Probably one of my favorite Marvel films

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2018)

This Spider-Man movie is the first Spider-Man movie in the Marvel canon. The prior two Spider-Man franchises are irrelevant to this series. Spider-Man, introduced in Captain America: Civil War, is part of the final phase of the Marvel Universe leading up to Avengers: The Infinity War. Marvel wisely opted to skip the origin story of Spider-Man and instead, framed this film to be more of a coming of age tale for Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and his quest to become part of the Avengers. Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) is tasked with taking Peter under his wing. Of course, Peter only sees the glory of being a superhero and ends up taking on situations that are too big for him to handle on his own. He has to be bailed out by Iron Man on a couple different occasions. Peter seems to think that wearing the suit with all of its gadgets and fancy technology will bring him the tools he needs to be like idols Iron Man and Captain America--not realizing that there is much more too it than just fancy tools. One very poignant moment has Peter telling Tony that he is "nothing without the (spider-Man) suit." To which Tony responds very bluntly, "then you don't deserve to wear the suit." Tony is waiting for Peter to show something emotionally and mentally that proves to Tony and the rest of the Avengers that he has what it takes to be a viable member of the team.
Much of the film involves Peter trying to figure out what it means to be Spider-Man. It's more than just foiling bank robberies by wrapping people up in his web. He's also trying to figure out who he is. Feeling like he's wasting his time in high school, he struggles to make friends and to fit in with his peers. He faces many of the normal issues that teenagers - especially ones that are unique- face such as bullying, crushing on a girl who seems out of his league, trying to juggle academics with outside commitments, and so on.
Michael Keaton portrays "Vulture," the villain whom Peter encounters. Vulture is somewhat sympathetic as he seems more like someone who always gets the short end of the stick and is just trying to get a piece of the pie. But of course, he takes it too far.
Others in the cast involve: Marisa Tomei as Peter Parker's Aunt May; Gwyneth Paltrow appears as Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's assistant/girlfriend; Chris Evans reprises his role as Captain America appearing in educational PSA videos that Peter ends up watching during school; John Favreau reprises his role as Happy Hogan, head of security for the Avengers; and Disney star Zendaya plays one of Peter's classmates.