Director:
Jon Watts
Writers:
Jonathan Goldstein
John Francis Daley
Jon Watts
Christopher Ford
Chris McKenna
Erik Sommers
Starring:
Tom Holland
Michael Keaton
Jon Favreau
Marisa Tomei
Zendaya
Jacob Batalon
Laura Harrier
Plot:
Peter Parker balances his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens with his superhero alter-ego Spider-Man, and finds himself on the trail of a new menace prowling the skies of New York City.
Review:
Peter Parker, Tom Holland, is not technically an Avenger, but maybe. If Tony Stark would just give him a chance he knows he could succeed. It’s not like he hasn’t already proven himself in battle against Earth’s mightiest superheroes. Of course, Tony couldn’t even give him that telling him that Cap would have beat him if he wanted too. I’m really glad that Peter has Aunt May, Marisa Tomei, she is a much better parental figure than Tony.
Using his new suit Peter fights crime, discovers weapons being made with alien tech, and tracks down the people responsible. When he botches a sting operation put in place to take the bad guys down Tony takes his suit away. Probably the best and most hypocritical move that Tony could have done since it’s easy to forget that Peter is only 15.
Without his suit, but desperate to do good with his abilities, Peter finds himself in a dangerous position, he calls all the people he can, is ignored, and so does what heroes do. He pushes himself, learns his limits, and pushes himself past them to save people. He is a hero, but by not taking Tony up on his offer he proves that he’s also very self-aware. Honestly, having never enjoyed Spider-Man, this movie made me excited for the character. It is easily the second best Spider-Man movie (Into the Spiderverse is first).
As much as I enjoyed the Spider-Man character, the movie wouldn’t have been nearly as good without his villain The Vulture, Michael Keaton. Awarded a huge clean up job by the city of NY Keaton takes out loans, hires people, and is looking at a bright professional future, when Tony Stark swoops in and takes it all away. Honestly, it’s kind of disheartening that in a universe with superheroes the politicians still manage to fuck shit up. Who in their right mind awards a clean-up project to the very person that made the mess? Did he give them an amazing deal? Should it have mattered? He better be doing it for free, but I doubt it.
I would be right on board with The Vulture if he’d just not had to go and kill people. That one little step is my step too far. I could have probably forgiven killing his flunky, but trying to kill a teenager? A teenager that you know saved your daughter from death? Nope, can’t root for you. I was happy that he didn’t give Peter up at the end though, it showed that he wasn’t completely evil, maybe.
As to the impact on the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, Peter gets a new fancy suit, but I think that’s pretty much it. It’s a nice suit…
Spider-Man: Homecoming was a great superhero movie, but it was lacking in a couple areas. First, and the one that impacts my rating the least, it’s ties to the overarching plot. It builds the character and relationships, but, so far, it doesn’t seem to mean much in the grand scheme of things.
Second, and actually impacting my rating, the lack of female characters and representation, both in front of and behind the screen. Aunt May was awesome, what little Zendaya was in the movie she was great, the only other significant female character was Liz, Laura Harrier, and she was really just there as a romantic interest for Peter and didn’t even speak in a lot of her time on screen. Everyone was a dude and I’ve just watched, how many movies, where it’s the same way, and it’s really starting to weigh me down. It’s one thing when it’s spread out a couple times a year, it’s another thing when it’s every day. I’m just a bit…tired.
Side note: sorry for the little break in reviews, I moved and that is time consuming.
4/5
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