Not perfect, but still a lot of fun.

Rating: 8/10 (8 June 2019)

I have to hand it to people who make superhero movies. They face considerable challenges, not the least of which is the streak of 'sameness' at the heart of many superhero story lines. You know how it goes: 1. We meet the superhero before they are a hero and see how they became a superhero 2. We meet the super villain and see why they became a villain 3. The superhero meets the public and all is good 4. The superhero meets the villain and now it's not so good 5. The superhero suffers some defeat or disgrace and accompanying confidence crisis and the public aren't so enamoured any more. 6. The superhero gets his/her act together and defeats the villain after all.
To be sure, some superhero movies break this pattern, but most follow it in some way or another. The trick is to follow the pattern in a way that is new, fresh and worth people spending their money to see. Spider-Man Homecoming manages to do that by making Peter Parker/Spiderman a fresh faced 15 year old being mentored by an older, avuncular Tony Stark. Of course, Spiderman isn't played by a 15-year old. Tom Holland is about 6 years older than that. It would have made more sense to say Spiderman was 18-years old, but oh well.... He is good in the role though and I look forward to seeing him in the sequel(s). Michael Keaton makes a pretty good villain too. He is intelligent and menacing. The story is also good.
There are some flaws with this movie though. It doesn't stick to established Spiderman canon for a start. Tony Stark was never Spiderman's mentor and Spidey's suit was never like the one in this movie. Also, Spidey's spider sense never shows up. Spiderman purists will be disappointed. There is also some pretty bad CGI. By 'bad' I mean it is obviously fake. We know these movies couldn't exist without CGI, but the trick is to not make it look like CGI. This movie doesn't always do that successfully. One of the biggest bugbears for me though was the way the Spiderman canon was unnecessarily changed to make it more racially diverse. Flash Thompson, a big, muscly, dopey jock in the comics, is a weedy, cowardly Indian here. MJ, Peter's girlfriend, is supposed to be a bright, vivacious red-head. Here she is a sullen, smart alec African-American. Worse still, she is played by the totally dreary Zendaya. I hope she's not going to stick around for future movies. I would have preferred to see Zendaya and Laura Harrier, who plays Liz, swap roles. Still, in spite of its flaws, Spider-Man Homecoming is fun and not a bad way to spend two hours or so.