Spider-Man: Homecoming – Film Review

For many years fans have demanded that Spider-Man would be apart of the MCU and that Marvel Studios would get the film rights back so that the character could be properly depicted on screen. With the announcement on February 9, 2015, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios made a film deal to work together to co-produce this film, while he is introduced in “Captain America: Civil War.” In his first appearance Tom Holland was able to clean the slate of the bad taste people had with the previous incarnation of the web-head for movie audiences. Having such a young actor portray him without it being an awkward almost 30 year old play him made sense to change. He is the perfect Peter Parker and Spider-Man.

The film does everything it can two complete two objectives. One it manages to weave seamlessly into the MCU’s cannon (sparring a timeline debate) with its mentions of events of previous films, character name drops and over style and direction that the other MCU movies have in common to make it feel apart of the universe without it being jarringly different. The second objective it does is do something new with Spider-Man’s story. Though it does go back in high school the focus is well done by making it a teenage coming of age story that grounds the characters in reality but also stays true to the character of Peter Parker. They utilized characters not seen before on screen and updates the diversity and changes the dynamics other Spider-Man films have already accomplished.

The rich, the powerful, like Stark, they don’t care about us! The world’s changed boys, time we change too!

My only negatives with the film really were with the fact that Disney didn’t have the chance to do the famous characters and traditional aspects that Sony had done to death, but in hindsight, it didn’t matter in the end. Even though that Spider-Man spends little to no time in Manhattan and stays in Queens, I didn’t notice till I heard someone say it. The suit does slightly overpower Spider-Man compared to previous entries, though it brings some great comedy it does feel like a light Iron Man-esque suit. The trailer’s did show main points but there is so much more that wasn’t shown that surprised me. Tony Stark isn’t in the movie as much as I thought he would be and enjoyed seeing Happy Hogan again in an MCU film.

Zendaya’s character Michelle could have been in more of the film, but praise to Laura Harrier as Liz Allan as the main female protagonist in this film. Michael Keaton does a fantastic job in the film as the villain Adrian Toomes. He brought such a complexity to the character with his blue collar characterization that audiences could get behind. Such great reveals with his character as well. The only thing I did find jarring was that since we’ve spent 5 movies with Peter Parker by himself in his own films, that to have him inside of the MCU with his mythology being slowly built in for the future it was odd but a welcome thing to see to grow the MCU overall.

Overall this is such a fresh clean chapter in bringing Peter Parker to the big screen again. This film is a complete story that doesn’t get bogged down by setting up other movies. It tells a beginning, middle and end that is satisfying. Peter Parker learns the meaning of being Spider-Man and it truly shows with this film.
9.5/10