‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Movie Review

Spider-Man: Homecoming is the first solo Spider-Man movie to take place in the MCU, and the sixth solo Spider-Man movie ever. It is about Peter Parker dealing with balancing his Spider-Man life with his high school life. After his adventures in Captain America: Civil War, he wants to be an avenger, but he might not be ready just yet.

Image via Marvel Studios

I’ve been waiting for a good Spider-Man movie for thirteen years. I believe Spider-Man 2 is one of the best comic book movies of all time, but every installment after that was disappointing. I’m happy to say that Spider-Man: Homecoming gets the character right again. 

I love how this movie has a younger Peter Parker. He’s fifteen in his sophomore year of high school, whereas in previous movies he either graduates in the first movie, or just doesn’t touch on that aspect at all. The main reason we relate to Spider-Man is because he’s just a kid running around saving lives, and he has real world problems. There are instances when he suffers in his real life because of him having to be Spider-Man. Him being young brings a lot of fun to the movie. The movie is really funny, and Tom Holland sells the role so well. You can feel how Peter is just having a blast being Spider-Man. He’s always anxious throughout school to get out so he can swing around and be a hero.

Jacob Batalon plays Peter’s best friend, Ned, and their chemistry makes the movie a lot better. We haven’t seen Peter Parker with a real best friend is any of the movies that didn’t bail on him in the first movie. Another neat aspect is that Peter goes to a special math and science school, so Flash Tompson isn’t a typical jock bully to Peter, he’s really just a jerk to him. I liked that because in today’s world, that cheesy type of bullying doesn’t happen as much, it’s more verbal bullying nowadays.

Image via Marvel Studios

Spider-Man is written differently than we’ve seen before in the movie. He’s young, so he makes stupid decisions and learns from them. He also thinks he can do anything because he has powers, but he quickly learns where his boundaries are throughout the movie. This is only the first chapter in his story, so it leaves a lot of room for the character to grow and develop. Tony Stark keeps Peter in check because he made his suit. The trailers made it seem like Iron Man would be in the movie too much, but this is very much Spider-Man’s movie. There isn’t a single moment when you think that he is being overshadowed be Robert Downey Jr. He always comes in when it’s necessary for the story, and the scenes don’t revolve around him.

Michael Keaton plays the villain of the movie, the Vulture, and he’s probably one of the best ever villains in the MCU. You might think that he is silly because of his character in the comics. While he is campy in the source material, they go a completely different route in the movie and it works. It wouldn’t be as good as it was without Michael Keaton. I won’t spoil anything, but there’s a scene in a car between Vulture and Peter that I think is Keaton’s best scene in the movie.

One of my problems with the movie was that it wasn’t as emotional as I wanted it to be. Sure, there are some great acting scenes in the movie, and it is a lot of fun, but during the fight scenes there seems to be a lack of stakes. The movie plays it safe, and doesn’t really take any risks for the character. In the Sam Raimi movies, I still sit on the edge of my seat for the action scenes 15 years later, but in this movie it just seemed cool without feeling much for the character. Spider-Man is a great character in the movie, and the action scenes are good, but it just wasn’t everything I wanted. The third act of the movie also felt very overblown and crazy. I would have preferred it to feel more grounded, but they took a different approach and took the explosion route. It wasn’t as bad as it was in movies like Batman v Superman, but I found it to be too much for a Spider-Man movie.

I would definitely recommend Spider-Man: Homecoming. If you haven’t already you should go see this movie.(I’m so late with the review, you should have seen it already) It’s my second favorite Spider-Man movie of all time behind Spider-Man 2. 

                        Rating: A-             

Image via Marvel Studios

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