You walk into the huge, dimly lit theater, overhearing patrons excitedly chatting. You slowly navigate your way through the rows of seats, trying to match the seat numbers to the number written on your ticket. Sitting down in the cushioned reclining seat, the smell of buttered popcorn fills the air. After a few trailers play, the lights dim, and you can barely contain your excitement any longer as the movie begins to play. 

When the highly anticipated finale to Marvel and Sony’s Spider-Man Trilogy, Spider-Man: No Way Home hit theaters around the world, fans were ecstatic after having to wait two and a half years for the third installment of the franchise due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  They eere eager for the return of Tom Holland’s beloved portrayal of Peter Parker/Spider-Man and to see how the trilogy would come to a close. 

After the premiere in Los Angeles that was held a few days before the film’s worldwide release, the critics’ reviews began pouring in. While many praised the film and went into detail about why they enjoyed it, some critics explained what they disliked about it and where they believed it fell short in terms of the storytelling. 

While the critics had mixed reviews about the film, the audience loved it, raving about it so much that the audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes currently stands at a 93 percent. While fans and most critics alike from around the world loved the movie, so did many VHS students. 

“I would rate the movie an 11 because it was SO GOOD. It definitely exceeded expectations not just for me, but for everyone,” said senior Amelia Axelrod when asked how she would rate the movie on a scale of 1-10. Senior Emma Derderian also explained that she would give the movie a rating of 8 because not only did she like that the movie combined a lot of characters from other Spider-Man movies, but the plot was also very interesting to watch unfold over the film’s two and a half hour runtime. 

When the first trailer released for Spider-Man: No Way Home revealed that villains from both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man films would be returning, fans’ anticipation for the film grew even more. VHS students enjoyed this aspect of the film’s plot as well as others, such as that this film explored ideas that the previous two films in the trilogy had not. 

“I really liked all of the returning characters and the role they played in the movie, as well as Peter’s character arc,” said Emma. Amelia also explained that she liked how the film explored the multiverse, which is a concept that had been brought up in previous Marvel projects, but never to the extent that it was in this film. 

Since this film was highly anticipated, some were skeptical that the movie would not live up to the expectations that everyone had. Despite this, students at VHS believe that this movie not only lived up to audiences expectations, but exceeded it. 

“I 100 percent think it lived up to its expectations. At first I didn’t love the way it ended, but now I realize that it’s only the beginning of Peter Parker’s story and the other movies were just leading up to it. I thought the whole movie was really well done!” exclaimed Amelia.   Emma added that she thought the film was very rewarding for long-time viewers of the Spider-Man franchise. 

While Spider-Man fans most likely won’t get the first installment of Holland’s second trilogy for a few years, many fans, including VHS students, will be eager to see it.