A Movie Review #1 - Spider-Man Homecoming

“Can’t you be just a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man?”

One of the biggest challenges of transitioning Spider-Man from his comic book roots to the silver screen has been the delicate balance between geeky Peter Parker and quippy Spider-Man. It has undermined both the original trilogy and the rebooted duology. With a third reboot, Spider-Man Homecoming has big shoes to step into – and it does so in a competent but not mind-blowing way.

First off, the main star is Tom Holland, the person playing Peter Parker aka Spider-Man. While the trailers have been irritatingly showcasing Tony Stark a lot, thankfully he’s more plot device and proper cameo in the film than an actual character and it works to help Peter through the crucible of understanding that he is the hero himself and doesn’t need to depend on fancy gadgets from other brilliant minds to succeed in his efforts. 

Which is a shame cause in the end, it shows he might still be using Tony’s technological Spider-Man suit – but that scene has more issues which I’ll get to latter.

The plot is solid and frankly after the messy and overly complicated Amazing Spider-Man 2, a breath of fresh air. It’s a simple hero vs villain story with the hero’s growth as a sub plot – and that is how it should be for Spider-Man. No world destroying threat, just a friendly neighbourhood superhero going up against the 'little guy' villain.

Tom Holland shines in the role, managing the duality so well that you wonder where has he been all this time. He’s everything his movie predecessors were good at and more. Though the staple forced MCU humour is prevalent, becoming cringe worthy at moments, its Tom’s delivery that makes it all work. And Micheal Keaton is an exceptional foe as Adrian Toomes, managing to create a three dimensional villain who makes you sympathize with his condition but still feel repulsed at his actions. It hasn't been an MCU trait to either flesh out the villain or keep him/her alive at the end of the movie, but thankfully the Vulture is given both - and that makes the Sinister Six in the future that more appetizing. 

The action scenes are fluid and straight out of the comic books, lending itself nicely to Spider-man fluid reflexes. The Vulture is menancing and the airborne fight on the plane was the stuff to emulate for mid-air battles. And I admitted to tearing up a bit to seeing Peter lifting a heavy concrete beam to free himself while reflecting on Tony’s words of ‘being more than the suit’.

Ah the suit. It’s a divisive thing for me – on one hand, I loved Peter’s interaction with Karen the AI in the Spider-suit, but on the other hand, this fundamentally alters what Peter is supposed to be. He’s the street level hero. To see him with an iron-man like suit, complete with web shooters that seem to be Stark designed is negating his own brilliance and independence that defines a lot of who he is. I hope he doesn’t use the same suit and this is the end of Karen – but if he is being positioned as Tony’s replacement in the MCU, I fear that may not be the case. But it’s hardly a big blot to the overall film.

The supporting cast is where this film begins to really falter. Beyond Ned, who plays the comic relief to perfection and gets some badass moments of his own, the cast is shallow and at times just there. Flash Thompson has been reimagined as a new age bully, but he never comes across as threatening to Peter – and the reverential treatment he has for Spider-man is half-baked and forced. Liz Allen on the other hand is given the romantic interest treatment, and keeps to that role throughout the movie, and is only a person of interest when it is revealed that the Vulture is her father. 

And coming to the most controversial of all, Michelle Jones (or MJ) is probably given the worst treatment in the cast, trying to come off as the aloof loner genius and instead as just irritating due to her actor’s ham fisted delivery and an inability of the director to find a proper growth plotline. And doubly so if she is to become the female lead of the Spiderman universe.

Coming from someone who believes that at his core, Peter is optimistic despite his life tragedies (the death of the Stacys, Uncle Ben and many more) – I feel this sanitized version of him as seen in the original trilogy does his character a disservice. Webb’s duology tried to explore how Peter’s powers were both a gift and the curse, and hopefully Tom will go through a worser crucible than what he experienced in this film. And the secret identity reveal needs to be handler better. The cliffhanger of Aunt May finding out was irritating to say the least because of a lack of build up – the moment lacked any weight beyond the usual shock value.

Overall, this was an excellent reboot and Tom has become an almost perfect Spider-Man. Now all that is needs is a better supporting cast and hopefully more good villains like Toomes.

So, I give it 7.5 out of 10.

+Tom Holland is amazing as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man

+The action choreography is fluid and great to watch

+Ned is on point as the comic relief and sidekick

+The villain is captivating and fleshed out

-The rest of the cast is filler and filled with bad acting

-Some plot points seemed half-baked

-The humour is grating at times

-The technological aspect of the Spider Suit is divisive