Spider-Man Homecoming - Film Review

  TheBloodyCritique’s ‘Spider-Man Homecoming’ Film Review 

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 were both pretty good, the third one was a fucking disaster, Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spiderman was a cheap and unsuccessful rip off of the first Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was just terrible! Spider-Man has once again been rebooted but this time Sony have teamed up with Marvel to incorporate Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I haven’t seen Captain America: Civil War yet which includes his first appearance but Spider-Man Homecoming seems to take place directly after it. Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, is a fifteen year old high school student with an internship at Stark industries and dreams of being part of The Avengers, he wants to join them and fight the big battles but is advised by Stark’s head of security Harold ‘Happy’ Hogan, played by Jon Favreau, whose keeping an eye on him and Tony Stark AKA Iron Man, played by Robert Downy Jr. that he isn’t quite ready yet and to just focus on protecting his neighbourhood from common criminals for now. After fighting some arms dealers with extremely high tech weaponry Peter Parker ignores his mentors advice and investigates further leading him into dangerous territory when he crosses paths with Homecoming’s villain Birdman, played by Michael Keaton.

Spider-Man Homecoming is directed by Jon Watts whose other work, neither of which I’ve seen by the way, includes Clown, which received a fairly negative response from critics, and Cop Car, which received a positive response, judging him on Spiderman: Homecoming, I think he did a good job, it’s an entertaining movie with a lot of fun elements and I think it’s a successful reboot to the Spider-Man franchise. They don’t bother with the origin story in this one, which, having seen it twice now done in exactly the same way, was a nice change although without an introduction made it feel a little incomplete like it’s missing the first 10/15 minutes or something but it’s not a big problem. There’s a lot of references to The Avengers and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the film actually opens with a shot of a child’s drawing of The Avengers after some destruction has taken place around the Stark tower so right away it’s evident that Spider-Man has entered the Marvel realm. Tony Stark especially is a big part of the story, he’s the closest thing Peter Parker has to a father figure in the movie and Robert Downy Jr. delivers a great performance. Chris Evans is also featured in humorous public school announcements which suits his character. 

Spider-Man is very much a teenager in Homecoming, he’s fifteen, he looks fifteen and he acts fifteen which suits the character, he’s introduced filming himself on his phone as Tony Stark takes him to some sort of Avengers event and he’s extremely excited to be there and to meet his heroes, I was actually worried that the entire film would be presented in found footage fashion because they open with text saying ‘a Peter Parker film’ but it only lasts for about 10 minutes or so. There’s quite a few humorous moments throughout the film, it definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously and they mostly work, there’s a few silly slapstick moments that were unsuccessful in being funny, for example, there’s a scene with Spider-Man running through people’s gardens and he makes a little comment on the activity taking place in each one and it was just stupid, it wasn’t funny and it took away any tension the scene might have had, but outside a couple of moments like that the comedic elements are all successful, it’s surprisingly funny and I even laughed out loud a couple times! I appreciated hearing the original Spider-Man theme music during the Marvel montage at the beginning as well, it truly felt like Spider-Man was returning home.  

This is a world where the population is very much aware that superheroes exist and when the film introduces its villain, Birdman, he’s working with a team of labourers cleaning up the debris left by the aftermath of superhero destruction, it’s his new business venture and he’s invested all of his money into it. The head of ‘Damage Control’ then turns up and shuts his shit down, leaving him broke and jobless. Having worked in these hazardous zones, he’s been able to obtain enough high tech gear to become an arms dealer and build himself a killing suit with wings. He says multiple times he does it for his family, and in a confrontation with Spider-Man he makes a fairly good point about the fact that Tony Stark is also an arms dealer, his motives seemed justified enough but his character is presented as too stereotypically evil which I think was a missed opportunity at a more interesting character, the way he acts sometimes was down the route of having a fluffy white cat on his lap and it didn’t work. We even meet his family and both his wife and daughter seem very nice and for him to act the way he does was just very out of character, really, he’s willing to murder a fifteen year old kid? 

I enjoyed all of the performances, Tom Holland was great, a tiny bit annoying at first but he grew on me, he’s a suitable Spider-Man and a fellow Brit, Michael Keaton was great as Birdman, little bit of irony there, I wonder if it was on purpose. Jon Favreau was good, Marisa Tomei was good and Robert Downy Jr. was great, he’s an enjoyable character and he definitely helps elevates these Marvel films when he’s in them, Laura Harrier was good as Liz, Peter Parker’s love interest, I always thought his love interest was supposed to be Mary Jane, maybe that’s just the Sam Raimi films but it was Gwen in The Amazing Spider-Man, now it’s Liz? Anyway who gives a fuck, Jacob Batalon was great as Ned, Peter Parker’s nerdy best friend, his character was an excellent addition to the film and when he finds out that his best friend is actually the internet sensation Spider-Man, it’s great! It’s a fun relationship and a big part of the film, and finally Zendaya was hilarious as MJ, she was my favourite character, she pops up in scenes and delivers pessimistic existential one liners and I loved her, she was the best part of the film!   

In conclusion I would definitely recommend Spider-Man Homecoming, it’s a successful reboot to the franchise and I enjoyed it, it has its flaws but none of them are bad enough to take away too much from the movie, also from what I hear this interpretation of Spider-Man is closer to the original comic book character so if you’re a comic book nerd especially you will love this movie. It’s far superior to The Amazing Spider-Man films and it’s probably on par with the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, it’s not quite better but it’s about equal. All in all it was a success and I’d give Spider-Man Homecoming 7/10, it’s well written, it’s well directed, the characters are all great, it’s full of humour and it’s a more stripped back simple story which works to its advantage, it’s definitely worth a watch!  

Thanks for reading, have you seen Spider-Man Homecoming, what did you think?

TheBloodyCritique