As Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse swings into theaters, on the back of some completely unsurprising positive early reactions and first reviews, we’re learning about a new rule when it comes to Spider-Man movies that we never knew about before. It seems that there’s only room for one universally beloved Spidey flick at any given time, as with Sony’s animated sequel now claiming that spot the previous position-holder is being tossed on the scrap heap. Namely, Spider-Man: No Way Home.
As easily the most widely praised entry in Marvel’s Multiverse Saga to date, No Way Home has always managed to avoid much of the never-ending criticism faced by its brothers and sisters in Phases Four and Five, but those days are now over, apparently. Just days ahead of Across the Spider-Verse hitting the silver screen, @cleooffilm went viral for taking a potshot at No Way Home‘s visuals, sharing four screenshots of dubious quality with the caption, “can’t believe we as a society just let this slide.”
The main focus of the OP’s ire is NWH‘s VFX, with the first three screenshots showing off moments where the visual effects leave something to be desired, while the fourth holds the movie’s lighting to account as well. As the user continued, “my phone is on full brightness and I can still barely make out that fourth image.”
Many others concurred with the sentiment, adding their own screenshots into the mix. As one argued, “Never has any actor looked less like they weren’t on set at the same time as other actors.”
It’s no secret that much of No Way Home was shot against green screens in order to keep its many juicy story developments away from prying eyes. While that worked wonderfully for the film’s success in the short term, the backlash it’s receiving now suggests its reputation might not last as long as, say, 2004’s Spider-Man 2, one of the legacy films it was so keen to hark back to. Only time will tell…