Tom Holland's Spider-Man Trilogy Still Holds Up Five Years Later, Flaws and All

Tom Holland's Home trilogy wrapped up roughly five years ago, and looking back at it now, I think it changed how we view Spider-Man forever. His debut as Peter Parker was not only the third live-action version of the character, but the first to exist inside the MCU, and rewatching all three films shows just how deliberately that story was built toward one ending.

Sony's Failed Amazing Spider-Man 2 Opened the Door for Tom Holland's MCU Spider-Man

2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was not a success critically or financially, so Sony began shifting focus to putting Peter Parker into the MCU. Amy Pascal reached an agreement with Kevin Feige, and in February 2015 it was announced that Spider-Man would enter the MCU, though exactly how was not yet clear. It was said Peter would get his own Spider-Man movie, but would first appear in a different MCU film. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, producers on the Amazing Spider-Man series, would serve as executive producers, while director Marc Webb and actor Andrew Garfield would not return.

Once the contracts and rights were sorted, the search began for a new Peter Parker. Kevin Feige wanted the character to be 15 to 16 years old, much younger than previous iterations. Nat Wolff, Asa Butterfield, Timothee Chalamet, Liam James, Joseph Quinn, Chandler Riggs, Judah Lewis, Matt Lintz, Charlie Plummer, and Charlie Rowe were all considered for the role. In early 2015, a handful of these young actors did screen tests opposite both Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. On June 23, 2015, Tom Holland was announced as the new Spider-Man.

Jon Watts Beat Out Several Directors, and Homecoming Made Bold Character Cuts

The director search saw Drew Goddard, who had allegedly been set to direct the Sinister Six film that never happened, emerge as a leading candidate before dropping out. Jonathan Levine, Ted Melfi, Jason Moore, John Francis Daley, and Jonathan Goldstein were also considered, but Jon Watts ultimately got the job, announced the same day as Holland.

In March 2016, Zendaya was cast as Michelle, later revealed to be Michelle Jones, also known as MJ. A month later, Michael Keaton was announced as the Vulture. One of the more interesting choices was the omission of many classic Spider-Man characters: Peter and May were in, Flash Thompson made the cut, but that was it. Uncle Ben was not in the movie, and even though Michelle became MJ, Mary Jane Watson herself was never going to appear.

It was also announced this film would not be an origin story, instead picking up with Peter shortly after meeting Tony Stark and the Avengers. Principal photography ran from June to October 2016, and Spider-Man: Homecoming released on July 7, 2017.

Homecoming Succeeds Because It's a Peter Parker Story, Not an Avengers Story

The major difference between this and the previous five Spider-Man films is its placement in the MCU. This wasn't movie one of a new trilogy, it was movie 16 overall and Holland's second appearance as Peter. Spider-Man has always been a grounded character who mostly helps around New York fighting smaller criminals, so with Peter now friends with Tony Stark and a whole Avengers roster existing, the movie had a tough job balancing him with the bigger universe.

Despite that, I'd argue the movie is actually smaller in scale than the previous five Spider-Man films, and that works in its favor. Spider-Man movies are at their best when they're Peter Parker films, not Spider-Man films, and Homecoming is a Peter Parker film. Even with plenty of MCU references and Tony Stark in the movie, none of it takes the spotlight away from Peter, and I think the film balances his place in the MCU very well.

In the older Spider-Man movies, Peter had to figure out what kind of hero to be because he was the only superhero around. Here, there's a whole roster of Avengers, so Peter has people to look up to, and that becomes the focus: how does Spider-Man react to a world where he isn't the only superhero? The film answers that Peter becomes so obsessed with becoming an Avenger that he forgets why he became Spider-Man in the first place, and he needs to learn there's more to being a hero than joining the team.

Peter's Reckless Immaturity Drives Homecoming's First Two Acts

The story opens with a quick recap of Peter's role in Captain America: Civil War, which he treats like the best field trip of his life, complete with new gadgets, private jets, and famous new friends. After Tony drops him back in Queens, Peter expects another mission right away, but Happy and Tony instead tell him to lay low and fight local crime. To Peter, that feels beneath an aspiring Avenger, which shows just how immature he still is at this point, something I like about this take on the character compared with the previous two versions.

A lot of that immaturity comes through his school life, a best friend, a crush, school clubs, but mostly it's just how reckless he is. His first real act as Spider-Man is stopping a bank robbery, but being unfamiliar with the alien weapons involved, he causes heavy collateral damage, including destroying a local bodega. He checks on the owner and moves on, never really taking responsibility.

Later, at a party, Peter gets distracted by an explosion, investigates, and ends up attacked by the Vulture, needing Tony to save him. People have used this Iron Man Jr. dynamic as a criticism of these films, arguing Spider-Man is supposed to struggle without a safety net. I think that's fair only if this were the first Spider-Man movie in a brand new universe. Since it's part of a wider MCU where Peter is a side character rather than the focus, I don't mind the choice, especially once you see where his arc is heading by the end of the trilogy.

The Washington Monument Crisis and Ferry Disaster Push Peter to His Low Point

I've talked before about how legacy characters going on arcs toward the version everyone knows and loves usually doesn't work, because it means starting with a version audiences aren't familiar with. But in those other cases, the legacy character was the focus of the whole story. Peter isn't the focus of the MCU, so I'm fine with the writers taking him down a different path first.

Tony tells Peter to lay low, but Peter keeps investigating the weapons dealers anyway, believing Tony doesn't understand he's worthy of being an Avenger. His recklessness leads to Ned bringing the alien stone to the Washington Monument, nearly getting his classmates and best friend killed before Peter cleans up his own mess, again without taking responsibility.

That recklessness continues at the ferry, where Tony calls to tell him about the FBI's plan to stop the weapons dealers, but Peter has such tunnel vision he hangs up on him. Things go badly, Peter destroys the boat, and Iron Man has to save him a second time. On the criticism that Tony repeatedly bails Peter out, I'd push back: "He only saves him twice. So, you guys need to chill." Afterward, Tony chastises Peter and takes the suit back. Peter tells him, "I am nothing without the suit," and Tony responds, "If you're nothing without the suit, then you shouldn't have it," which marks the story's low point, since to Peter that suit represents being an Avenger.

The Vulture Reveal and Warehouse Scene Force Peter to Grow Without the Suit

At homecoming with his crush Liz, Peter discovers Michael Keaton's Vulture is her father, which is the first story beat in the film I didn't love; it's a clever twist, but it's also a very convenient one that hands Peter his arc rather than earning it. That said, the writers do a lot with it. The famous car scene, where Toomes slowly figures out Peter is Spider-Man, still absolutely slaps, and it shows Peter starting to remember why he became Spider-Man in the first place, no longer about impressing Tony.

Peter bails on the dance and goes after the Vulture, leading to a confrontation where Toomes traps him under rubble to stall him. With no Tony and no super suit to bail him out, Peter has to escape on his own, which is the real test of what kind of Spider-Man he's going to be.

I think the final fight, on the plane and then the beach, is the weakest part of the movie, because even though Peter has learned his lesson internally, the plot doesn't reinforce it. He recklessly chases the Vulture through the sky exactly as recklessly as he'd chased villains all movie, and the only reason he isn't blamed for a plane crash is that it happens to land on an empty beach rather than a populated area. Still, I like that Peter chooses to save Toomes at the end. When Tony offers him a spot on the Avengers, Peter turns it down, having learned the value of being a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man instead.

Homecoming scored 92% on Rotten Tomatoes with an 87% audience score and a 7.4 on IMDb. It grossed $880 million worldwide, just shy of Spider-Man 3 as the highest-grossing Spider-Man film at the time, and it was the sixth highest-grossing movie of 2017.

Adrian Toomes Works as a Villain Because His Story Reinforces Peter's Arc

I wouldn't put Adrian Toomes among the great comic book villains, but he's a pretty good one, mainly because his presence reinforces Peter's arc. Toomes was a contractor hired to help clean up the Battle of New York before being fired so Tony's own damage control division could take over instead. That firing teaches him that ordinary people like himself and Peter need to fight for their fair share or get stomped on by bigger interests, which is why he steals and sells the alien weapons.

By the warehouse scene, it's clear why his story matters thematically. Peter needs to learn that being a hero isn't just about being an Avenger, but about being responsible and helping where he's needed, and Toomes and his crew are able to operate because there's no friendly neighborhood superhero stopping them. They're not an Avengers-level threat, and I'd argue not even a city-level one, but what they're doing is still wrong, and fighting Toomes reinforces Peter's belief that smaller threats are worth fighting. Toomes isn't complicated and doesn't have some grand evil plot; he exists to serve the film's themes and Peter's arc, and I prefer that over a lot of other villains in these movies.

Far From Home's Marketing Collided With the Release of Avengers: Endgame

With Homecoming's success, the sequel went into production almost instantly, especially since Holland was already signed for two more films. The most interesting production wrinkle actually has little to do with Far From Home itself and everything to do with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which released between the two Spider-Man movies. Sony held firm to its two-year gap between films, which meant Far From Home would arrive just two months after Endgame.

That timing complicated marketing, since campaigns have to start well before two months out. Spider-Man died in Infinity War, so the first trailers for Far From Home released before he was revived in Endgame, even though the movie takes place after it. I remember watching that trailer before Endgame came out and thinking it was funny that everyone already knew Peter would come back anyway; in the end it didn't turn out to be a big deal. Principal photography ran from July to October 2018, and Spider-Man: Far From Home released on July 2, 2019.

Far From Home Barely Reckons With a Post-Endgame World, and That's My Biggest Complaint

Far From Home is one of the more conflicting Spider-Man movies for me. Usually a movie has a shaky foundation dressed up nicely, but here it's the opposite. I like the foundation and Peter's main arc, but I don't like much of what surrounds it. My biggest issue has nothing to do with Spider-Man specifically, it's how the film treats the post-Endgame world. Being the first MCU movie after Endgame, released only two months later, it had a fascinating opportunity to explore how the world would react to half its population vanishing and returning five years on, but outside of Tony Stark's death, the movie shows almost no interest in any other consequence of Endgame.

Characters who died in the previous film have their deaths treated as jokes in the opening scene, and every important character from Homecoming, including Peter and May, blipped alongside him, yet it's played as a minor inconvenience rather than something worth exploring, down to never addressing what happened to their apartment while they were gone. I understand why the writers went this route: if Peter is going to struggle between being a kid and being Spider-Man, being a kid needs to look appealing, so keeping everyone's personal lives light serves that goal. I get it, but I don't love it.

That light tone also produces a lot of humor I don't vibe with, like Ned's relationship with Betty, which mostly exists for laughs that don't always land. There are funny moments, admittedly. Peter slapping Flash and knocking him out got an audible laugh out of me, but overall the comedy in this movie doesn't work for me as much as it seems to want to.

The Supporting Cast and MJ Relationship Feel Underwritten Across All Three Films

This criticism applies to the whole trilogy: May, MJ, and Ned are entertaining, charismatic performances, but their characters are pretty shallow, especially in how they relate to Peter. Homecoming ended with May discovering Peter is Spider-Man, but that's never meaningfully addressed; Far From Home opens with her already doing events with Spider-Man and enjoying it. No Way Home has a throwaway line about May freaking out when she found out, and that's all we ever get, which feels like a missed opportunity. Ned and MJ likewise never have much going on unless it directly relates to Peter; No Way Home is a bit better, but the writers still avoid giving them anything that could put them in real conflict with him.

On MJ specifically, Tom Holland and Zendaya have such good chemistry that it disguises how forced the relationship actually is. MJ barely appears in Homecoming, let alone in meaningful scenes with Peter, and he never looks at her romantically in that film. Far From Home opens with Peter's plan to ask her out seemingly out of nowhere. The writers were smart to end Homecoming revealing Michelle is MJ, so audiences expect the romance because of Spider-Man lore, similar to how Harry and Peter's friendship in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 worked only because of existing lore rather than anything the writers built. The same thing happens here: we accept MJ and Peter's relationship because of the mythology, not because the films earned it.

Mysterio's Drone Logic Falls Apart the More You Think About It

I like the concept of Mysterio's powers; the illusion tech makes him a unique villain and challenges Peter in the right way. But the execution and logistics of the drones don't add up. As best I can tell, these are essentially the best projectors in the world attached to drones capable of shooting and blowing things up, yet the film keeps showing them do more than that.

In Italy, Peter gets punched by the water monster and actually gets wet, as if the drones can shoot water. Later, fighting the fire monster that's summoning lava out of the ground, none of the characters seem to feel any heat despite standing right next to it. On the bridge in the finale, characters are clearly affected by strong wind that these drones shouldn't be able to produce. The biggest inconsistency is that Nick Fury and Maria Hill repeatedly detect seismic activity whenever a monster is about to attack, which makes no sense if these creatures are just illusions. The drones seem to be able to do whatever the plot needs them to do at any given moment, and I find that pretty frustrating.

Far From Home Isn't Really a Thematic Sequel to Homecoming

Homecoming was about Peter learning the value of being a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, knowing where he's needed. Between that film and this one, the Avengers movies send Peter to space to fight aliens, and then Far From Home is about him learning he has a larger responsibility to the whole world now that he's Spider-Man. I can't say I prefer one message over the other, but it's fair to point out the two are in conflict, and I don't think the writers organically got Peter from one to the other.

Peter's Personal Arc Redeems Far From Home's Weaker Elements, Which Still Made a Billion Dollars

Despite all those complaints, Peter's journey in this movie is what makes it work for me. His arc is textbook Spider-Man: struggling to balance Peter Parker's life with Spider-Man's duty. He wants to spend the class trip with friends and ask out his crush, while May, Mysterio, and especially Nick Fury keep reminding him not to forget his responsibilities. It's not as extreme as Spider-Man 2's version of that conflict, more an inconvenience than a life-ruining one, and Peter never wants to give up being Spider-Man, he just wants a break.

A bigger part of his struggle is insecurity: the crowd, Nick Fury, and Tony's choice to hand him Edith all put the expectation on Peter that he has to be the next Iron Man, and he feels he can't live up to that, on top of grieving Tony. That insecurity is why he hands the Edith glasses to Mysterio, someone he feels is actually worthy of the role. When he realizes his mistake and is outclassed by Beck, he hits his low point, telling Happy he feels lost and unworthy. Happy reassures him that Tony never wavered in his belief in Peter, and that Tony wouldn't have wanted him to be the next Iron Man, he'd have wanted him to be Spider-Man.

What I like about the ending is that Peter only beats Beck using his own instincts to see through the drone illusions, something Iron Man never could have done; he wins by finally embracing being Spider-Man rather than trying to be Tony's replacement. At certain points the film undermines its own message, like Happy playing the original Iron Man theme right after telling Peter he doesn't need to be Iron Man, while Peter builds his suit the way Tony would. But overall this arc works for me, and it retroactively makes Homecoming's heavy focus on Tony feel more purposeful, since it sets up why Peter would struggle so much with living in his shadow here. Mysterio himself is a fine villain with fairly shallow motivations, but he mirrors Peter well: Peter is terrified of continuing Tony's legacy yet proves right for the job, while Beck desperately wants to continue it and is completely wrong for it.

Still, there's enough around that core story that I don't like, which keeps me from calling Far From Home good, though I wouldn't call it bad either. It scored 91% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 95% audience score and a 7.3 on IMDb. It grossed $1.13 billion worldwide, becoming the first billion-dollar Spider-Man movie and the highest-grossing one at the time, as well as the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2019.

The Sony-Marvel Dispute Nearly Ended Holland's Run as Spider-Man

Unlike Far From Home's production, the third film's path was rocky before it even started. Marvel and Sony held negotiations to renew their Spider-Man deal, and the specific details of who owed what don't matter much; what matters is that the two studios couldn't agree, and for a time Spider-Man was set to leave the MCU entirely. In September 2019, Sony chairman Tony Vinciquerra said that for the moment the door was closed on Spider-Man returning to the MCU, prompting fans to protest.

After Tom Holland himself spoke up, Sony and Marvel returned to the table and eventually reached an agreement, keeping Peter Parker in the MCU and greenlighting the third film. Jon Watts and Holland both returned, and filming was supposed to start in early 2020 before COVID delayed everything. Principal photography ultimately ran from October 2020 to March 2021. Once the returning villains from the earlier films were confirmed, it became the worst-kept secret in Hollywood that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would also be back, despite marketing trying to hide it. Spider-Man: No Way Home released on December 17, 2021.

No Way Home Still Holds Up on Rewatch, Contrary to the Backlash I've Seen

Going into my rewatch, I hadn't seen No Way Home since its opening day and loved it at the time, but I'd since seen plenty of people argue that once the nostalgia wears off it isn't that good, or that certain crowd-pleasing moments feel awkward watching at home, or that it gets worse on every rewatch. Five years later, having finally rewatched it, I can say I love it just as much as I did the first time. It's an excellent superhero movie and, more importantly, an excellent Spider-Man movie, and I'd point out I'm not even the biggest Spider-Man fan, so it's not pure nostalgia talking.

It isn't perfect. Visually, this movie and honestly the whole trilogy is uninteresting; these films lack real visual flair. Aside from the shots of Peter staring at the billboard in the rain, I can't think of another visually striking shot, and a lot of the background CGI looks pretty bad. But the story itself is what I love wholeheartedly.

The First Act's Doxxing Storyline Sets Up Everything That Follows

Everything in this film builds toward Peter's ending sacrifice, so the writers do the legwork early to make it hit hard. Peter's identity is revealed to the world, along with everyone in his inner circle: May, Happy, Ned, and MJ. The first 30 minutes are devoted entirely to showing how being doxxed ruins his life, from his ruined school life and a forced apartment move to Spider-Man's ruined reputation and repeated run-ins with the police.

I don't entirely buy that everyone would suddenly hate Spider-Man this soon after Endgame, given he's an Avenger who helped save the world, and I also think it's odd that Peter never simply exposes Mysterio as the fraud he was, something that would be easy to do. Even so, I like seeing Peter's life fall apart here, and the simple concept of a revealed identity is compelling enough to carry the film through this slower opening stretch.

The writers also use this stretch to deepen Peter's relationship with MJ and Ned, since if he's going to sacrifice that bond by the end, it needs to matter. Talk of the three of them going to Boston together and small bonding moments between Peter and MJ do more for that relationship than the previous two movies combined. The turning point of the first act comes when all three get rejected from MIT because of Spider-Man, and Peter, unwilling to keep hurting his friends, goes to Doctor Strange for help. I was honestly surprised Strange agreed to erase everyone's memory of Peter's identity so casually, but the spell goes wrong, and the previous films' villains start arriving.

The Returning Villains and Peters Serve No Way Home's Story, Not Just Fan Service

There's a lot of fan service in this film, but I don't mind that when it serves the main character, the story, and the themes, which it largely does here. Outside of one silly scientist line and the pointing meme scene, nearly everything involving the returning villains and the other two Peters serves the story meaningfully, including Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield themselves.

The film works best if you view it as the culmination of eight Spider-Man movies rather than just Holland's three. Moments like Otto reacting to seeing Norman alive, Otto and Norman already knowing each other as fellow scientists, or Dr. Connors and Max Dillon knowing each other from Oscorp, all build naturally off the earlier films. The scene between Maguire's Peter and Otto is genuinely sweet, and the scene between Garfield's Peter and Max works well too. Both Garfield and Maguire's Peters use their own trauma to motivate Holland's Peter, and Garfield's Peter finally getting to catch MJ redeems his earlier failure to save Gwen. There are a few inconsistencies with how some villains compare to their earlier appearances, but nothing too jarring. This is the first MCU Spider-Man film that feels more like a Spider-Man movie than an MCU movie, and I appreciate that.

Peter Keeps Choosing Sacrifice Over the Easy Way Out

With Peter tasked to round up the previous villains for Doctor Strange, the film's internal conflict kicks in: after learning to embrace being Spider-Man in the last movie, this one asks what he's willing to sacrifice for it. The whole film is essentially Peter knowingly making his own life worse because he believes it's the right thing to do. Even after capturing all the villains, he has an out, since Strange can send them home immediately, but Peter instead fights Strange and steals the device because he believes these villains deserve a second chance.

Each time he passes up the chance to send everyone home, things get worse. The Green Goblin ruins the plan and the villains escape, and Norman kills Aunt May, yet Peter still doesn't send them back. Later, even after saving four of the five villains, he again chooses not to send everyone home, and the situation escalates until he must make his ultimate sacrifice so everyone forgets him. I like that Peter visibly struggles with the decision every time, including when he later wants to kill Norman; being someone who always sacrifices for the greater good doesn't mean he doesn't wrestle with it. Across the eight Spider-Man movies I've now covered, he struggles with this in nearly every one, and that's exactly what a Spider-Man movie should be about.

Aunt May Finally Becomes the Emotional Anchor Peter Needed

May wasn't a big standout in the first two films for me. In this one, she finally becomes the emotional anchor Peter needs, and her words motivate him throughout the story. Having her be the one to deliver the great power line right as she dies felt genuinely earned, coming from the right person at the right moment, and I thought it was brilliantly done.

The Ending's Total Sacrifice Retroactively Justifies the Whole Trilogy, and No Way Home Became the Biggest Spider-Man Movie Ever

To save the day, Peter has to make everyone forget who he is, including his best friend and his girlfriend, and the ending lands because the film did the work to earn it. It also retroactively justifies Peter being handed so much throughout the trilogy: it's one thing to start a character with nothing, but giving someone everything and then stripping it all away is its own kind of powerful.

By the end, Peter is arguably at a lower point than any other Spider-Man has been. If someone argued Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man was worse off since his girlfriend died, I'd hear that out, but I'd argue Holland's Peter loses everything except being Spider-Man itself; MJ is alive, but she's no longer his girlfriend. The final shots of Peter living alone in a run-down apartment land the point, and this ending makes the previous seven Spider-Man films, especially the first two Holland movies that I don't fully love, work better in hindsight.

I love No Way Home, its ending, its story, and its themes, and I'll always defend it as a great superhero movie. It scored 93% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 97% audience score and an 8.1 on IMDb. It grossed $1.91 billion worldwide, making it by far the highest-grossing Spider-Man movie and the highest-grossing movie of 2021 by an even wider margin.

With the trilogy complete, Spider-Man's immediate future in the MCU was uncertain, but Tom Holland would return, with a fourth Holland Spider-Man film released five years later.

Do you think No Way Home still holds up on rewatch, or does the backlash against it have a point?