Spiderman Homecoming Review

Spiderman Homecoming Review

It’s impossible to divorce Spiderman Homecoming from the circumstances of its creation. After Sam Raimi’s Spiderman 1&2 were excellent, 3 was merely okay and then the miserable Amazing Spiderman 1+2 came on to the scene, it was hard to deal with the fact that the world’s most popular superhero wasn’t going to be good on the silver screen again. Then, Sony and Marvel managed to come together just before Captain America: Civil War to bring the webslinger back to our screens as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, we get a Co-production, where Sony and Marvel have combined efforts to get Peter Parker back to come “home” with Marvel. The strain on the production to get everything under one umbrella shows.

Spiderman Homecoming. It’s a little rushed, slightly scrappy, but it’s a good Spiderman film nonetheless.

Spiderman Homecoming

Sony clearly wanted to layer as much Spiderman mythology into the MCU as possible, while they had the chance. While this had every chance to go wrong, the end result is a smorgasbord of Spiderman villains appearing in convincingly small scale roles. You’ve got your shockers, your scorpions, your tinkerers. They even throw some hints about other Spiderverse characters that are (I guarantee) a long way off from appearing. While these crooks won’t be going toe to toe with Thor or Hulk, they finally give us the bank heist level criminal that has been absent from the MCU thus far.

Michael Keaton is the real scene stealer though. Spiderman Homecoming is credited with one of the better MCU villains, with a realistic and believable reason to start a career as a criminal super villain. He’s also brings some real screen presence to the film, delivering a sterling performance as he vamps up his evil ways. In particular, his scenes with Tom Holland’s Parker have a very sympathetic quality to them as both characters are acting out of believable motivations.

On that note, Holland’s Parker is endearing, with just the right amount of sad sack uncertainty about himself for a 15 year old dweeb. His quips are spot on, his bumbling is appropriate and the panic fronted confidence that defines Spiderman is on full display. He does a great job here. Overall the writing is mostly fine. There’s a couple of gags that feel a little over forced, and there’s ever so slightly more Tony Stark in the plot that I would have preferred.

In particular, while Robert Downey Jr is definitely not phoning the performance in, his big energy and screen presence kind of take the wind out of the story. I found myself rooting for Peter Parker a lot more in his homemade spider suit than playing with Stark tech toys. Holland and Downey Jr do have great chemistry, capturing the wide eyed devotee and mentor relationship well. It’s just that, barring the end of the film, I could have done with a little less.

Holland and Jacob Batalon as Parker’s best friend Ned have a realistic back and forth that encapsulates their friendship in a believable way. Batalon does great work as the audience stand in for exposition, but he does get his own narrative arc to follow with excellent pay off by the end.

Zendaya as their friend Michelle gets a lot of screentime, with almost every line spoken by her being a pointed gag. She feels like she’s being painted in broad strokes in preparation for the sequel though. Lots of general character outlines, with only hints of depth. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a little obvious.

This criticism of the writing also extends to Marissa Tomei as Aunt May. Tomei does a fine job with what she’s given. She has plenty of scenes where her “hotness” is remarked on by bit characters or Tony Stark, which start to wear a bit. It’s mostly annoying, as in the one scene where it’s clear that May has a lot going on under the surface , she’s a delight. He Character is laced with an unspoken fear about the death of Uncle Ben driving her to protect Peter. Parts of this peek through, but it doesn’t really come across well through what we see on screen. The real problem is that the movie lacks weight. It’s more of a character piece about Peter/Spiderman where the superhero action elements are battling for time with the fun teen adventure comedy elements.

Spiderman Homecoming

Spiderman Homecoming is a chance for the audience to learn all about this “new” Spiderman and his world. Beyond franchise building, It feels like what they were aiming for is a snowballing effect for the plot. Peter Parker’s mistakes and deceits all pile up one on top of the other. It’s classic Spiderman, and classic 80s teen movie, trope where one little lie leads to other lies and suddenly the plot is barreling past naturally. Here it doesn’t quite work out that way. Peter just kind of meanders through the plot, having very little impact of substance until the end.

I can understand that this version of Spiderman is going for a much younger, much less weighed down with guilt version of the hero. Instead of wrestling with loss and failure, this version deals with his inadequacy complex in the face of having these powers. That’s a very interesting version of the character to be sure. It’s just also a lot harder to convey while also trying to make an action comedy film in the trappings of an 80s teen movie.

Speaking of , one thing I was a little disappointed in, the action scenes. Especially considering how visually entertaining Spiderman was in Captain America: Civil War, the action in Spiderman Homecoming doesn’t look good. There are several scenes that I would be willing to bet storyboarded incredibly well. In particular, a sequence on a plane has the potential to show off some really cool effects.

But.

The problem is the director isn’t willing to let the action sell itself. Everything is quick. It’s all sharp cuts and sweeping cameras. Vulture has a monstrous yet cool looking costume. It does a fantastic job of blending the comics/realism aesthetic that’s defined the MCU. In fights, they even come up with some really cool ways to show it off. Except the audience gets to see flashes of this as he flies past in split seconds. The camera does a good job of selling that the main hero and villain are lightning quick, and it deserves credit for that. They just don’t seem to have any power behind that, which robs the film of good action scenes.

Spiderman Homecoming Fight

What makes this really frustrating is that all of the Teen Movie scenes in the School and so on are bright, colourful and delightful to watch. Part of this is the casting, where the school and crowd scenes have been filled with a hugely diverse crowd of extras and side characters. These fill the screen with energy in a way that conveys the hustle and bustle of a believable movie high school. I’d actually have loved more of these scenes and less suit powers testing or Spiderman “hangs off something” chase scenes.

They liberally use tropes and references to 80s teen comedies as a visual language to get across what’s going on and a deeper use of this could have been something truly great. Instead there’s a lot of lip service that doesn’t quite balance out the split between action and comedy.

I’m being quite negative here, and that’s not fair on Spiderman Homecoming. I did actually quite like it. Like I’ve said, the cast is excellent, the writing does have some genuinely great moments. The actors are doing their best with a script and plot that maybe could have done with another month of tinkering.

When taken as part of the whole, even the action scenes have their parts that stand out. I suppose the issue is that I still consider the train scene in Spiderman 2 as one of the pinnacles of Superhero films. So seeing this film get within touching distance of genuinely cool ideas and stories is frustrating. Because it never quite makes it there.

So go see Spiderman Homecoming. It’s fun and easy to watch. It just never quite makes it to bring great.