“Call me Spider-Man.”
Opening with a hilariously amusing “student film” that shows some clever behind-the-scenes footage of Spider-Man’s introduction during last year’s Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming quickly cements itself as a young, fun, and quirky installment in the highly elaborate Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It has taken six films, three actors and a mountain of CGI stunts to get us to Tom Holland and the highly anticipated Homecoming. Thankfully, after all the rubbish, the wait seems worth it as Marvel has reworked one of its hottest properties and returned him to his roots, offering up a stylish, innovative and downright fun film that makes Tobey Maguire’s treacherous emo days in Spider-Man 3 worth the growing pains.
Director Jon Watts has somehow balanced the expanding Avengers universe and the presence of Iron Man to allow Homecoming to venture seamlessly from a long-shot miracle film to one we can’t imagine living without.
The story, which was written by Watts and five other collaborators, does more with the small stuff than the huge CGI-centered visual flare. Subtle encounters between Peter and senior Liz help to generate the somewhat required love interest side plot, even if it falls victim to the cliché of centering their interactions around the scholarly academic decathlon. Not to mention Peter’s best friend Ned (played by Jacob Batalon). His running “guy in the chair” bit is the best reoccurring joke in the film, proving that there are no exceptions when you learn that your best bud is a high flying superhero - you will lose your shit!
Watts also does well with merging our web crawler into the MCU, using Iron Man carefully while ensuring that Homecoming is in fact Spider-Man’s movie. Downey Jr. makes frequent appearances (or at least Iron Man does), but they are never without a purpose. With absolutely no mention of Uncle Ben in the film, you can’t help but see the parental figure that Tony Stark has become for the young web slinger.
At times Homecoming reads more like a young-adult film that centers around a character with super powers than an actual superhero film. Credit both Holland and Watts for pulling that off, but in reality it marks the brilliance behind the entire MCU. The cohesive storytelling is far and away tremendous as Homecoming accepts its place within the framework, ultimately proving to be a film that its own star would most likely want to see.
Tony and Peter’s father-son struggles help to root the film in some form of reality as Peter uncovers the “training wheels blocker” on his suit and suddenly finds a new friend in the overly informative (and somewhat nosey) Karen. But all the small chuckles and innocent laughs lead to a larger, more powerful reveal as both Tony and Peter show tremendous growth within the confines of the film, each in their respective ways.
Michael Keaton’s turn as Adrian Toomes/Vulture was great intuition by the creative team behind the film; however, the undeveloped character left a lot to be desired as he operates entirely on fear, offering up high quality weapons made of alien matter to the highest bidder. Thankfully there were a few subtle Batman throwbacks (or at least one accidental one) that helps to make the decision valid, though it is hard to overlook the overly complex ending that attempts to make the film something that it isn’t. Straightforward and direct, Homecoming has its tone well placed; an abrupt ending was fine…but much like Wonder Woman earlier this summer, it simply isn’t necessary and stirs up a heavy amount of disconnect.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is far from perfect, but you can’t deny that for the first time in what feels like forever comic book fans can revel in the fact that they have a film centered on a Peter Parker who feels like the awkward teenage hero they grew to love.
