The Mischievous Spider-Man

Rating: 10/10 (9 July 2017)

"Spider-Man: Homecoming" mixes what was great about the Tobey Maguire era along side the spider-man antics of the Andrew Garfield era to serve up a superhero movie that is the most true as it is fresh to the character ever since 2002's Spider-Man. Everything from the mundane things like Peter missing his web shots, running around in a field without tall structures, failing numerous times before fulfilling an objective, not having a love life yet unlike the previous film, and having the story focus solely on his journey to truly become spider- man is what sets this movie apart from everything that came before. It screams, breathes and feels like what spider-man should've been all these years, a 15 year old coming of age story with some spider-man.
No longer is the time where Peter Parker has already graduated high school and is almost in his adult life. No longer do we need to focus on this love story between Gwen Stacy or Mary Jane. This is a new era for spider-man, in the sense that he's no longer the only hero in the block and he can have other people help him. So the question now becomes, how can Peter Parker still be spider-man in this world of Avengers and countless supers? This is the main arc of the entire film wherein Peter now tries to prove himself as spider-man for Tony Stark. However, at the end, he learns that he doesn't need to prove that to anyone other than himself. This is the nuance this film brings in to the table, a kid who already tries to embody responsibility without needing another speech or death from Uncle Ben. Someone who constantly fails and isn't sure of what he should do in each scenario. A hero with a heart of gold and is vulnerable and still innocent to the things around him. Tom Holland's performance is the most naturalistic and deferential to the character and it shows. He IS the best combination of Peter Parker and spider-man even though you still may like Tobey for Peter or like Andrew for Spidey. Tom's portrayal shows a vulnerable and more heartfelt side to the character that you can resonate with every time he's on the screen. Michael Keaton serves as another addition to the low level and every day man turned villain in the Vulture because of the damage caused once again by the Avengers. The fact that this wasn't an origin movie made us love spider-man more. The first scene with him in the entire film immediately humanized and made him likable already. It goes to show that Marvel truly knows the character and is in safe hands. The scenes where spider-man was alone also were the complete highlights of the film. Despite him already being in this huge cinematic universe where anyone can possibly just show up and help him, the film still backtracks and show profound moments of Peter just being himself, talking to his new found AI friend Karen, or trapped in an unforgiving situation. It even has time to show the John Hughes inspired moments that add more than just "teenage angst" or "old and grown men writing dialogue that they think will relate to teenagers" type of stuff. The writers knew what they were doing and were able to provide a self-contained, non world-ending and separated yet still attached movie to the MCU much like what Ant-Man tried to do. It was also brilliant that we got to see more interaction between Tony and Peter, where we see more of how Tony reflects and projects himself on to Peter yet he wants him to be better than he ever was. It also feels like a passing on the torch because we know that Tony can only be in the MCU for so long and they need a definite flag bearer. The only gripe with the movie is how some of the side characters are brushed off without any meaningful or considerable act except for a few. Wonder Woman did it remarkably well with its side characters, but then again there is only so much you can do with an already over saturated universe that are already saturated with so many characters.
In the end, this film will probably stand the test of time after all the huge and extravagant Avengers films break out. This will be remembered as the connective tissue that brought some heart to it all.
Verdict: 4/5