[nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
Spider-Man: Homecoming is a 2017 superhero movie about an ordinary high school student with superpowers who finds himself on the trail of a new menace prowling the skies of New York City. Directed by Jon Watts, it is the second reboot of the series and a part of the growing Marvel Cinematic Universe. After this new Spider-Man was unveiled in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, where he has a rather impressive cameo, this first full length feature goes about telling the origin story again, however, takes a different approach by keeping it more about the high school life of the 15-year-old Peter Parker and his hurdles with being a teenager with incredible powers, all the while trying to impress Tony Stark, aka Iron Man and wondering what his place is in a world protected by heroes.[/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
Tom Holland plays Peter Parker, taking the reins from Andrew Garfield and before that, Tobey MaGuire. While both previous iterations were somewhat playful and, especially with Garfield, a bit snarky, trying to emulate the comic book source material, Holland plays it more grounded, feeling the most convincing as a 15-year-old given extraordinary powers. Already a smart student, Peter excels at crafting homemade gear to match his new strengths and does even better when Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) provides him with a new, Iron Man-esque suit. It’s pretty cool, yet what makes this Peter Parker so likeable is his humbleness and authenticity. He wants to do good with his powers, but he also wants to be a kid and struggles with that balance, something Spider-Man: Homecoming handles very well.[/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
The success of the movie stems largely due to its casting, with Holland at the top of course, though having a sidekick of sorts in his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) provides a great deal of genuine comedy and honesty that really helps. Love interest Liz (Laura Harrier) is always a challenge while in the background at school is MJ (Zendaya), who this time is not at all as expected, giving the “Mary Jane” character a truly fresh turn. Still, it is Michael Keaton (above) as Adrian Toomes, a salvager turned arms dealer who does some of the best work in the movie, the character evolving into the Vulture, the legendary long-time arch nemesis of Spider-Man, making his screen debut. Keaton is no stranger to superhero movies of course, nor a bird-like character, however he makes Vulture a terrific new addition to the cast of Marvel villains, never going over the top and steering far from the typical cartoon-ish spins we often see fighting Parker.[/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
The movie is loaded with some surprisingly good moments, both with character development and action. That’s really one of the best qualities of the film, its ability to make the action entertaining and yet have significance, something, quite honestly, several other Marvel movies have failed to do right. The best of this is easily a moment at the end of the second act when Spider-Man attempts to take on Vulture and his henchmen alone on the Staten Island Ferry, it packed with passengers heading to Manhattan. There’s a lot about this sequence that works well, showcasing the young heroes growth both with his strengths and decision-making but it’s actually what happens when it’s over that matters most. Let’s take a look.[/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
Parker is after a guy named Herman Schultz (Bokeem Woodbine), who has become the new Shocker, a minor villain with a powerful gauntlet enhanced with alien technology. He’s on the ferry and Spider-Man has tracked him, keeping out of sight until he can make sure he’s got the whole crew. When he does swing in to take down the baddies, he gets a surprise when both the FBI and Vulture show up, the latter in his deadly wing suit who starts tearing the boat apart in attempts to strike down Spider-Man. He’s using a new weapon with some decidedly nasty features, and when Spider-Man inadvertently sets it on its own, well, it literally splits the ship in two, giving Vulture time to escape. Now all Spidey needs to do is save a huge ferry boat from toppling in halves into the water (kind of homaging this moment). He almost does it, zipping about using his webbing to try and keep it together. However, it can’t hold and all looks lost until, thankfully, Iron Man shows up and saves the day.[/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
Once the ferry is back underway, Parker and Stark retreat to a position above the mayhem and have a little talk, where Peter attempts to blame Stark for not listening to him about what’s happening with Vulture, though Stark quickly shuts him down. He says that no one on the team agreed with him to give a kid a try, but he believed in the youngster, thinking he could do great things. He explains to the boy about the consequences of intervention, that the possibility of innocents becoming collateral damage is always right there and if that had happened here on the ferry, that would be on Parker yes, but more so on Stark as he’s the one who gave him the chance. Stark says he doesn’t need that on his conscience, and what follows is a great line. Parker says, “I only wanted to be like you,” to which Stark replies, “And I wanted you to be better.” That’s smart writing, both as an acknowledgment of the ferocity of damage he and the Avengers have caused in the name of protecting Earth, but also to his choices, of which he holds some regrets.[/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
But it only gets better. Stark then tells Parker it’s not working out, and demands the return of the suit, telling the boy he’s lost his chance to be an Avenger. Devastated, Peter tells him that the suit is all he has, that he’s ‘nothing’ without it, and this is where Stark recognizes the boy’s greatest weakness, telling him with visible pain that, “If you’re nothing without this suit then you shouldn’t have it.” Crushed, Parker gives it up and Stark goes on his way. Now naturally, this is just the thing the boy needs to become the real hero, but he doesn’t know that, needing time to realize that it’s what’s inside him, the choices he will make and the reflection of actions that will come to define him that matter. This moment is crucial for the development of Parker and his alter-ego, something we saw in Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man 2 as well when Parker threw away the suit, done equally well here. [/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
What I like about this moment is how committed the story is to Peter, refusing to make him a pick up and play hero who instantly knows what he’s doing and doing it perfectly. Parker fumbles and makes mistakes and takes on more than he can handle, mostly because he’s motivated and believing not only of his new powers, but his responsibility to do the right thing with them. That’s the real torment of Spider-Man, and of being a teenager, his desire to not just be an Avenger but to be a better human being. It’s the message behind Stark’s words, the core value of being on the side of good, even when they themselves are split. Notice how we see Parker flounder with the hyper-technology of the Stark Spider-Man suit, even as he becomes convinced it’s what makes him great. Sure, he can grow into it, but what he needs to learn is that the real power is under the suit and behind the gadgets, and that’s exactly what he does, taking him and Spider-Man: Homecoming to one of the genre’s best finales. [/nextpage]