Spider-man Homecoming Review
So I had several worries going into Spider-man Homecoming. However, director Jon Watts was able to put all of those scary thoughts to rest.
Tony Stark does not steal the show.
Tom Holland is a fantastic Spider-man.
The villains are great. Especially the Vulture.
The film follows young Peter Parker as he trips and stumbles his way through being Spider-man. He desperately seeks Mr Stark's approval and will stop at nothing to earn his trust and respect. Along his journey he encounters a group of hi-tech arms dealers. Peter makes it his mission to investigate them and stop them.
Peter is a good kid. He's bright, inventive and most importantly, he is really likeable! Tom Holland was a great choice to play a modern day, young Peter Parker. He's not as old as Toby Maguire was and he's nowhere as cool or hip as Andrew Garfield's interpretation- Which is a good thing! Peter is not meant to be one of the cool kids. He enjoys science experiments, academic decathlons and building Lego! He's also wonderfully enthusiastic. At no point does he mope about his powers being a curse! He is always looking to explore his abilities and push himself to the limit.
In fact, this film definitely has the most varied and creative uses for his abilities, specifically the web shooters. Which is really neat to see and I can't wait to see what else he has up his (literal) sleeves in the future. I'm assuming there are no anti-Thanos webs programmed into the suit, right? I'm unsure how I feel about Spider-man having a built in AI. It isn't unheard of in the comics but it still seems a bit strange to me. It's not a problem within the movie, it causes some entertaining conversations in the film and it allows Peter to voice his thoughts when no-one else is around- but will this be necessary when fighting alongside the Avengers? I wouldn't be surprised if it gets uninstalled in the future.
Peter revels in his identity as Spider-man. He's proud of his public persona and he just wants to do the right thing. He wants to be a superhero. Which is very endearing for the audience to watch. He has idols and there have been many heroes who have paved the way before him! All of this makes you want to root for him both in and out of costume.
Being the big geek that I am, I've always been a big fan of Spider-man in the comics and if I had to compare this iteration of the character to them, I would say he is like the current run on Amazing Spider-man by Dan Slott- because of the high tech suit and gadgets but set in the world of the Ultimate Spider-man comics by Brian Michael Bendis- thanks to the high school setting but also, Peter's best friend in the film is called Ned- but its pretty much Ganke from the later Ultimate Spider-man comics, which starred Miles Morales.
And now for the villains! Leading the pack is Michael Keaton as Adrian Toombes (who, as far as I could tell does not get referred to as The Vulture at any point). Keaton is awesome in this role. His character holds a well kept surprise too! Whichs show an unexpected side to him. We also got the Tinkerer, the Shocker, possibly the future Prowler(?) and possibly the future Scorpion(?). However you can cast aside those Spider-man 3 worries! The focus is on the Vulture and he is brilliant. Keaton is incredibly intimidating. Especially in comparison to young Peter.
Unfortunately a lot of the film was spoiled in the trailers. Within the trailers we get previews of each of the main action sequences (Washington Monument, the ferry and the jet). Which is a shame- but it is still a lot of fun to observe the full scenes!
Having seen Tom Watts previous film, Cop Car, I have no idea how he pulled all off this off! That movie was very low budget and very close fto the ground. However, Spider-man Homecoming is nuts! It's a huge spectacle and Watts absolutely nailed it!
This film is still fresh in my mind and therefore I'm not comfortable enough to say that it is better than Spider-man 2 (the previous best Spider-man film, by far!). However, it is definitely on par with it!
I'm giving the film an A! I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for Spidey. It will be incredible to see him interacting with the rest of the MCU.
