after learning  about the outcome of the spell, Peter accidentally distracts Dr. Strange and causes him to mess up  the spell. After safely containing the out-of-control spell, Dr. Strange tells Peter some bad news:  super villains from other universes have invaded his own universe. And it’s up to Peter to stop them.  

Upon watching the trailer, viewers are graced by the presence of Alfred Molina, the original actor of  Doc Ock, a notorious villain from the past Spider-Man movies. And it doesn’t stop there. No Way  Home brings back all of the original actors for the villains, including Willem Dafoe, Jamie Foxx,  Thomas Haden Church, and Rhys Ifans. But Marvel doesn’t just bring back the villains. For a short  scene, Charlie Cox appears as Daredevil, a superhero and lawyer with incredible reflexes, despite  being completely blind.  

But the real cameos start towards the middle of the film. In an attempt to find Peter after he runs  away, Ned uses Dr. Strange’s slingring to open a portal. In the portal, he finds Spider-Man, but the  plot twists when Andrew Garfield runs up to the screen. Andrew starred in past Spider-Man movies,  and was roped into the plot of No Way Home. After Ned opens another portal, yet another Spider Man appears. But it’s not Tom Holland. It’s the original, the living legend, the true Spider-Man: Tobey  Maguire. You read that right! Imagine the power of all three Spider-Man actors on the same screen.  Working together, they save them world, help the villains, and (the real) Peter Parker starts his life  over, with no one knowing him, not even MJ or Ned, or Dr. Strange.  

When I went to see this movie in theaters for the first time, I didn’t know what to expect. But let me  tell you, the whole theater was more than thrilled. I’ll never forget the applause every time an original  actor appeared (particularly Tobey Maguire). It was as if everyone in the theater was interacting with  the movie, especially when Andrew Garfield had to catch MJ as she fell from a building, ranging  from excited shouts, to a man shouting “He’s gonna drop her!!” Thankfully, Andrew caught her, and  got a big round of applause from the theater (if only he could’ve caught Gwen like that). 

Overall, the acting was great, the plot kept me on the edge of my seat, and the synergy between the  three Peter Parkers was unbelievable. Plus, there were some pretty good laughs in there, too, as  every Marvel movie has a hint of comedy.  

So, is it worth your 148 minutes? In short: yes. Yes it is.