Spider-Man: Homecoming Review

The comic book fatigue isn’t wearing itself out yet for 2017 as it’s on the right track with Logan, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Wonder Woman becoming outstanding if not entertaining. Though one property that seems like it can’t catch a break nowadays is of course Spider-Man. But Spider-Man: Homecoming might be a saving grace for this hero.

After helping out Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is trying to balance his life as he deals with the troupes of dealing with high school as a teenager while also trying to be the web-slinging Spider-Man. But he’s put to the test as he faces a new enemy the Vulture (Michael Keaton).

The thought of Sony re-doing Spider-Man for the second time sounded repetitive as the studio screwed it up twice. However, they said this would take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2015 though Sony still holds the film rights to the character. Sounds better, right? Indeed it does. So the film is tied into the MCU as it should be. As this was one of my most anticipated movies of the year and since Spider-Man is one of my favorites, this needs to be a great reboot, and it was. Because of Spider-Man: Homecoming, this is the perfect addition to the universe that’s been waiting forever to get this friendly neighborhood teen right.

Jon Watts was brought on to the film after his 2015 film Cop Car with Kevin Bacon. Though I was curious about him being an unknown director stepping into a well-known property, he was a terrific job directing this as he knows how to capture the fun of this hero, and doesn’t make it dull. He and the six screenwriters actually do a good job at making a cohesive storyline. They also did a great job with the high school element as it’s what some people think of Peter. It feels reminiscent of a coming-of-age film almost like a John Hughes film involving a superhero. The tone is kept at a steady rate without drastically chaining and making it overbearing to witness.

The fact that we didn’t have to sit through another origin story is a breather. Because the same old story has been told on the screen twice already to where we didn’t need to see Peter being bitten by the radioactive spider, discovering his powers, or re-creating Uncle Ben’s death and Peter feeling guilty. Nope, this stands on its own as it didn’t need a back story again.

Tom Holland has officially become my favorite Peter Parker/ Spider-Man. His introduction in Captain America: Civil War was one of the biggest highlights of the film for the short amount of screen time he brought in the film, and everybody universally loved him including me. He definitely can carry his own standalone movie. As much as I enjoyed Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, respectively, Holland captures everything that I love about Spider-Man. I felt that he provided a lot of energy inside himself, and he’s naive and smart as always, and he just wants to be a part of the Avengers. This 15-year-old kid from Queens who just wants to hear a phone call to be part of something exciting. You can clearly tell that he has been a huge fan of Spider-Man his he was a kid. Anytime Peter Parker is shown on screen, he become such a relatable character because he’s a nobody who has an alter-ego who has a crush on the cute girl and wants to be somebody.

The action sequences were well-handled and exciting. Most of them are in-camera, and it’s awesome seeing Spidey swinging his webs and trying to save the day.

What surprisingly worked was the humor. This was a really funny movie, to be honest. Almost all of the jokes made me laugh. Most of them came from Peter’s friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon) who I didn’t find annoying and honestly, one of the better comic reliefs in the universe. This worried me because two of the writers that were first announced wrote the awful Vacation reboot. But luckily, more writers were hired to have the comedy not awkwardly bad. With this and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (people complaining about too much humor in that has no sense of humor), Marvel is killing it with the laughs.

Keaton going from hero to villain seemed strange. He proved many people wrong he played the best Batman, and you can say Birdman is a superhero. But as the Adrian Toomes/ The Vulture, he was excellent. Something that was unexpected was that he was given a lot of depth about what he’s doing. The MCU has a bad rap with some of their villains as some of them don’t live up to expectations. Vulture is the most memorable MCU villain since Loki and it’s the best Spider-Man villain since Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2. The fact that he’s understandable for why he’s doing such acts makes sense.

Robert Downey Jr.’s role as Tony Stark/ Iron Man is perfectly fine. People who thought this was going to be “Iron Man 4” because of the marketing sometimes focuses on him. He isn’t in the film that much quite honestly. He’s in this because he’s basically Peter’s mentor but also tries to keep the kid safe. But the scenes that he’s in didn’t feel overlong as this is Spider-Man’s movie. The relationship between the both of them is well-done Plus, it’s great to see Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) again and has shown a lot in this.

The act structure is pretty basic. If you followed the trailers especially the second trailer, it gives you what to expect. Also, I got to credit myself for not watching the last trailer as I didn’t want to see any new footage until I’m in the theater. Even as an MCU movie, it didn’t bother me that it’s formulaic.

A couple of qualms I had with the film is that the second act slows a little bit. And Zendaya’s character, Michelle, was fine. The lines she’s given were perfect, but she didn’t do a whole lot with what she’s given. That could be said about most of the other actors cast in this.

It feels great to finally have a Spider-Man movie that actually follows through. We’ve gone through him in the span of 15 years, 6 movies, and 3 different actors portraying this character with a couple that went well. Because I’ve only loved the first two Sam Raimi movies. Following Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man films (my opinion drastically changed after re-watching them last year), it’s blue balls for something entertaining. But this is the Spidey movie everyone has been waiting for as it’s the best since Spider-Man 2.

It looks like Sony and Marvel are like ex-spouses and this deal actually worked out. It’s well-acted, well-directed, action-packed, and Tom Holland and Michael Keaton were absolutely unforgettable. This makes me very excited to see this character back in a sequel and in Avengers: Infinity War just like all the rest of the heroes.

• Spider-Man 2
• Spider-Man: Homecoming
• Spider-Man
• The Amazing Spider-Man
• Spider-Man 3
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man Homecoming exhilarated an adventurous reboot that fans finally get as this fits into the MCU in a refreshing way.

Grade: A-