Spider-Man: Homecoming Review
PG13: sci-fi action violence, some language and brief suggestive comments
Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures
2 Hrs and 13 Minutes
Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Tyne Daly, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr., Jacob Batalon, Bokeem Woodbine, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Michael Chernus, Hannibal Buress, Angourie Rice, Jennifer Connelly, Gwyneth Paltrow
INTRO: Spider-Man, Spider-Man, so many reboots make me not a fan. When Sony struck a deal with Disney after their failure of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2", the entire world cheered in joy. Though this was our third reboot, this is the Spider-Man we’ve all been waiting for. Spider-Man now in the same universe as Iron Man and Captain America? Where do we sign up? Before we get to see Tom Holland face off against Thanos alongside the rest of the Avengers next year in Infinity War, he must go through his own solo trial which is Spider-Man Homecoming. Where Civil War was Tom Holland’s demo reel, the question remains: can he pull a film on his very own? The answer is yes.
A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who made his sensational debut in "Captain America: Civil War," begins to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging super hero in "Spider-Man: Homecoming." Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine – distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man – but when the Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened.
THE GOOD: Despite their original action sequences, what every Spider-Man incarnation lacked was getting the sense of how it was to be Peter Parker. Where Maguire was a great Peter Parker and Garfield was a great Spider-Man, Holland perfectly nails the character of Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Tom Holland gives a beyond amazingly spectacular performance throughout the entire film. This is his first leading role, and he carries it damn near flawlessly where he has proven to be the best Spider-Man to date. What he brings to the table is a take that Garfield or Maguire never mastered, having the mentality of the age the character is supposed to be. In their first Spider-Man movies, you saw these near 30-year-old actors in high school, and immediately you’re taken out of the experience because they looked more like adults and embodied personalities where they even acted like adults.
What "Homecoming" does so well, is the retainment of Peter’s character that was teased in "Civil War". He’s still a kid and acts like one. He even says at one point that he is only 15 years old. You get the impression of him being 15 for he embodies the age in his dialogue, his personality, and his actions. You don’t see Peter as a 30-year-old actor who needed to be in high school because that was when his origin takes place. You don’t get the sense that Peter is a 30-year-old high school student trying to retrieve his GED. Here you have a teenage Peter Parker going through teenage issues. What makes him relatable is not only his personality but also the conflict he goes through. Some of the problems that Peter have in the movie are relatable issues that teenagers have gone through before from longing to fit in to trying to get your priorities straight. The stakes for Peter are lower this time around but what makes up for it is his age. He has vulnerabilities, fears, and insecurities that every teenager has. When he is going up against a villain above his stature, he gets scared. He’s not invincible either by any means. When he gets hurts, you can see the effect of his pain.
After his introduction in Civil War, Peter has an eagerness to get back into the action but only has to settle for the little things instead. If you put yourself in his position, you would be very persistent as him. He’s as excited as a little puppy getting adopted for the first time. You know he just wants to pass the time in school so he can be Spider-Man. He loves to help people around his borough that he finally becomes the, “Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,” that was missing in other incarnations. For the first time in any Spider-Man film, you relate to Peter Parker. He goes through problems that every teenager has gone through in life which is trying to separate his responsibilities from his priories. Just like Wonder Woman, you get the sense of fun of being a superhero as we follow a character who not only want to prove something of themselves but also put people first and try to help them any way they can.
With this film, you have director Jon Watts pulling a John Hughes while modernizing his style. If you ever wanted to see a Youtube vlog done in the vein of Ijustine or Logan Paul by Peter Parker, Watts incorporates that into the film. When Peter is attending school, the film's comedy is reminiscent of every popular 80s film regarding tone ranging from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" to "Pretty in Pink". There’s even a sequence where Peter is chasing the Shockers and running through people’s backyard. Right before you try to realize what film Watts was homaging, the scene cuts to Ferris Bueller playing on a TV screen to the sequence of him running home in the same fashion Spider-Man was doing. The high school aspect of the movie is nailed just right as should. Not only does it feel like a collection of 80s high school movies, but also infuses humor that has the atmosphere of "Freaks and Geeks". One of the four screenwriters on this WAS FROM "FREAKS AND GEEKS" (yes it is John Francis Daley).
In the movie, Tony Stark tells Peter to, “stay close to the ground,” and you perceive that is exactly what Kevin Feige said to Jon Watts when making this film. When he means to stay close to the ground, he said to keep the movie grounded. Never for a moment, the film tries to overachieve or strive to be something that it is not. The film in concept is a coming of age story for Peter Parker, and Watts brilliantly executes that in an intelligent manner that you wouldn’t expect in a superhero movie. The movie isn’t trying to be your summer action blockbuster. It instead attempts to be Peter’s story and having him learn about with great power comes great responsibility. Though that is never said in dialogue throughout the movie, you pick up that message as Peter’s moral and the film’s central theme. The movie is an 80s styled coming of age high school flick that happens to feature Spider-Man. Like "Iron Man 3", Homecoming tells the story of Peter coming to terms with himself as he has to prove that he can be more than a boy in a suit.
Watts and his screenwriters knew that the audience knows Spidey’s origin beat by beat so instead of doing a retread of that, it tells a story of a high school student struggling between having great power and great responsibility. If you don’t know anything about Spider-Man, this film is not a good introduction for people who want to know how Peter Parker came to be. It is also fearless from taking daring twists and turns in its narrative but cleverly breaking the generic elements seen in both Spider-Man movies and superhero movies in general.
When it opens, the film immediately asks its audience, “Do you know of Spider-Man’s origin?”
“No?”
“TOO BAD!”
And that is how it should be. We've all become numb to the superhero origin story so it is nice that this film picks up on the details that we already know without ever explaining any parts of his origin.
Besides having Peter grow in character you see him grow in experience as well. Since Stark made the Spidey suit that he wears, he spends the entire movie learning the different uses his suit has. He has a sense of curiosity and astonishment where he wants to find out how far his suit can take him. When he gets knowledge of the abilities the suit has, he is amazed by it. Even in "Wonder Woman", you see one of the best aspects of being a superhero is discovering your power and what you can do which has been a missing element in films of the superhero genre. You just had these people who had these powers and knew everything they can do.
One of the best aspects of this Spider-Man universe is its diverse cast. This is the first film I’ve seen in a long time that dared to take advantage of its casting. Peter’s best friend is Filipino, his crush is mixed, his high school antagonist is Guatemalan, and they all are derived from characters who were all white in appearance. What they do with each character in this is a new take of who they were written to be in the comics. We all know Flash Thompson as a muscular jock who picks on the weak. Out of all the casting, I was most skeptical about Tony Revolori as Flash just based on his appearance. Boy, was I wrong. In this modern day and age, there is more to being a bully than being a jock and Revolori does an excellent job portraying that.
Where every incarnation of Spider-Man focused on Peter in a relationship with either Mary Jane or Gwen Stacy, the best relationship he shares on screen is with his best friend Ned played by Jacob Batalon. They share an onscreen bromance throughout that is more genuine than Peter had with any of his lady friends. He is the only person that knows his secret, and he quickly becomes neutral to it after being ecstatic. This may be obscure to some, but they have a relationship similar to Miley and Lily from Hannah Montana. The film often takes the Hannah Montana route with its humor as Peter tries to differentiate himself apart from his famous alter-ego with only his best friend knowing. The majority of the film when it's not a Spider-Man film is a buddy comedy where Ned and Peter look out for each other and have each other’s backs when the going gets tough. They have a friendship that is more genuine than Peter and Harry had in the Raimi series. Peter does have a crush on a girl and has a romance thing, but instead of that being the prominent focus, it's only the subplot.
If you thought this was the "Iron Man 4" sequel you’ve been expecting based on the trailers, you are dead wrong. The movie is 10% Iron Man 4, and the 90% rest is Peter’s, story. The majority of Tony Stark’s scenes are literally phoned in as in he calls through the phone most of the time. You get more Jon Favreau as Happy more than you get Downey Jr. as Tony. You wouldn't expect Favreau to have more screen time than Downey Jr. in a Marvel movie especially when he’s in-between directing Disney live action adaptations. I can just visualize Disney stopping Favreau right before he got to his directing chair for "Lion King" and saying, “Hey, we need you reprise a certain role before you get back to work.”
With this being his third time at ba—-I mean wings, Michael Keaton does a fine job portraying, Adrian Toomes AKA Vulture. Though he is nowhere close to being one of the best villains introduced in the MCU, he is the perfect foe for Peter in this movie. He is as forgettable as every villain in the MCU roster (with the exception of Loki and Zemo), but in the context of the film, he is a serviceable formable foe for Peter to go up against. The only thing that makes Toomes stand out is what they do with him later on in the film. There is a major plot twist in the movie, and when you just see Keaton’s face, your jaw will hit the ground like this.
Besides this being the first Spider-Man flick that gets the sense of being both Peter Parker & Spider-Man, this is the first film where it abides by the laws of physics. You have points of Peter attempting to shoot to attach to thin air and thanks to the laws of physics he is unsuccessful. At one point, Peter drives a car because of laws of physics. Take that Sam Raimi!
THE BAD: One of the coolest aspects of this movie is Spidey’s suit. Since Tony Stark manufactured it, there are so many variations of updates that keep his combat exciting. What I don't like about it though is its ability to be the Deus Ex Machina of sticky situations he gets himself into. At times the suit could save Peter’s ass and be convenient, but then at times when all else fails, the suit does absolutely nothing. His suit has a lot of items that come in handy at times I was surprised Perter never said “GO GO PARKER PARACHUTE!"
As an action movie, the film falls short. It's not that the action sequences aren’t cool, but compared to the other incarnations of our favorite web-slinger it comes nowhere near close in its level of creativity or fun. I respect it for being more of a character study than a Hollywood summer blockbuster, but a lot of fans expecting amazing action sequences will be disappointed.
So we have Donald Glover in this, and the entire time he seems like he does not want to be in this movie. His character only has two scenes, and Glover is there to get that Marvel money. Yet you see him interact with Spidey in a scene and he looks disinterested as hell. The entire time you can tell that the only thing on his mind is “That should’ve been me!”
Remember that whole situation where in "Star Trek Into Darkness" JJ Abrams claimed that Benedict Cumberbatch wasn’t Khan and told everyone to stop complaining, but then when it played in the film his reveal was supposed to be surprised when it wasn’t since we knew who that character was the entire time. Well, THAT HAPPENS HERE, AND YOU MIGHT KNOW WHO I AM TALKING ABOUT! It is saved till the very last minute, and at that point, you cringe at it. You don’t cringe because it was a lie of how the filmmakers and cast members claimed that this isn’t that character, but you cringe at how unnecessary it is especially when the movie is one minute away from playing the credits.
LAST STATEMENT: Though the stakes are small and lack the element of excitement at times, Spider-Man: Homecoming makes up with a stylish high school narrative that happens to have Spider-Man in it. With a strong performance by Tom Holland, Homecoming that doesn’t only incorporate Peter Parker to the MCU but provides a character driven story with humor & heart throughout.
Rating: 4/5 | 83%
Stay until the very end for an amazingly hysterical post credit sequence.
