SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING review

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

starring Tom Holland, Michael Keaton and Robert Downey Jr. 

directed by Jon Watts

A review by Helen J. Reynolds


Spider-Man is a familiar (masked) face by now, with a long string of films to his name. With the Avengers adding him in their super-gang, Hollywood felt compelled to introduced us, again, to the friendly, neighbourhood spidey.



This time, we don’t witness Peter Parker (Tom Holland) transformation from geeky boy to spider-enhanced hero. Instead, we step right in his Vlog, on the mission filmgoers will already have seen him complete in Captain America: Civil War. It makes for a refreshing change in the formula and is indicative of the rest of the movie.



Everything about Spider-Man: Homecoming is familiar yet unfamiliar. There’s high-school drama, crushes, geekiness (see Lego Deathstar) and, of course, bad guys to chase. The filmmakers do a clever trick in telling you the same story, but with fresh eyes.


The bad guys even have believable motivations, with no need for long, angsty speeches. The beginning of the movie sets all the characters up (both good and bad), with such precise story-telling. Michael Keaton is excellent as the working-class man turned evil entrepreneur, and the weaponry he uses is not only impressive but an important plot device.

There’s a nice balance of humour mixed with the high-stakes of good vs. evil. Spider-Man is eager to fill his suit, but still a goofy kid and there are many moments for the audience to worry for him as he tries to fast-forward his experience level. In fact, the action sequences are pretty traumatic for a superhero movie. Ceilings come crashing down on him, explosions throw out his hearing, and elevator shafts almost break him – totally normal for those with superpowers, but, somehow, they feel experienced more by Peter Parker than by Spider-Man.

Iron-Man makes sporadic appearances, as do other famous faces, but this is completely Spider-Man’s story. We might have heard it before, but this version is young, fun and necessarily modern. The only negative is that perhaps the ending takes too much influence of other superhero movies in that it’s unnecessarily long, not matching with the fast-paced tone of the earlier set-up.

Overall, this one’s actually worth the money Hollywood keeps plugging into reboots.

A combination of:
Captain America: Civil War (2016) 
Deadpool (2016)
Spider-Man (2002)
 

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