Spiderman's Solo Debut in the MCU

Rating: 8/10 (10 July 2017)

Spiderman Homecoming is the long-awaited Spiderman movie from Marvel Studios. This is the sixth Spiderman film and the third Spiderman continuity in the last fifteen years. That's crazy! After the disappointment that was the Amazing Spiderman 2, Sony was finally desperate enough to share the rights to Spiderman with Marvel Studios. Many have been waiting for Spiderman's big solo debut in the MCU. Was it worth the wait? In my opinion it was.
Is Homecoming the best Spiderman film to date? In my honest opinion, no. I think Sam Raimi's Spiderman 2 is still the best Spiderman film we've gotten so far. I might even enjoy the first Spiderman movie by Raimi more, even though Homecoming is objectively a better film. Homecoming is still a good movie though. It's definitely better than Spiderman 3 and TASM films.
With that being said, I think Tom Holland is the best portrayal of Spiderman we've seen yet. I like Tobey McGuire alright, didn't care for Andrew Garfield, but really like Holland. He embodies Peter's shy insecure side and his confident witty side as Spiderman perfectly.
The plot is very simple. A villain who calls himself the vulture is stealing and building alien tech, left behind from the Avengers, to sell on the black market. Spiderman must stop him while dealing with the trials of high school life and try to prove himself to his mentor Tony Stark.
It hits all the beats of a typical MCU film. It's lighthearted and fun, but gets serious when it needs to. It's your typical stop the bad guy shtick. If you've gotten sick of the Marvel formula you might be bored by this film, but if it's a formula that works there's no need to fix it. Plus, Spiderman, more than any other marvel character, fits with this formula. This is very much how the classic Spiderman stories were told.
What works about this movie, besides Tom Holland's performance, was the villain played by Michael Keaton. As MCU villains go he's really good. He's not my favorite. I still think Loki and Zemo are the best MCU villains so far, but Vulture is still fun. This is to be expected, as Spiderman has one of the best rogues gallery in all of comics, along with Batman. I also like this film's version of Mary Jane. It's a very unique take on the character, and she was fun.
The effects naturally were great. You can always expect above average effects in an MCU property. The action was also fun. I still think the action Spiderman 2 and the first Spiderman was the best, but the action here was definitely on par, if not better than the fight scenes in TASM movies.
Now we get to my personal gripes with the movie. First of all, with the exception of MJ, I felt the supporting cast was weak. I did not care for Peter's best friend, who was the obvious comic relief. Occasionally he got a laugh, but mostly I found him irritating. The love interest is generic and forgettable. The other supporting characters aren't even worth mentioning.
The film was a bit too long as well, and felt very padded in places. Not to mention the story is entirely predictable. You know pretty much how everything will play out. The music was there, but it was not that memorable at all. I had the same issue with the score in TASM movies. The music in the Raimi films was amazing and you could easily listen to it by itself.
Overall, if you were excited for Spiderman's solo outing in the MCU this film should give you what you were expecting. Tom Holland is the best Spiderman yet, the villain is fun, and the action and effects are above average. The supporting cast is weak, and the film can drag, but the film is still a really solid Spiderman and MCU film.