‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ has generated a great deal of interest from super-hero nerds such as myself ever since Tom Holland’s fan pleasing debut in last year’s ‘Captain America: Civil War’. A quick history: Back in the 90’s, Marvel was financial difficulties and sold the movie rights to their biggest titles like The Fantastic Four, X-Men, and of course the most famous Marvel creation, Spider-Man to other film companies as a way of generating some revenue. Back then, no one had any idea what goldmine superhero movies would become. As a result, when Marvel started their own movies, they weren’t allowed to use some of their biggest titles. Movie rights to Spider-Man were owned by Sony and they had no interest in letting marvel have any piece of that. After a string of several critically panned movies, Sony decided to let Marvel use Spider-Man on a shared revenue basis and fans went wild at the idea of Spider-Man being handled by the dream team at Marvel. Now if only they would let Marvel handle the Fantastic Four as well.
Since there has already been two origin movies of Spider-Man in recent memory, Marvel decided to jump right in. His introduction in ‘Captain America: Civil War” was everything that fans had hoped for and I have to say that Marvel delivered a highly respectable and enjoyable Spider-Man. I’m not going to jump on the band wagon and say it was the best Marvel movie ever as some are claiming, but it truly did capture the essence of Spider-Man despite some modern reinventing of the character. British actor Tom Holland was an inspired choice to play Spider-Man as not only does he captures Peter Parker’s nerdish and handsome demeanor, but he is also an actual teenager as opposed to Andrew Garfield’s 30 year old high schooler. Marisa Tomei takes the elderly character of Aunt May and makes her more modern, younger, and attractive. Peter’s circle of high school friends also represent a more modern diverse group of people.
Starting off with a clever video diary of the events that led Peter to the events of ‘Captain America: Civil War’, the movie also establishes a more buoyant and light tone, while at the same time of establishing the mentor relationship of Tony Stark through his sidekick Happy Hogan (an always delightful Jo Favreau). Having impressed Tony Stark during the epic fight in Civil War, Tony gifts Peter a souped up Spider-Man suit that even includes an onboard A.I. computer named Alice (similar to Ironman’s Jarvis or Friday). While cool, I thought this was a point where they strayed from Spiderman’s street level appeal. Spiderman is more a working man’s hero, not a super high tech crime fighter. I felt the film spent too much time in Peter becoming acclimated to his super suit.
Michael Keaton returns to the superhero world, but this time as the villain Adrian Toomis aka The Vulture. While definitely not a nice guy, we have some sympathy for him as his driving force is the welfare of his family. Starting the film out as the owner of a clean up crew working on salvaging the Avenger’s tower demolition after the alien invasion, we quickly feel his frustration and anger over losing his business sustaining contract to a government agency heavily involved with Tony Stark. Keeping some of the alien technology he found, Toomis and his crew become a high-end exotic arms dealer and makes a comfortable underground living salvaging or stealing alien tech to sell to criminals. He points out that selling munitions to the bad guys is not that different from how Stark made his fortune. He even designed a ‘Vulture’ like suit from the alien technology to help in steal more alien tech.
Spider-Man and Vulture’s worlds collide when Peter stops the Vulture’s henchmen from robbing a bank. The inadvertent collateral damage caused by the fight brings The Vulture’s operations to the attention of the authorities. Peter is eager to prove himself by stopping the Vulture, but Tony mentors that Peter is not ready for this level of villain and that there are “others” who handle this sort of thing. Not being dissuaded, Peter sneaks out to go after the Vulture with almost catastrophic results.
Much like the comic book, the writers deftly balance Peter’s super hero life with the trials and tribulations of his high school existence. Somehow both seem equally important as Peter tries to get the girl of his dreams while keeping his alter ego a secret. The writer’s had a lot of fun from self-admiringly borrowing from John Hushes movies of the eighties as he navigates the popularity tiers of high school. One particular scene spoofs ‘Ferris Bueller’s’ scramble through the back yards of suburbia.
I enjoyed how the film started off with a frivolous feel, but through a series of twists and turns slowly gained a level of gravitas as Peter matured in his role as Spider-Man. This was a welcome addition of a long awaited character to the Marvel universe (I hope they do the same with the Netflix characters someday). I think this movie was over hyped, but it was still a respectable and enjoyable ride. Congratulations Marvel for keeping the magic alive despite the naysayers who feel that we’ve passed the over saturation point of superheroes. I look forward to future adventures.
I give this film *** stars
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