Monday, July 26, 2021

My Review of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

 


Written by Jonathan Goldstein And John Francis Daly And Jon Watts And Christopher Ford And Chris McKenna And Erik Sommers
Directed by Jon Watts

Tony (to Peter): "Can't you just be a friendly neighborhood spider?"

In less than two decades we've had three actors take on the role of the infamous webslinger. Now my stance is that Tobey Maguire got the best movies but Andre Garfield was my favourite take on the role.

Then there's Tom Holland. There's no doubt that his Spidey being included in the MCU has benefitted him big time and following his debut in Captain America: Civil War, there was certainly a lot riding on his own solo movie.

For me, I have to admit it's a mixed bag of a debut movie. On one hand, I'm glad it's not an origin story of sorts but on the other hand, the criticisms of the character being referred to as Iron Boy Jr are somewhat justified here.

Much as I enjoy Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark as the next person, his shadow does seem to loom over Holland's Spider-Man in a big way. As a mentor he has the worst timing in terms of guiding Peter towards becoming a better hero but I suppose maybe that works to the movie's advantage when Peter does step to save his city without an Avenger to help him.

The villain of the question is definitely the movie's plus though. Michael Keaton is excellent as disgruntled Adrian Toomes/Vulture and there's a complication when Peter becomes romantically involved with Toomes daughter Liz (Laura Harrier) bit in terms of romances, it's not one that the writers put that much emotional weight into.

Instead they focus on Toomes own resentment towards Stark costing him his business and the fight scenes between Spidey and Vulture are actually well done. There's also the added bonus of Toomes actually making it out of the movie alive, meaning that a future rematch between Spidey and Vulture is a possibility.

Another noteworthy thing would be Adrian knowing that Peter is Spider-Man but this is a movie that also wasted no time in having Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and Peter's best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) also become privy to his secret. Even Peter's other crush, the rather sardonic Michelle (Zendeya) seemed a tad suspicious of him.

- Donald Glover popped up here as the uncle of Miles Morales while other minor villains such as Shocker also made an appearance.
- We got Flash Thompson (Anthony Revolori) going out of his way to antagonise Peter while also being a fan of Spider-Man.
- Credit sequence saw Toomes keeping Peter's secret to himself in prison while Captain America made a public service announcement cameo in the movie.
- Chronology: Not long after the events of Captain America: Civil War.

Spider-Man: Homecoming to me is a decent but not spectacular debut movie for the webslinger. It doesn't quite possess the same magic as Maguire's debut but it's somewhat on a par with Garfield's. Holland does good in the role but I do feel that perhaps Tony's role should've been a bit smaller.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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