Spider-Man: Homecoming
(’17 review)

4 outta 5

There have been numerous attempts at Spider-Man since 2002. After diminishing returns on the (unjustly maligned) The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony, who holds the movie rights to Spider-Man, came to an agreement with Marvel to restart the character (again) and integrate him into the creatively fertile, and mega box office earning, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), introducing him in Captain America: Civil War. 

The title Spider-Man: Homecoming is apt because it’s very cool to see Spider-Man as a part of the larger Marvel Universe.  It juggles themes from previous Spider-Man flicks, Peter Parker being hopeless at managing a superhero and regular life was presented note perfect in Spider-Man 2, but it’s done with a hilarious breezy style and fleshing out a distinct corner of the MCU. 

The friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is actually high school student Peter Parker (Tom Holland) who is mentored by Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.).  Meanwhile a criminal with advanced alien weaponry, Adrian Toomes aka The Vulture (Michael Keaton), is giving crooks bigger booms and stealing more technology.  With the help of his buddy Ned (Jacob Batalon) and Stark’s head of security, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), Peter has to stop the Vulture, keep his superhero ID secret from Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), learn the tricks of his Spider-Man suit and ask his crush Liz (Laura Harrier) to the Homecoming dance.

There is a lot crammed in here and a familiarity with Spider-Man and the MCU would help keep all of the minor characters straight.  But the core story is strong; Peter thinks he deserves a shot at a larger gig with Iron Man’s Avengers, Stark shoots him down, Peter is determined to do right because he’s Spider-Man.   One of Holland’s best moments doesn’t feature big FX or much dialogue; it’s simply Spider-Man trying to lift a gigantic weight off himself.  That is also an iconic panel from the Spider-Man comics and it’s great to see it recreated here.  Homecoming could have become Iron Man 4 Guest Starring Spider-Man but smartly, Stark is the hesitant mentor and big stuff is done by Spider-Man alone.  There is one moment when Iron Man saves the day but it works well with the story. Aunt May is not in the movie much but Tomei makes her brief scenes memorable, especially her fantastic final moment.

Homecoming provides a ground level perspective of the fallout from an alien invasion in The Avengers.  Since the Marvel movies have gotten so large scale, integrating aliens, robots and magic, the smaller perspective has been gotten lost so Spider-Man spends a lot of time breaking up petty crimes for minimal rewards like the nice old lady who gives him a churro.  The POV from the “little guy” is shown in the movie’s opening scene where Toomes is kicked off a cushy job cleaning up the Avenger’s mess so he creates his own criminal weapons manufacturing empire. 

One thing that is subpar in Homecoming is the weak romantic subplot between Peter and Liz, especially considering the fantastic romantic chemistry between former Spider-Man couples Tobey Maguire and Kristen Dunst or Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.  Frankly, Peter has better chemistry with Happy Hogan or Ned.  A much better but non-romantic lead is Zendya as Peter’s “friend” Michelle who is hanging around getting in random quips.   Balton’s Ned is the guy Peter bounces exposition off who has uproariously wild reactions. 

The main villain is Keaton’s Vulture and the character benefits simply that it’s Michael Keaton. He elevates one note fairly angry dude by playing it to the hilt and the Vulture costume is really cool.  As in all Spider-Man movies, the secret identity of Peter Parker is eventually revealed to the villain however in Homecoming it’s one of the laziest, cheapest, nonsensical ID reveals ever.  

But those are quibbles of what is a fantastically solid Spider-Man movie.  It’s great to see Spider-Man smacking and webbing up crooks and his fluidity of moment is awesome.  There’s a fantastic bit when Spider-Man has to crawl up the Washington monument to save a failing elevator as it’s a great sequence of things constantly going wrong.  A scene where he’s getting to know all of the technical details of his fancy Spider-Man suit has some fun banter with his suit’s A.I. voiced by Jennifer Connelly and there’s a hilarious running gag that Peter can’t get the suit to work quite right.  The battles with the Vulture are nicely crunchy, there is a scene where Spider-Man battles on a ferry that has an epic ending and the finale atop a speeding airplane is fantastic.  Michael Giacchino’s score accentuates the action and, awesomely, when the Marvel Studios logo pops up there’s a sweeping orchestral rendition of the classic 1960s Spider-Man cartoon theme.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is a nice return to the character of Spider-Man, dropping some of the gloomy angst of the Amazing Spider-Man series and infusing the character with much needed fun.   The best Spider-flick still remains Spider-Man 2 but this is a solid second place.  Having Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe makes what could have been a tired, lonely, side-superhero series an integral and unique part of Marvel’s whole. It’s great to have Spidey back where he always belonged.