Finally! A Movie Deserving of Spider-Man

Rating: 8/10 (13 July 2017)

In my review for Cars 3, I called 2017 "the year of the franchise-fix". Spider-Man: Homecoming is more proof. Not that Marvel's universe didn't need fixing, but the webbed-wonder definitely did, with 3 straight duds under Sony Pictures. Peter Parker's homecoming to the company that made him a household name was clearly the right decision, as we're finally given a movie our friendly-neighborhood hero always deserved. Thankfully, they've foregone the unbearably overplayed origin story (bit by spider, uncle dies, blah-blah-blah) and instead swing right into the true essence of Spider-Man. The cast is a web of hilarious teachers, relatable students, and a plethora of quirky non-supers learning to live in a post-Avengers world. But Holland is (obviously) the center. Surpassing both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, he's the confident, funny, wide eyed, smart and awkward hero we always wanted in the red-and-blue tights. Even at age 21, Holland plays the first Peter that's believably a teenager, and the movie refreshingly leans in to that adolescence. Struggles with schoolwork, childish crushes on girls, and even naiveté in his heroism all shine through beautifully. So yes, this is yet another positive review of an MCU film. Even if the normal issues are here (weak villain motivations, confusing timeline), it still stand among the 12(!) of 16 movies within that franchise that I unabashedly recommend. Nearly ten years since Iron Man kicked it off, it seems the further we go into this world, the deeper we explore what the implications of superheroes in the real world looks like. And as one of the premier superheroes of all-time, Spider-Man deserves that treatment, and finally gets it in this, his best film yet.