This is the 38th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the 4th entry in this series centering on Tom Holland's titular character. One doesn't need to have seen all those films to understand this one. One could gather from the context clues and the flashbacks what the fundamentals of this story are. As usual, the greater world of the MCU barely factors into what could be considered a standalone. Yes, characters from the MCU appear here. You either know them or you don't. If anything, the only required viewing is the last Tom Holland vehicle, that of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which is about a super-hero trying to keep his private life separate from his public persona. This film continues with that struggle, but this time the super-hero is all about sacrificing his private life in order to maintain his public persona and the responsibilities that come with his powers. He chooses a life of solitude and loneliness because it's the best way to protect the people for whom he cares. He chooses to protect them by not being in their lives. Therefore, Spider-Man basically becomes Batman, only the person behind the mask here doesn't have as much money. The hero here isn't as dark and as brooding. He's more fun-loving and joking but certainly suffering from male loneliness.
Holland stars as Peter Parker, the enhanced human who has super-strength and spider-like agility. He's super smart and has invented web-shooters for his wrists. He patrols New York City, stopping criminals like bank robbers to even other enhanced humans. He was a college student, but it's not clear what he does for work or for his income now. His Aunt May, played by Marissa Tomei, passed away in the previous film, so he might have gotten an inheritance from her that is sustaining him. He lives in a crappy apartment, so he probably isn't spending a lot or needs a lot of money. He doesn't have a social life. His only friend is an artificial intelligence who helps him with his crime-fighting. He's obsessed with crime-fighting, probably because it's all he has now, no other friends or family.
Zendaya (The Odyssey and Dune) co-stars as Michelle Jones-Watson aka "MJ," a fellow college student who studied various sciences. She went to high school with Peter and eventually fell in love with him, learning that he was the super-hero called Spider-Man. Due to the events of the last film, her memory of her relationship with Peter was erased. She's now moved on and has gotten another boyfriend. She's still friends with Peter's former, best friend, Ned Leeds, played by Jacob Batalon, reprising his role from the previous two films in this franchise. Of course, Ned doesn't remember that he and Peter were best friends. His memory has been wiped along with everyone else. Peter can't help but follow MJ and Ned on social media. He misses them from afar. He loves both of them, especially MJ. Distancing himself from them is something that Peter is really struggling to do.
Jon Bernthal (The Odyssey and The Walking Dead) also co-stars as Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, a vigilante on the streets of New York. He's a crime-fighter just like Spider-Man, but his tactics are way more aggressive and violent. He doesn't mind hurting or killing people, dispensing his own justice, taking the law into his own hands. Spider-Man doesn't do that. He lets the police and the courts deal with the justice. He simply traps them in his webs and let the authorities do their jobs. Frank shoots first and ask questions later, if not at all. He does have an affinity for Spider-Man who saved him, but Frank is not above running over Spider-Man, if he gets in the way. This is the result of how he's dealing with his trauma and the loss of his loved ones, which was explored in a previous MCU series.
That's a major theme in the film though, how people deal with trauma and the loss of loved ones. Peter deals with it by isolating and distancing himself. Frank does something similar but lashes out when triggered. We also see that that's true for others as well. This means that a large chunk of this film is really about mental health. It's not surprising that Yelena Belova aka "Black Widow," is here. Yelena is played by Florence Pugh (Dune: Part Two and Oppenheimer). Yelena was just seen in the film Thunderbolts* (2025), and that film was also about mental health. That film was about a super-powered being, one that even the combined efforts of the Avengers couldn't stop, at least not in a fist fight. The only way was through a kind of therapy session, getting into his mind literally, and appealing to the emotions and psychology of the antagonist in that 2025 film. Needless to say, that's the route this film takes.
This isn't to say that there aren't fights or action scenes. Spider-Man is known for his acrobatics and high-flying antics. His swinging through city streets is very much present here. A lot of the action is the inventive ways in which the filmmakers find to move Spider-Man up and through the air. A lot of the comedy comes from the pratfalls that come with those acrobatics as well, seeing him fall down. Destin Daniel Cretton is the director and he was behind the wheel of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), which is the MCU entry that has the best fight choreography of any of the films. He utilizes good choreography here as well. Even though there aren't that many hand-to-hand combat scenes, choreography can be utilized in other ways, just in the way that characters move about the screen. Cretton is good at making sure that everything in frame has good movement.
Nearly 30 years ago, Denzel Washington made a film that I really loved that was not well received at the time. Washington was recently announced to be co-starring in an upcoming MCU film, but this film reminded of that panned, Denzel Washington flick called Fallen (1998). It had a creepy and terrifying concept, but it's not the kind of horror that I thought this film might offer. This iteration of Spider-Man skipped the origin story, so the initial body horror that's been associated with this character wasn't presented to us. Yes, Spider-Man: No Way Home presented us with the iteration of Spider-Man that was played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, so fans of those films can bring in the body horror presented in those films. Peter essentially went through a mutation. The MCU until now hasn't really dealt with mutations or mutants, which are a staple of Marvel Comics.
Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers and Now You See Me) reprises his role of Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk. One could argue that he's a mutant. His body horror has been more outward facing. He literally transforms into a large, green, giant, muscular mass that's scary and dangerous. This film teases physical transformations for Peter. Since we didn't get an origin story for Peter who is a character that started in high school, these transformations could be considered a metaphor for puberty, a late puberty. The intimation is that he's going to transform into being more like a spider, physically so. It was a wonder if this film would go the route of a David Cronenberg film and really push the body horror. It doesn't. Peter's puberty is less a physical transformation, as it is an emotional one.
I will say that there was one emotional moment that hit like a gut-punch that had nothing to do with puberty, but a lot to do with the real-life relationship between Tom Holland and Zendaya. Often times, it can be weird when a real-life, romantic couple plays a romantic couple on screen. These two clearly have chemistry together, but here they're supposed to be star-crossed, so it's a tortured romance that doesn't lay it on too thick, but certainly provides a wallop when a pivotal scene arrives of the two being at odds.
Rated PG-13 for action, violence, and some language.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 25 mins.
In theaters.
