Review: Spider-Man Homecoming (2017) Finally, a Spider-Man Film That Works

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Sony’s 3rd attempt at a Spider-Man film franchise reboot finally sticks the landing at delivering a compelling and relatable film version of Marvel’s signature web-slinger; thanks in no small part to its connection to the official Marvel Cinematic Universe & recognizing the core of the comic character’s original appeal.

Preface to my review: I am not a fan of the two previous Spider-Man film franchises. The original Sam Raimi led franchise kicking off in the year 2000 with Tobey MacGuire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man with Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson was firmly rooted in the 1990’s formula for superhero franchise building. You had a bombastic over the top budgeted origin story with a wedged in love interest plot as the hero fought an over the top crazed to the point of comedy protagonist. While 2000’s Spider-Man had some inventive uses of body horror to complement the anxiety over Peter Parker’s transformation into web crawling metahuman, it doesn’t hold up and MacGuire’s Peter Parker is difficult to relate to as a character. It follows the trajectory of bullied nerd who becomes cocky and confident as the comic does but it seems dated and unrealistic in its execution. The Marc Webb Spider-Man franchise takes its queues from 2000’s formula for superhero franchises; let’s make it grounded and full of angst. Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man took his queues from the Christopher Nolan “Dark Knight” trilogy and not from the lighthearted and relatable comic and cartoon version of Spider-Man fans has grown to love since the 1960’s and the diminishing box office returns across two films proved that.

Finally, after five solo films, Spider-Man gets realized in a film that recognizes why the character works in Spider-Man Homecoming. More importantly, director Jon Watts succeeds in recreating the New York seen in Marvel Comics’, one where the citizens of Queens interact with the wall-crawler and the character of the city is as much a reflection of Spider-Man himself.

Picking up after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker is given his new suit from Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and yearns to continue on as a member of the Avengers following his battle against Captain America and his rogue Avengers months earlier. However, he is assigned Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) as a handler; a handler who doesn’t want to let Spider-Man spread his wings so to speak. Meanwhile, former city maintenance contractor Adrian Toombs (played with aplomb by Michael Keaton) has taken debris he stole after the Chitauri invasion of Earth in The Avengers and used it to build a mechanized flying suit and Chitauri based weaponry he is selling on the black market to petty criminals and drug dealers. This has financed quite an elaborate lifestyle for himself, but he needs to keep stealing Chitauri debris from the government to continue his enterprise which lead him into the path of Spider-Man. As Spider-Man wants to take on Toombs and his organization, he also faces the bigger challenges of trying to balance his life as a nascent superhero with the typical challenges of being a teenager and wanting to grow up and be his own person.

The challenges Parker meets in his day-to-day life, from keeping his identity secret from his aunt (Marisa Tomei) and his friends Ned and Michelle (Jacob Batalon & Zendaya), to wanting to act on his crush on pretty senior class decathlete Liz (Laura Harrier), are by far the strongest parts of the movie. Watts does a commendable job of marrying a superhero film with the harried teenage lives seen in the 80’s films of John Hughes, from Sixteen Candles to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Weird Science. A big part of why the film works as well as it does is because it focuses strongly on Peter Parker and his life; Spider-Man always seems like a costume Peter Parker wears because the script spends so much time on developing the character of Parker. Tom Holland makes this character come alive and his is by far the best cinematic portrayal of this character. The script also keeps Downey Jr.’s Iron Man in the film minimally; primarily as a mentor figure. By having Spider-Man solve his own problems and drive his own narrative, it makes the character that much stronger. Tony Stark often comes across in later Marvel films as a one-note self-centered lush and thankfully he is in the film just enough that his presence isn’t grating or detrimental to the film. Next to Holland’s Spider-Man, Keaton’s Adrian Toombs is the film’s most nuanced character. A compelling villain is one that can see themselves as the hero of their own story. Keaton’s Toombs certainly falls into this category. His character’s business is destroyed when the government and Stark Enterprises cancel a lucrative contract he successfully bid on and he builds a strong business to take care of his family afterwards; albeit one based on illegally selling the technology he has developed based on his illegal salvage. But he does it for his family and to try to get a big score so he can get out. In many ways, he’s an anti-hero; he’s certainly more of a relatable character than Deadpool given his circumstances. But Spider-Man sees his actions as the villainous ones they are, especially given the collateral damage his weapons wreak on the city. Holland and Keaton have a tremendous chemistry in the film and in one especially haunting scene later in the film, even echoes shades of Michael Mann’s cat and mouse game in the classic crime film Heat.

Spider-Man Homecoming is a welcome film into the Marvel Universe film canon, much better than this year’s earlier Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and one that recognizes that nailing a character and his world and recognizing why that character works is key in creating a successful film adaptation.