Spider-Man: Homecoming - Review
'Spider-Man: Homecoming' is the third reboot of the Spider-Man series, and was directed by Jon Watts. The film is Spider-Man's first dedicated film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and represents a collaboration between Sony and Marvel Studios. Thankfully the audience is saved the trouble of yet another re-telling of Spider-Man's origin story; the film instead decides to focus on fleshing out Peter Parker (Tom Holland)'s character, following his attempts to become an Avenger.
While the film isn't perfect, I do believe this to be the best Spider-Man film since 2004's 'Spider-Man 2', directed by Sam Raimi. Tom Holland plays a convincing Peter Parker, presenting both a shy, geeky teenage boy and a confident, snarky superhero. This is something that the two previous roles didn't achieve in my opinion; I felt that Toby Maguire played an excellent nerd, but his portrayal of Spider-Man wasn't nearly as exciting as in the comics. Andrew Garfield, however, channelled Spider-Man's more cheeky side, but was a little too 'cool' to be the reserved Peter Parker most are familiar with.
Michael Keaton is fantastic as The Vulture, and his character motivations make sense; instead of being a generic 'blow up the world' villain, he is simply interested in making some money through stealing parts from the Avengers building. This type of story is, where I believe, Spider-Man's character shines; small scale crimes with relatively little threat. This gives him a chance to make snarky remarks and give the audience a low-consequence but fun viewing experience. He is only 15, after all. Leave the 'end of the world' scenarios to the Avengers.
SPOILERS AHEAD (SKIP TO END)
My issues mainly lie within the casting choices with the high school cast. I understand that some changes are necessary to adapt the story to the modern age, but some of these choices were simply baffling. Take Flash Thompson, for example; the typical high school bully. Gives Peter a hard time, always making fun of his hobbies and appearance. What does he look like? A tall, intimidating figure, with a bulky body, right? 5'8" Tony Revolori does not give off this impression. Appearance aside, his character isn't even intimidating. His best attempt at embarrassing Peter is calling him 'Penis Parker'. I would expect that from an 8 year old, not a 16 year old high school student. Also, he's a part of the Maths team. The new Flash Thompson, everybody.
My other major casting gripe is MJ... kinda. She isn't named Mary Jane is this film, which makes the situation a little confusing, but the film makes the point to call her MJ at the end. Her actress however... is not MJ. For one, she's not ginger, which is part of Mary Jane's iconic appearance. Has political correctness gone so far that we can't even cast someone who looks like the character they are portraying? Speaking of political correctness, her character is everything that is wrong with modern Gen Z/Millenial liberalism. I don't wish to get too deep in this in this review, but a number of remarks she made made me roll my eyes. I can understand that this might have been incorporated to show that these are just kids, and her character is a typical trope seen in high school, but to then call her MJ... it just doesn't sit right with me.
The action in this film is excellent; Spider-Man's webs have a satisfying diegetic sound effect, and the pacing of the fight scenes is fast and frantic, much like I would expect from a Spider-Man film. I'm not a huge fan of the fact that Spider-Man's suit is very technology-based; this made the suit feel more like Iron man than Spider-Man. However, this change allowed for a number of cool features to the suit, including the classic web wings and web bombs. These were incorporated into the action scenes well, and made the fights fresh and interesting.
While a good amount of time is spent on Peter's life in high school, as well as his relationship with his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon), I still don't feel that these character relations were fleshed out as well as they could have been. What doesn't help is that I watched 'Spider-Man 2' the day before, which develops Peter's character the best so far, making 'Homecoming' feel shallow in comparison.
Peter's girlfriend, Liz (Laura Harrier) was very inconsequential in my opinion; I didn't quite understand why Peter had a crush on her in the first place and I still don't. Perhaps I have a bias against her as I don't believe she was in the comics, but I didn't find her character compelling.
A twist I didn't see coming was Liz's father being The Vulture. While at first I felt this was a little coincidental, and used more as a plot device, after thinking about it I believe this was a good decision. This gives The Vulture motivation that older members of the audience may be able to relate to, as well as creating a conflict between Peter Parker and The Vulture; Spider-Man doesn't want to hurt him as he is the father of his girlfriend, leading to a tense final battle. With his tech suit stripped, Spider-Man must fight using only himself and his scraggy homemade suit. As Tony Stark says, "If you are nothing without the suit, you shouldn't have it". This gives Spider-Man further motivation to prove himself. The scene in which he sees a reflection of himself along with half of his mask seemed a little ham-fisted, but I can understand the sentiment behind it.
The inclusion of The Shocker was a little underwhelming. For starters, he didn't even have his second electric fist. He also didn't have his suit, although this may have been done to make the film more 'realistic' (a choice I don't agree with). While some may say that he shouldn't have been in the film, I feel that his role was significant enough to warrant inclusion, and he does allow for some development of Ned's character. I personally just find him disappointing.
Something I would like to mention is the excellent design to Spider-Man's costume; although it is the same design as seen in 'Captain America: Civil War' (Russo Brothers, 2016), I feel that the costume design is... well, amazing. The changing eye lenses mean that Spider-Man's expressions can be seen even through the suit, similar to the comic books. The reds and blues are bright and eye catching, and the suit follows the classic design that has been loved by many.
SPOILERS END
Overall, 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' is a fun venture into the Marvel adaptation of the character, but it isn't without it's flaws. A few casting choices were baffling, and I don't feel that they delved enough into Peter's character, but this is certainly Spider-Man's best on-screen representation since 2004. With great action, a compelling villain, and the great balance between Peter Parker and Spider-Man, I definitely recommend 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' to Spider-Man fans and casual audiences.
7/10