The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in peril, and only one man can save it – or so they hope. It’s been a rough time for the world’s biggest movie franchise, with more misses than hits at the box office in the last few years. However, one character that has retained popularity is Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. No Way Home was the most successful post-Endgame movie and the highest-grossing solo character Marvel film ever. Can the boy wonder work his magic a fourth time and get us excited for comic book movies again?

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We open five years after Peter Parker (Holland) closed the rift in the multiverse with a spell that meant everyone has forgotten he ever existed. Alone, grieving and pining for lost love MJ (Zendaya), who no longer remembers him, he lives a solitary life defending New York anonymously. This isolation is the catalyst for a mutation in his powers that gives him organic webbing and heightened senses. He tries to manage his evolution while investigating a series of crimes linked to a mysterious unnamed figure (Sadie Sink).

We’ve seen Peter the high-schooler and college student numerous times in the Spider-Man movies. Now, we get to meet Peter the adult. Director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings) approaches a familiar character arc (can Peter and Spider-Man co-exist?) in a whole new way, exploring loneliness and dealing with the consequences of our actions. It’s complex stuff – well, for a superhero movie – and builds on the internal struggles that made last year’s Thunderbolts* a breath of fresh air.

That’s not to say Peter Parker spends all his time moping on rooftops, because the film gives him his best action sequences to date. By keeping the story focused on local crime (or “small potatoes” as one of Spidey’s allies describes it), we can see him tear up the streets of New York alongside The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), Peter’s gruff frenemy who would rather shoot than save. As things get more complicated, the set pieces get more advanced, with one particular highlight being a jailbreak battle with high-flying ninjas, known as The Hand. It gives the film some grit after years of CGI swirling portals, and demonstrates the dark side of the webslinger.

Tom Holland has mentioned in interviews that he wanted a reason to come back to the character, and he certainly has one in this movie. He’s much darker than the John Hughes-inspired teen of Spider-Man: Homecoming, carrying his pain while still being able to get the odd laugh with his goofy antics. Zendaya as a memory-wiped MJ is interesting, rebooting the character in a way that keeps her intriguing, while also being a target for Peter’s enemies.

As for the new additions – Sadie Sink’s character is intended to be a mystery, so we won’t spoil the big reveal, but she makes for a captivatingly creepy antagonist in the first act before we hear things from her perspective. Bernthal works well as the hardened counter to Spider-Man’s innocence, although it is odd to see him play it for laughs given the adult nature of past portrayals. Mark Ruffalo’s appearance as Bruce Banner/Hulk is mostly for exposition, while the surprise package of the cast is Severance star Tramell Tillman, who amps up the mystery as the head of Damage Control, an organisation that seeks to “learn” from supervillains’ abilities.

Maturity, action and great storytelling combine to make a film that’s easily the best Tom Holland Spider-Man outing – and the best MCU movie of the decade. Where Peter fits in with the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday is unclear, but the young webslinger has grown up and become the type of hero this franchise sorely needs.