When COVID-19 disrupted the world in early 2020, Hollywood struggled to regroup. Even the biggest films made substantially less money than would’ve been the case prior to the damage wrought by the pandemic, so financial expectations needed to reflect this.

Until late 2021, that is, when Spider-Man: No Way Home reset the meter.

The 2020 “pandemic era” box office turned into a wasteland, as the most successful film release post-“shutdown” - Croods: A New Age - made a mere $215 million worldwide. 2021 showed a rebound, but even then, the year’s biggest flick through the year’s first 11 months - F9: The Fast Saga - got to a good but not exceptional worldwide take of $726 million.

What would it take to get mass audiences back to theaters? Spidey, apparently.

December 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home did enough business to make it look like the pandemic never existed. Home’s US gross of $804 million topped F9’s global earnings, and with a worldwide sum of nearly $1.9 billion meant Spidey topped F9 by more than $1.1 billion.

Take that, COVID!

The final chapter of a trilogy that started with 2017’s Homecoming, 2019’s Far From Home ended with the public reveal of Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) alter ego as Spider-Man, and this movie opens with the direct aftermath of this event. With his life in a tizzy, Peter seeks to reverse course.

This takes Peter to visit mystical sorcerer Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in hopes of a “do-over”. Peter asks Strange to cast a spell that will cause the world to forget that Parker serves as Spidey.

Due to Peter’s nattering, Strange’s work goes awry. This leads to massive repercussions, as the multiverse opens and characters who dealt with “alternate Spideys” now enter Peter’s world and create havoc.

Woof, how do discuss Home without spoilers? I feel tempted not to try because most – if not all – of the film’s twists quickly became common knowledge, but I’ll still do my best.

Suffice it to say that Home opens up to characters from the trilogy that started with 2002’s Spider-Man as well as the pair of films that began with 2012’s Amazing Spider-Man. Other than these “reveals”, I’ll leave my “spoilers” alone.

Despite the potential pointlessness of this attempt, much of the fun found in Home comes from its surprises. The film brings back a lot of those old characters and actors, and it doesn’t just toss them out as casual cameos.

Because of this, Home can veer perilously toward a gimmick movie. So much of the tale’s excitement connects to these reprised roles that the end result could easily just seem like a bunch of fan service.

And to some degree, I think it does go down that path. A lot of the film can feel like a “wouldn’t it be cool if…?” adventure conjured by fans.

That said, it’s not like the comics didn’t indulge in these sorts of crossovers plenty of times, and Home doesn’t go crazy in this regard. After all, it stays within its own confines and doesn’t pursue silly conceits like the involvement of characters from Star Wars or whatever.

The one perplexing aspect of the “multiverse” concept on display connects to the last Spidey flick to hit screens pre-Home: 2018’s animated Into the Spider-Verse. It seems somewhat strange that the franchise would opt for a second story in this vein so soon after Into.

Not that Home offers a clone of the 2018 flick, as both pursue fairly different paths. Still, both come with enough similarities that Home clearly echoes Into in ways that leave me surprised Sony opted to take on this kind of narrative.

The end result works, albeit with a few kinks. A story of this sort inevitably hits logic-bending snarls, and these amplify as the movie nears its finale.

In the interest of spoiler avoidance, I won’t dig into these concerns. Just note that viewers may leave Home with some confusion about what they saw and how the narrative works out the reality it presents.

If one can shut down that POV, though, I do think Home delivers an enjoyable affair, and a lot of this stems from all those crossovers. As gratuitous as these can seem, they succeed, and we simply get a kick out of the interactions we view.

To my surprise, I actually think Home fares better when seen a second time. During my initial screening, I spent much of the film in anticipation of what characters would appear next, and that made it more difficult to dig into the story for its own sake.

With that out of the way, I could watch Home with a focus on its narrative and action more fully. This allowed me to embrace the tale and events in a more engaged manner.

Despite the potentially gimmicky nature of Home, it does well on second viewing. The plot and character bits succeed in a way that ensures our entertainment doesn’t stem solely – or mainly – from the big reveals that crop up along the way.

Does any of this make Home the best MCU movie? No, as I feel it lacks a certain spark that might place it highest in the series.

Nonetheless, it provides a solid 148 minutes of superhero entertainment. At the very least, it becomes the strongest of the Tom Holland Spideys, and it leaves me eager to see what comes next.

Footnote: as expected, we get a bonus sequence partway into the final credits. Instead of a true added scene, the credits conclude with a trailer for the second Doctor Strange movie.

Spider-Man: Far From Home appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The movie offered terrific Dolby Vision visuals.

In terms of sharpness, the image seemed solid. It displayed tight, accurate images from start to finish.

I witnessed no signs of jaggies or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. No source flaws marred the image either.

The film’s palette favored Hollywood standard teal and amber/orange for the most part. Those choices left me cold but the disc replicated them appropriately. HDR gave the colors added oomph and dimensionality.

Blacks seemed deep and dense, and shadows offered nice clarity. HDR brought range and impact to whites and contrast. This became a consistently fine image.

As for the Dolby Atmos soundtrack of Home, it satisfied just as much as the picture. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the soundscape opened up the material in an active manner.

From start to finish, the mix worked well. As anticipated, the many action sequences offered the most engaging moments. These used the various channels to create a good sense of place and action, with battle elements that zipped around the room.

Audio quality was positive. Music showed good boldness and clarity, while speech appeared distinctive and concise.

Effects came across as accurate and dynamic, with nice low-end response. The soundtrack fit the material and added zing to the proceedings.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? The 4K’s Atmos mix offered a bit more involvement and activity compared to the Blu-ray DTS-HD MA 5.1.

In addition, the 4K’s Dolby Vision image boasted the expected improvements, as it came with superior colors, blacks and definition. This was a clear upgrade.

All the extras appear on the included Blu-ray copy, where we open with a Bloopers & Gag Reel segment. It spans four minutes, one second and provides the standard allotment of goofs and giggles.

A skew of featurettes follow, and Action Choreography Across the Multiverse runs six minutes, 25 seconds. It brings notes from 2nd unit director/stunt coordinator George Cottle, associate producer Emily Fong, fight coordinator Jackson Spidell, producer Kevin Feige, and actors Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Willem Dafoe.

As expected, this program looks at stunts. It comes with some good footage but it suffers from an awful lot of happy talk, so it becomes a mixed bag.

A Spectacular Spider-Journey fills six minutes, 16 seconds with info from Holland, Cottle, producer Amy Pascal, co-producer Chris Buongiorno, director Jon Watts and actors Alfred Molina, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. “Spectacular” covers Holland’s time as Peter/Spidey and becomes a lot of praise for the actor.

Next comes Realities Collide, Spiders Unite, an eight-minute, nine-second piece with Zendaya, Watts, Feige, Garfield, Maguire, Holland, Pascal, Spidell, Marvel Studios Director of Security Barry Curtis, Marvel Studios Supervisor of Global Content Control and Security Peyton Evans, and executive producer Rachel O’Connor.

“Unite” discusses the multiple characters in the film. Some interesting notes emerge – mainly about attempts to keep secrets – but most of this offers more fluff.

Graduation Day goes for seven minutes, seven seconds and features Zendaya, Holland, and actors Jacob Batalon and Tony Revolori.

Here the actors reminisce about their time in the Spidey movies. Again, expect a handful of decent thoughts but mostly we find out how much fun the performers had and how much they love each other.

After this we get Enter Strange, a five-minute, four-second segment that involves Cumberbatch, Watts, Feige, Holland, writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, production designer Darren Gilford and actor Benedict Wong.

We look at the film’s use of Doctor Strange. Anticipate more superficial material here.

Weaving Jon Watts’ Web lasts seven minutes, 18 seconds and delivers comments from Watts, Pascal, O’Connor, Buongiorno, Gilford, Fong, Holland, Molina, Dafoe, Maguire, Batalon, Cottle, Garfield, co-producer Mitch Bell, Revolori, Zendaya, and actors Jon Favreau and Jamie Foxx.

Unsurprisingly, “Web” discusses the work of director Watts. Unsurprisingly, “Web” delivers more happy talk and not much concrete information.

Up next, Alternate Reality Easter Eggs lasts four minutes, 41 seconds and reveals 23 hidden bits or trivia notes. It becomes a good overview.

A Multiverse of Miscreants occupies six minutes, 38 seconds and includes remarks from Foxx, Holland, Watts, Garfield, Dafoe, Cottle, Spidell, and Molina. We get thoughts about the actors who play the villains in this lackluster reel.

Two panels follow. A Meeting of the Spiders (7:23) features Holland, Maguire and Garfield, while The Sinister Summit (8:44) brings in Molina, Dafoe and Foxx.

On one hand, it’s good to see the actors interact with each other. On the other, real insights remain elusive.

The Daily Bugle breaks into three segments: “Spider-Menace Strikes Again” (1:15), “Web of Lies” (1:18) and “Spider Sycophant” (1:41). These let us see J. Jonah Jameson’s uncut Internet rants and they offer entertainment.

Two sequences show up via Stunt Scene Pre-Vis: “Apartment Fight” (1:46) and “Shield Fight” (1:49). These let us compare planning video with final movie scenes, and they seem cool to see.

Finally, Theatrical Marketing Materials goes into three domains: “Tom and Jacob Lie Detector” (1:58). “Tom’s Press Tour” (1:03) and “Georgia Promo” (1:15). The first offers a fun promo exercise whereas second simply shows Holland in various spots and the last just tells us how great it is to shoot in Georgia.

Both the 4K and Blu-ray discs open with ads for Uncharted, Morbius, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Alex Rider. No trailer for Home appears here.

Note that the Blu-ray’s packaging promises deleted/extended scenes. These don’t appear on the disc.

A massive hit that brought audiences back to theaters after the damage wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, Spider-Man: No Way Home does not turn into one of the best MCU flicks. Nonetheless, it delivers the best of the Tom Holland Spidey movies and brings plenty of entertainment. The 4K UHD boasts excellent picture and audio along with a long but superficial slate of bonus materials. Home finishes this “trilogy” on a largely positive note.

To rate this film, visit the prior review of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME