Spider-Man Homecoming--Finally Marvel gets Spider-man right.

Marvel is in the zone.  

Spider-man has been lost in the wilderness for a long time.  The 2002 movie starring Tobey Maguire and directed by Sam Raimi was good.  Spider-man 2 that came out in 2004 was great.  Then the web began to untangle with the mess that was Spider-man 3 in 2007, lesson learned is that more villains does not make for a better movie.

Then it was decided to recast spider-man with a man in his late 20s with Andrew Garfield in 2010.  The movie was okay, but we really need to do another origin story.  And I admit, I never saw the Amazing Spider-Man 2.  It just didn’t seem needed.

Marvel rightly teased the new Spider-man by putting him in the last Avenger’s movie.  So, we already knew what the new Spider-man would sound like and that the character was funny.  The new Spider-man is actually played by a teenager this time, and is done very well by Tom Holland.

This isn’t really an origin movie

Director Jon Watts knew that the audience doesn’t need another mutant spider scene origin scene.  It was smartly and quickly explained away in less than 60 seconds, in normal conversation between Peter Parker and his best friend Ned.

Spider-Man is a teenager

The movie aptly deals with the real world consequences of the life of superhero.  As a 15-year-old Peter is so eager to be a part of the Avengers and to be recognized as a superhero that he misses to actual dangers of being a superhero.  He himself as the superhero may not be in danger, but the people around you can be.  The phrase with “great power comes great responsibility” from the first movie is not uttered in this movie, but it is the theme of the movie.

After being given a useful Spider-Man suit by Tony Stark, Peter Parker is eager to join The Avengers on another big assignment.  His contact with thee Avengers is Happy, played by Jon Favereu.  Peter calls Happy on a nearly daily basis in hopes of getting back into the Avengers.

And as all teenagers Peter Parker has a major crush, but isn’t cool enough to ask her out.   After all his crush Liz Allen is a senior, while Peter is a sophomore, but she has a major crush on Spider-man.  So Peter’s best friend Ned tries to get Peter to use his secret identity to get the girl.

Iron Man as Mentor

Tony Stark fills in as missing the father figure for Peter.  “Zip it!  The Adult is taking.” Is a line a that I laughed at, and a line that Peter needed to her.  Super-heroes need mentors.

The Villain

Michael Keaton has gotten to play Batman in the DC universe and now a villain in the Marvel universe.  Some people get to do all the cool things.   Keaton plays Adrian Toomes.  Toomes is the owner of a salvage company is higher to salvage after the battle of New York.  But soon after the job begins his company loses the job to Tony Stark’s U.S. Department of Damage Control, his company his on the verge of financial ruin so he comes up with a way to save it.  He saves it by stealing alien technology he salvaged at the battle of New York.  From those pieces he becomes an underground weapons dealer in alien technology.  From the technology Toomes becomes The Vulture, although I don’t believe he is ever called that in the movie.  Keaton plays a villain character where we are sympathetic to, being angry at the elite for taking our work and still wanting to take care of our families.

When Toomes and Peter meet each other, and they realize who they are, Keaton delivers the goods as an actor.  He gives the scariest villain scene in all of Marvel Universe and he does it when he’s not in costume.

Credits

The opening credits Marvel works in the old “Spider-man! Spider-Man!” theme song from the old television.  A great easter egg to begin the movie.  The end credits have a punk rock theme very enjoyable.

And yes, there are two end credit scenes.  I’m not going to spoil those.

Spider-Man Homecoming is the best Spider-man yet and a great addition to the Marvel Universe.  I recommend catching it at the theater, no need to wait for Netflix on this one.