“Spider-Man: Homecoming” Review

Spider-Man (Tom Holland) tries to save students trapped inside of the Washington Monument in “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” the first film in the MCU to be focused on the wall-crawling hero from New York.

For many people, including myself, Spider-Man is their favorite Marvel superhero and that makes logical sense. Most of us discover comic book heroes when we’re children and Spider-Man is one of the few superheroes that is pretty young (his age ranging from a teenager to a 20-something in the comics) so many kids quickly identify with his troubles. His popularity led to three films starring Tobey McGuire as the web-slinger in the 2000s and two films starring Andrew Garfield in the 2010s. However, 2014’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” didn’t fare so well with critics, audiences and the box office. 

After this, Sony decided to partner with Marvel Studios, sharing Spider-Man with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After making a big splash in “Captain America: Civil War,” despite being in a small portion of the film, everyone was incredibly excited to see Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in his own solo film. While not quite as epic as previous Spider-Man films, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” was definitely a breath of fresh air for the character and showed a lot of promise for the MCU’s interpretation.

Set a few months after “Captain America: Civil War,” Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is trying to balance his life as a less-than-popular high school student in Queens and as a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. While he has an impressive suit designed by Parker’s idol and mentor Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Parker is growing restless stopping ordinary crime knowing that he could be doing so much more. When Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), begins using a flying suit to steal advanced technology and turn it into advanced weaponry, Spider-Man must take down “The Vulture” and prove that he’s more than just a kid. 

While the film does have its spectacular moments of action and the superhero life, much of the film is basically a high school comedy set around Peter Parker trying to balance two halves of himself. This change was something I really liked because we’ve seen our share of epic Spider-Man films and we’ve seen plenty of epic MCU films. It was a nice change of pace, especially now that we know how big Holland’s Spider-Man films would become with “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” 

As a high school comedy, it’s pretty funny with Parker trying to fit in and impress people, especially his crush Liz (Laura Harrier). He could be the biggest sports star in school but that would be a grave misuse of his powers and he knows that. Instead, he’s the nerdy guy that gets made fun of by his nemesis Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori). One interesting change towards the world of Spider-Man that I enjoyed is that his school is a STEM school. Parker isn’t made fun of because he’s a nerd. He’s just awkward. The rivalry Flash and Peter have isn’t the usual jock/geek thing that you’ve seen before, it’s more that Flash is jealous of Peter’s intellect. 

The film is full of changes to Spider-Man that I really enjoyed, especially since the film itself is breaking tradition by not being an origin story. We never see Uncle Ben get shot, there’s no scene where Peter gets bit by the spider because it’s all happened already. We’ve seen Spider-Man’s origins in a movie twice so this would be rehashing what the audience already knows. However, the film is set early on in his career as a superhero so he’s still got a lot to learn.

Tony Stark and Peter Parker’s relationship is excellent as Tony tries to teach him the ropes of being a hero and how to use his powers wisely.

Holland’s performance is remarkable and adds something new to the character which has already been portrayed twice by two great actors. As Peter Parker and Spider-Man, Holland captures the awkward yet endearing nature of this superhero as he begins to decide where his responsibilities lie. 

Guiding him are an exceptional supporting cast including Tony Stark, his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), the latter two find out Spider-Man’s true identity in pretty funny ways. While a big draw to the film was that Iron Man would be in it, he’s not a huge part of the story. But the moments where he does appear are pretty meaningful as he wants Parker to slowly earn his way to being an Avenger. 

As The Vulture, Michael Keaton is impressive and his civilian persona, Adrian Toomes, is given a lot of depth. While he’s a criminal, Toomes is making weapons to provide for his family and values them above everything. While Peter wants to stop him, matters are complicated when it’s revealed that Toomes is the father of Peter’s crush Liz. 

When Toomes finds out that Peter is Spider-Man and his daughter’s date to the homecoming dance (every supervillain parent’s worst nightmare), he has a tense conversation with Peter where he says that he admires Spider-Man’s crime fighting activities but he won’t hesitate to kill him if Spider-Man tries to stop his livelihood. After Kurt Russell’s Ego in “Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2,” Michael Keaton’s Vulture and, later in 2017, Cate Blanchett’s Hela in “Thor: Ragnarok,” Marvel movie villains that lived up to the heroes they fought were no longer the exception. They were the norm. 

Being a teenager, Parker can’t wait and bites off more than he can chew when he tries to take on The Vulture and his goons as they’re doing a weapons deal on the Staten Island Ferry. During the fight, a weapon slices the ship in half and it nearly sinks with everyone on board until Iron Man comes and puts the ship back together. In one of the film’s more emotional scenes, Tony balls out Peter citing his carelessness. When Peter says that he wanted to be just like his hero, Tony replies “I wanted you to be better.” He then takes away the suit, leaving Peter to take down The Vulture with his wits and his old, homemade Spider suit. 

Michael Keaton’s Vulture not only has impressive technology, but also a threatening presence that makes him a worth opponent for Spider-Man.

Having Peter stripped of his technology makes for a pretty intense ending as The Vulture has all of these technological marvels while Parker just has his powers but not much control over them. Before The Vulture engages in his climatic heist, stealing Avengers artifacts from a cargo plane, he traps Spider-Man under a collapsed building, leaving the web-slinger to scream and cry for help. When he summons the strength to lift the rubble, that’s when I knew that Holland was going to be a great Spider-Man. 

Ultimately, Parker learns about responsibility and how he has to maintain his life as a superhero as well as his everyday life. In all three MCU Spider-Man films, we see him learn that “with great power, comes great responsibility” but it's done in different ways, never feeling like he’s being taught the same lesson over and over. 

Over the course of the film, Spider-Man grows as a hero not only through his personal journey, but also as a warrior in some fantastic action scenes. When his class finds themselves trapped in an elevator about to collapse in the Washington Monument, it’s really the first time that this Spider-Man does anything monumental when it comes to saving people. While Iron Man has to bail him out, the way Spider-Man takes on The Vulture on the Staten Island Ferry is riveting along with all of the film’s action. 

My biggest problem that I used to have with the film was that it felt a bit too small in scale. While I liked the high school comedy element, I was looking for something more epic. What I didn’t know was that director Jon Watts, producer Kevin Fiege, the screenwriters and everyone who worked hard to make Spider-Man a part of the MCU were slowly building up to something epic. We just had to wait four years for the full picture. On its own, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” was a fun introduction to this character that we all love and it would lead to one of the best film series within the MCU.