"With great POWER......comes a GREAT f#%king movie!!!."

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2017)

'Spider-Man: Homecoming' unleashes a whole new bag of tricks as the webcrawler swings his way back onto the silver-screen, but this time......he's (finally) part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With Sam Raimi's 2002 film and it's sequel being the most highly praised incarnations of the character, does Spidey have a successful rebooted homecoming?
1. Following the events of 'Captain America: Civil War', Peter Parker (Tom Holland) returns home (after his bout with the Avengers) to fight crime in his neighborhood of Queens NY with a brand new/hi- tech spidey-suit courtesy of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) himself. Eager to impress Mr. Stark and join the Avengers, Peter unexpectedly crosses paths with the ruthless Vulture (Michael Keaton) and his associates, who are hell-bent on stealing parts and manufacturing advanced weaponry to sell on the black market for millions. For the most part, I had no problem whatsoever with the plot and found myself utterly compelled by the story even though it was quite simple.
2. As much of the Tobey MaGuire fan I am, all props to Tom Holland. He highly impressed me with his short stint in 'Civil War', but now he has proved why he is the definitive Spider-Man. Never before has the character been this true to his comic-book incarnation. Holland portrays him with just the right amount of humor, quirkiness and level of emotion that the character of Peter Parker truly is. Even though you see him appear in all the trailers, Robert Downey Jr. isn't in a majority of the film as it would seem. He serves just the right amount of screen-time while playing the pivotal role of Peter's mentor. Also, Zendaya's character of Michelle doesn't have a large role in this either.
3. She obviously will play a bigger role in the sequel, but as for now, she gets about several minutes of screen-time total. Laura Harrier (Liz) however, is more of the female lead in this (next to Marisa Tomei), as Peter's love-interest. Jacob Batalon fills the comedic shoes as Peter's best friend Ned. The two have great chemistry and they both add most of the humor in this film. Jon Favreau returns as Happy Hogan, who's job this time around is to baby-sit and monitor Peter to ensure he doesn't get himself into trouble......which he ultimately does lol. The main thing is that they all feel like real people dealing with real-life problems at times which everyone can relate to.
4. You can't have a great Hero without a great villain, and Michael Keaton hits a home-run as the film's antagonist Adrian Toomes/The Vulture. He's scary, ruthless and yet you still sympathize for him when you learn about his motives. Apart from Sebastian Stan as 'The Winter Soldier', Keaton stands out as one of the better villains the MCU has delivered thus far. Bokeem Woodbine appears as the secondary antagonist Herman Sholtz/The Shocker, and there are hints of other popular Spider-Man villains, but this review is spoiler free so I won't name them of course:) As shown in the trailers, Chris Evans does make a few cameo appearances as Steve Rogers/Captain America, but only in some funny P.E. instructional videos.
5. The dialogue is very humorous as it should be and the editing gives the film a nice flow to where I didn't feel the length. All of the action sequences were surprisingly great, especially scenes with the Vulture. It's fun to watch Spidey screw up, but he is amazing when it comes to all his spectacular stunts and web-slinging. The film isn't flawless though. Marisa Tomei felt underwritten to where she was a little too forgiving of her nephew's suspicious behavior/antics and once again, she never comes across as anyone's aunt. The climax was great, although I felt it refused to take an emotional approach and instead ended it generically. The very last scene of the film was pretty cheesy to be honest.
The movie sets up a (respective) sequel but it doesn't aim toward 'Infinity War' as one might think. There is an unexpected cameo by a female character with hints of previous MCU films throughout, so pay attention. Director Jon Watts does an excellent job here, and this is the kind of superhero flick that I would pay to see again.