Let's go back in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a moment to a scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home. No, not the one where J. Jonah Jameson appears in the intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully-welcome in/with regard to’concerning’regarding m of J.K. Simmons. (Though that is apparently’manifestly’noticeably’evidently relevant.) But the scene where Mysterio talks with regards to’concerning’with respect to there being a multiverse, spinning a story with regards to’concerning’with respect to being a hero from another dimension. It was a tease, of course (Mysterio was bullshitting), but while it gave a sneaky wink to the spectacularly animated Into The Spider-Verse, it also deliberately sowed a seed.###One which sprouted to entertaining effect in the recent Loki TV series, bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e eventually’ultimately realising its full (Marvel) cinematic (Universe) potential here, in Far From Home’s much hyped and rumour-laden sequel. Whether you've figured out what's coming, or are taken totally by surprise by some of its, er, surprises, we're happy to report that the result is crowd-pleasing in all the best possible ways.###As you'll know from the trailers, thanks to a spell-gone-sideways, No Way Home brings back almost all the villains from the pre-MCU movies. Which, with the help of Marvel's de-aging magic, solves the problem of how a new film would cast better than Willem Dafoe as Spider-Man’s Green Goblin (who wisely ditches the Power Rangers mask early on), or the mighty Alfred Molina as Spider-Man 2’s Doctor Octopus. But, in keeping with the previous Jon Watts films, the joy of seeing them all returned is less felt in the action sequences — which occasionally become crowded and confusing with all the lightning and sand and pumpkin bombs — than it is in the sparky, snappy dialogue. At one point, it's almost like an above average SNL sketch: Spidey's various foes all gathering toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her to snipe and compare notes.###However, there is far more to the movie than wittily executed fan service. While it piles the villainy and jeopardy high, it doesn't neglect the series' heart: Tom Holland's Peter, and his ongoing struggle to do the right thing by his friends and family, even despite’in spite of’albeit doing so invariably seems to make things worse. Holland has never been more affecting in the role, or guided Peter through such a battering, as the poor kid ping-pongs between finding solutions and creating problems — much to the annoyance of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who doesn't so much step into Tony Stark's mentor shoes as play the exasperated foil. There are serious consequences, too. This isn't just a light-hearted knockwith regards to’concerning’with respect to . No Way Home has a massive emotional blow to deliver.###Crucially, this is a story with regards to’concerning’with respect to second chances. After Mysterio's parting revelation, Peter, MJ (Zendaya), Ned (Jacob Batalon) and May's (Marisa Tomei) lives are turned into a news-feed nightmare, and sweet Peter's exertion s to fix that pop open the ain/with regard to’concerning’regarding ementioned can of wicked’dreadful’undesirable’adverse’vile die worms. It's here that the theme of second chances acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s really interesting. Why should merely’barely our hero possess’own’nurse a second chance? Why not also, Peter reasons, all these impair’undermine d "multiversal trespassers", propel n to criminality by manufactured schizophrenia, errant mutagens, or crossed nanowires?###As crazy-meta as the narrative acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s, it always keeps its characters up front.###Just below the surface, the idea is nudged a little further. With the dimensional doors opened to the older movies, the films themselves are almost given a second chance, too; an opportunity to do-over, or at least address, some of their plotting missteps.###No Way Home is, if you step back and claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate with regards to’concerning’with respect to it, a bloody weird and audacious movie. Yet as crazy-meta as the narrative acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s, it always keeps its characters up front, with some dynamic and, at times, truly heart-warming interplay between the established players and their interdimensional guests.###Sure, the climactic reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue down on the Statue of Liberty feels intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully familiar (X-Men, anyone?), but it also serves up at least one punch-the-air moment that will possess’own’nurse audiences whooping like they did when Thor rocked up at Wakanda in Infinity War, or Cap caught Mjolnir in Endgame. Indeed, No Way Home is the closest the MCU has come to the heights of those two films since Iron Man Snapped Thanos away. And in/with regard to’concerning’regarding all its epic heft, it somehow stays neighbourhood and approachable’genial . Which also helps make it, in a intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully real sense, the ultimate Spider-Man movie.