Spider-Man: Homecoming - Swinging into action
Spider-Man’s life in Hollywood has been a chaotic these past few years. After a rocky third film from the original franchise Sony rebooted the series only to produce an underwhelming and uninteresting new Spider-Man that followed the same story beats as the originals. After the second Amazing Spider-Man tanked, the studio decided it was time to finally share Marvel comic’s flagship character with the movie studio that deserved him allowing Spider-Man to finally appear alongside Iron Man, Captain America and Black Panther in last year’s Captain America: Civil War. Now he’s got his own big solo film and not only has his new transition benefitted with the studio committing to Peter’s roots as a young high school student but Holland proves that he is the best portrayal of Spider-Man on the big screen to date.
After successfully proving himself as a potential Avenger to Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), Peter Parker, or rather his alter-ego Spider-Man (Tom Holland), is constantly waiting for a call to be in another big Avenger mission as he spends his afternoons after school swinging around New York stopping bike thieves and giving people directions. His time parading as a hero finds him missing out on classes, dropping out of band, getting kicked from his academic decathlon team and avoiding asking his crush Liz (Laura Harrier) to the homecoming dance despite her multiple hints. While trying to balance his life at home Peter begins to uncover that a group of former salvage workers led by Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) have been using Chitauri technology from the Battle of New York that took place in The Avengers to make high-tech weapons that they are selling on the black market.
Holland is incredible as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Where Tobey Maguire lacked in an accurate portrayal of Peter’s cockiness and carefree attitude while wearing the mask, Holland turns into a wise-cracking, obnoxious but loveable kid when he’s in the Spider-Man persona. He’s brash and overconfident and his whoops and hollers as he swings through New York City are jovial and infectious. His work portraying Peter is good as well. His classmates like him but he is painfully shy and embarrassed of his nerdy tendencies, but not enough to act like a completely different person. The film also nails Peter’s genius. This is the first Spider-Man film where Peter develops a formula for his own webbing solution and secretively creates it in chemistry lab. Small moments that show Peter using his school’s resources to develop Spider-Man tech because his aunt and himself do not have the money for Peter to access certain things to use at home is a great addition that shows how Peter differs from the other heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because of his status as an average middle-class kid.
Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes, who will be familiar to fans as The Vulture, is also a unique character in the MCU. We discover at the beginning of the film that Toomes was given a contract by the state of New York for his salvage company to be the cleanup crew for all the damage after the Battle of New York. When Tony Stark creates the Department of Damage Control he is fired and kicked out by the US Government and indirectly by Tony Stark. His livelihood and the biggest contract of his career stripped from him, he and his crew begin developing weapons based on alien technology. It becomes clear quickly that Toomes isn’t your normal MCU villain. He’s a working man, a blue collar worker who despite all his hard work still had his livelihood taken away by the rich and powerful. His anger and new business stems purely from a place of wanting to steal from men that have been stealing from him all his life, but to also provide for his family in a desperate time. His actions certainly aren’t sympathetic, but he’s a very well-rounded character that operates in a unique gray area that the past Marvel movies have never really tackled before. This is not to mention the great performance by Michael Keaton and the incredible design of The Vulture’s wingsuit that makes every moment with him exciting and occasionally terrifying.
There’s a bit lacking in the film’s other characters though. Liz makes for a likeable love interest for Peter but is really underwhelming as a solo character, and despite what her press tours would have you believe Zendaya’s appearance in this movie is not only inconsequential but almost unnecessary. She does have a few really funny lines though. Ned is a fun addition, but ultimately is relegated to a sidekick who only wants to help Peter in any way he can. The director does make the smart decision to have Tony pushed to the background acting as a benefactor and disapproving surrogate father to Peter instead of having Stark join him in every fight.
The action scenes in the film are also very captivating. Although, there always seems to be very little at stake other than the lives of innocents that the movie often treats as disposable which is often the big problem of Marvel movies and superhero movies in general. There is a particular moment that someone actually meaningful to Peter’s story is in danger and the action scene that follows is really tense and exciting as are the many moments where Peter is fighting the Vulture or the other members of Vulture’s gang of cutthroats.
Altogether, Spider-Man: Homecoming is a really great addition to the Marvel movie series. Moving away from a large-scale worldwide threat to a small crime ring threatening New York City while also mixing in the stress of a secret life as Peter tries to succeed in school makes for a more intimate and interesting story in the Marvel Universe. All topped with incredible performances from Holland and Keaton, hilarious writing and a moving story about Peter trying to prove himself to be a true hero. Fans of Spider-Man will be very pleased.