Spider-Man: Homecoming

Rating: 8/10 (15 July 2017)

Tobey Maguire came first and pulled it off, Andrew Garfield came second and sort of took it backwards, then finally the web-slinging hero made his debut alongside the other Avengers in Captain America: Civil War, so of course he would get his new solo movie soon after, expectations were high. Basically following the Battle of New York, Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) and his salvage company are contracted to clean up the city, but the Department of Damage Control (D.O.D.C.), owned by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), takes over the operation. Before being stopped, Toomes and his team scavenged Chitauri technology, enraged being out of business, Toomes persuades his employees the keep and use these to create and sell advanced weaponry. Eight years later, Stark drafts Peter Parker aka Spider-Man (The Impossible's Tom Holland) into the Avengers to help with an internal dispute, but following the airport fight, Stark does not feel Parker is ready to become a full Avenger, so Parker resumes his studies at the Midtown School of Science and Technology. Parker quits his school's academic decathlon team to spend more time focusing on his crime-fighting activities as Spider-Man. One night, Parker prevents criminals robbing an ATM, using their advanced weaponry, after which he returns to his Queens apartment, where his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) discovers his secret identity. On another night, Parker nearly drowns intervening in a business deal, where Toomes' associates Jackson Brice aka Shocker (Logan Marshall- Green) and Herman Schultz (Bokeem Woodbine) are selling weapons to local criminal Aaron Davis (Donald Glover), Stark as Iron Man rescues him, he has been monitoring him with the Spider-Man suit he gave him, Stark warns Parker getting involved with dangerous criminals. Toomes accidentally kills Brice with one of the advanced weapons, Schultz becomes the new Shocker, Brice left behind a weapon, Parker and Ned study it and remove its power core, Parker rejoins the decathlon team as they travel to Washington, D.C., with the real agenda to follow a tracking device on Schultz, leading to Maryland. Ned and Parker disable the tracker Stark implanted in the Spider-Man suit, while Parker unlocks its advanced features, with the help of A.I. voice Karen (Jennifer Connelly). Parker tries to stop Toomes, as the Vulture, in a technologically advanced mechanical flying suit, from stealing weapons from a D.O.D.C. truck, but Parker is overpowered and trapped inside the truck, causing him to miss the decathlon national tournament. Parker races to races to the Washington Monument when he discovers the power core is an unstable Chitauri grenade, it explodes and traps Ned and their friends in an elevator, Spider-Man evades the authorities and saves his friends, including his fellow classmate and crush Liz (Laura Harrier). Returning to New York City, Spider-Man confronts Davis, who reveals Toomes' whereabouts, Parker is able to capture Toomes' new buyer Mac Gargan (Michael Mando) aboard the Staten Island Ferry, but Toomes escapes and a malfunctioning weapon tears the ferry in half, the passengers are saved with the help of Iron Man, but Stark is angered by Parker's recklessness and takes away the Spider- Man suit. Parker returns to his high school life, and eventually asks Liz to the homecoming dance, on the night of the dance he is shocked to discover Liz's father is Toomes, he in turn deduces Parker's secret identity, he threatens retaliation is he interferes with his plans. During the dance, the Avengers Tower is being emptied ready to move to the new headquarters, Parker realises Toomes plans to hijack a D.O.D.C. plane transporting weapons from the tower. Parker dons his old homemade Spider-Man suit, he is ambushed by Schultz at Toomes' lair, he defeats him with the help of Ned, Toomes then destroys the building's support beams and leaves Parker to die. Parker escapes the rubble, intercepts the D.O.D.C. plane, causing it to crash near Coney Island, Parker and Toomes fight, it ends with Parker saving Toomes from his own unstable equipment, he is left for the police, along with the plane's cargo. In the end Liz moves away after her father is arrested, Parker is invited by Stark to join the Avengers full time, he declines, but Stark returns his Spider-Man suit, Peter's Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) walks in just as he is putting his suit on., while in prison Toomes purposely denies to Gargan that he knows Spider-Man's real identity. Also starring Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Zendaya as Michelle, Tony Revolori as Flash, Tyne Daly as Anne Marie Hoag, Kenneth Choi as Principal Morita, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America and Stan Lee as Gary. British actor Holland proves the perfect choice to play the spirited and wise-cracking hero, Keaton does well as the villain, Downey Jr. is good supporting the lead hero, and there is good support from Tomei and Favreau, I think Zendaya deserves the biggest mention, brilliant comic relief as the hilariously snidey classmate. The story is clever, connecting the Avengers movies seen previously, there is no need to go into a Spider-Man origins story, it just gets straight to point, where the hero is trying to prove himself and save people whenever possible, and the special effects combined with exciting set pieces are fantastic, a most impressive superhero fantasy action adventure. Very good!