Tom Holland soars but Marvel stumbles

Rating: 7/10 (8 July 2017)

Marvel has had a dream run with exciting, engaging films until meddling with the latest reboot of Spider-Man. Instead of expanding the universe, this ho-hum exercise in Marvel franchising wastes the considerable talents of Tom Holland while working an increasingly tired Iron-Man tone into proceedings. The film is salvaged by the performers from Michael Keaton to Zendaya, who are able to bring an engagement the Marvel heavy footprints crush with their self-serving empire building.
The story is deliberately Lo-Fi, aiming for a point of difference within the recent film history by scaling back the action and emotions. This works surprisingly well in the high school and home settings but undermines the intensity of set-piece sequences which, instead of building the excitement, come off as distinctly average CGI scenes. DC took the lead for me in Super-Hero movie magic with Wonder Woman, combining action, drama and emotion with intensity. The problem with Spider-Man Homecoming is the lack of potency for the plot development, the investment doesn't have great pay-offs.
On the plus side, letting the film be better than it deserves to be, Tom Holland does make Spider-Man his own character despite the teen-movie conventions and Marvel tyranny. The refreshing take on Peter Parker's high school friends works in the film's favour with good performances from the young cast, especially Zendaya. Michael Keaton does well to add dimensions to a fairly standard villain. Maris Tomei, however, isn't quite right as Aunt Mae which is a script and plotting issue rather than a performance one.
The production has made much of the local setting being true to the comics, but the lack of narrative drive takes away from the many promising elements. It's not a bad film, just an average one. It lacks genuine threat, suspense, tension and engaging excitement. Thankfully, the cast push this one beyond the Marvel Franchise limitations, offering hope for future films.