Directed by: Jon Watts
Written by: Jon Watts, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
Starring: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr.
IMDb Link
Spider-Man: Homecoming would be a better film in a vacuum. Being the third try at a Spider-Man series in recent years makes it hard for the film to do anything new, so even when it does something very well, it isn't refreshing, especially in the current superhero-saturated state of film. At the same time, everyone being fundamentally aware of who Spider-Man is and how he works gives the film the chance to circumvent the origin story entirely and just let Peter be Spider-Man.
Spidey is home from his brief appearance in Captain America: Civil War (2016), back to poorly juggling his newfound crime-fighting calling with his personal life and responsibilities. The film does a great job of contrasting the impatience and constant yearning Peter feels in normal life with the rush of being a hero, while also pressing on his immaturity in hoping to get to deal with much bigger and badder problems than the ones in his neighbourhood, to act as the catalyst for his coming-of-age arc in this film (if the John Hughes cues weren't obvious enough throughout the film, they draw you a diagram by filming a scene similarly to Ferris Bueller and then showing that exact clip from Ferris). Tom Holland plays this part exceptionally well; in a film that contains Michael Keaton and Robert Downey Jr., Holland gives the best performance, with such enthusiasm for what he does and a perfect amount of teenage "awkward but trying to be cool" behaviour that he sells himself completely as both Spider-Man and Peter Parker without it coming off as too cheesy for the tone of the film.
Opposite Holland is Keaton as the villain, Vulture, a construction worker turned black market alien arms dealer. I love Keaton as an actor, but he isn't given much to work with at first; his early scenes are fairly bland, not offering anything in particular that makes him stand out as a villain, as his "I'll do anything for my family" and "the rich don't care about the poor" justifications for his actions aren't pressed on early on. However, it pays of excellently later on, so while he doesn't start on the best foot, he has his moment to shine.
The film does a lot very well, but most of it has been seen in the previous Spider-Man films. This does for both superficial stuff as well as general character arcs. Spider-Man saving his girlfriend with the web catch as she falls has been done to death (literally, in Gwen Stacy's case); it may be a callback, and within the realm of what Spidey can do, but it's also hard to ignore that I've seen it plenty of times before, and recently. The arc Peter goes through is a lot like a compressed version of his arc from Spider-Man 2, squished in to the second and third acts as part of his coming-of-age, losing his suit and identity as Spider-Man so that he can learn to appreciate who he is and the lower scale on which he works. Again, it's good, but it's eerily similar to what we've seen before and devoid of a lot of originality because of it, which I know is unavoidable with the other Spider-Man movies being so recent, but perhaps indicative of the fact that these movies are being made too often. There are however some updates that come with this remake, mainly attached to Downey Jr's Stark and his ability to use technology to solve and survey everything. This creates an interesting change of pace, with Spidey having some sort of living father-figure to look up to, be punished by and learn from, which makes Stark a sort of mediator of Peter's direction. Peter temporarily losing his suit and identity are up to Stark, which takes away a little of Peter's agency as a character, even though he earns it later. It's hard to make a call at this point whether this change is truly a good thing or a bad thing. Finally, the usual problems with Marvel movies persist, as always so prevalent that they're artistic choice as much as weakness: stakes that don't really matter because you never believe anyone is in real danger and even a way to make a villain not bad enough to receive death as punishment, etc.
One final piece of praise goes to Tony Revolori as Flash, Peter's high school bully. Rather than the tough and brutish dumb sports guy we've seen in previous incarnations, Flash is a rich kid's son who's on anything that'll get him attention. His constant dickishness towards Peter is completely needless and seemingly without base, and he takes it to such comedic extremes that I couldn't help but love him for every line he spoke. He was a silly and pointless character, but my word was he entertaining.
The Verdict: While Homecoming is held back by the fact that its story and character arcs have been seen in other Spider-Man movies, the film is still very enjoyable to watch, in large part due to Holland's fantastically energetic turn as our friendly neighbourhood superhero.
Rating: 7/10
Published July 6th, 2017
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