A breath of fresh air for Marvel's prodigal son.

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2020)

Following the massive underperformance of the Amazing Spiderman 2 in 2014, Sony Pictures was in a difficult position as while the Spiderman films were still making good money at the box-office, something needed to be done to shake things up on the filmmaking side of things as the company had no intent to sell the Spiderman rights to Marvel due to their own financial problems but with fan support for Peter Parker to join the MCU growing louder, it became obvious that Sony would need help with the future of Spiderman on film. As it turned out, Marvel Studios was already willing to lead Sony a helping hand long before any of their shared universe plans could be put into motion. Due to their grip on the Spiderman merchandise, Disney was far more willing to promote the Spiderman films that Sony was making then they were with the X-Men and Fantastic 4 films 20th Century Fox were making at the time. Nevertheless, Marvel still had an interest in binging the webhead into their cinematic universe in order to provide a strong foundation for the MCU after the end of Phase 3. Despite being reluctant to work with Marvel, Sony head honchos Tom Rothman and Amy Pascal decided that a deal where Spiderman would appear in an MCU film in return for an MCU character making a camo in one of their Spiderman spin-off films would be perfect as this would allow Marvel Studios to produce a trio of Spiderman films for Sony all while allowing them to maintain creative control, marketing, and distribution as well as breathing new life back into the brand. However, a massive rift of corporate safety was about to force Sony to make a deal between them and Marvel.
In December 2014, the Seth Rogan and James Franco buddy comedy The Interview was released and given that the film's plot dealt with the assassination of North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, it was deemed insulting by the North Korean government which led to a group of hackers called The Guardians of Peace taking action against Sony by stealing a large number of files from the company and even went so far as to threaten terrorist action if the film was released. While a wealth of information on Sony and its upcoming slate of films were leaked to the public, the most important impact of this was that the future of Spiderman on film was about to change. Once the information of Sony's discussions with Marvel about Spidy joining the greater MCU went pubic, fan support for Peter Parker appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe grew louder as more pressure was put on Sony to make a deal with Marvel Studios. In January of 2015, the higher-ups at Sony were interested in holding a meeting with the heads of Marvel Studios in order to have a clearer idea of where they wanted to go with their Spiderman films. Sony chairperson Amy Pascal suggested that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige be invited to the meeting but once the Sony hack occurred, Kevin's presence at the meeting became a necessity in order to give the meeting a little more direction and to put more of a focus on bringing Spiderman into the MCU. In February of 2015, both Marvel and Sony announced that they would be sharing custody of Spiderman and while Sony Pictures would still retain the Spiderman film rights but they would be allowed to the MCU characters into the films they co-produced with Marvel Studios and maintain a certain degree of creative control while Marvel would be allowed to use Spiderman and his supporting cast in the MCU for 5 films starting with the character being rebooted within the confines of the cinematic universe but Sony would also be allowed to make solo films that wouldn't necessarily tie into the MCU thus allowing them to make their own stand-alone shared universe.
Now, as someone who isn't a massive Spiderman fan, I was quite excited when I heard the news that a new Spiderman film would be apart of the MCU and upon seeing the trailer for Spiderman: Homecoming, I was pumped to see it so In July of 2017, I went to see it with a friend of mine and after watching the film, I can say that despite a few small issues, Spiderman Homecoming is a fantastic return to form for the character of Spiderman and while it does lack the strong cinematic punches the first two Sam Raimi films have, I still genuinely love this movie.
The film begins following the aftermath of The Avengers where salvage worker Adrian Toombs and his team are cleaning up the left-overs from the Battle of New York but when the Department of Damage Control arrives and force Toombs and his gang out of business, Adrian decided to sell the Chitauri tech they've salvaged and use it in selling advanced weapons. We when fast forward 8 years later to Peter Parker after the events of Captain America: Civil War. After aiding Tony Stark in Germany, Peter continues his high-school education while also focusing on fighting crime in his neighborhood as Spiderman. However, while foiling a bank heist one night, Peter has a run-in with criminals using weapons Toombs sold them, and another night, Parker has a run-in with Adrian's gang as they sell weapons to local criminal Aaron Davis. n the ensuing fight, Peter is almost killed but is saved by Tony who warns him not to interfere with the gang. Now, Peter must prove his worth as an Avenger while also juggling his high-school and family life as Toombs threats everything Peter loves.
In essence, Spiderman: Homecoming is basically two films that are efficiently set up by the title alone. In the plainest sense, it's basically a teen coming-of-age story that just happens to be set against the background of a Marvel superhero film. More than some other entries in the recent superhero film boom, Homecoming is very clearly a young adult film but not in the vein of Twilight or the Mortal Instruments. It's Spiderman if directed by John Hughes with all the clichÃ©s and customs of the genre as seen through the arch of a teen film. As such, the homecoming aspect refers to not only Peter Parker's place as a high school student but also signifies the character's return to the greater Marvel film universe. In a more symbolic sense, Spiderman: Homecoming is the story of bringing Peter Parker into the larger MCU that began with Iron Man back in 2008 but it also honors the deal forged between Sony and Marvel. Both sides of the film work to each other's advantage as the first half serve as a John Hughes Spiderman film while the other half serves as a nice tie-in to the Avengers and Captian America: Civil War. To add to that, The first Avengers film is very much a fixation for Spiderman: Homecoming as it's showing us that the first scene of the film doesn't focus on Peter Parker or Spiderman but rather the aftermath of the Battle of New York. The second shot the viewer sees is of Avengers Tower in it's ruined state along with a drawing that symbolizes Peter's longing to join the Avengers as well as reflecting Peter's dream of joining the likes of Iron Man and Thor and it is this fantasy that will challenge Peter later on in the film.
Now, in all honesty, Spiderman's journey to the MCU is a long and difficult one. In the mid-1990s when Marvel Comics had filed for bankruptcy, they had no choice but to sell off the film rights to many of their most beloved characters to film studios. Sony got Spiderman and Ghost Rider while The X-men, Fantastic 4, and Daredevil were all stanched up by 20th Century Fox. In a lot of ways, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was built on the backs of a bunch of B and C list superheroes, characters that no film studio wanted, and that not a lot of people were familiar with. Basically, the success of Blade in 1998, Bryan Singer's X-men in 2000 and Sam Raimi's Spiderman in 2002 predate the MCU by a decade and showed that comic book films could be so much more than just campy action but once Iron Man was released in 2008, Marvel Studios soon become a force to reckoned with in the Hollywood landscape and after being bought by Disney in 2009, they went from being an underdog to being one of the biggest studios in Hollywood. This high-octane shift changed the superhero game so much that Marvel started grabbing the film and TV rights to unwanted characters like the Punisher and Daredevil and after the purchase of Fox's entertainment division in 2017, the X-Men and Fantastic Four. By the time Sony rebooted Spiderman in 2012, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was such a powerhouse in the world of cinema that where was even talk of having the Oscorp Tower show up in the first Avengers film but, it didn't pan out and Spiderman remained disconnected from the greater MCU for the time being.
So following the underperformance of the second Amazing Spiderman film and the firing of Andrew Garfield, Sony was left with ether recasting the role of Peter Parker, rebooting the series again or working with Marvel Studios, and while many Sony executives wanted to keep Spiderman out of the MCU, coming for a shared custody agreement with Kevin Feige and the rest of the Marvel creative team was the best possible course of action both companies could have made as even if Sony had continued on with the own Spiderman shared universe, I feel that Sony would have over-saturated the market with Spiderman films and spin-offs which would have led to moviegoer fatigue and continuing diminishing returns on investments so I personally feel the deal between Marvel and Sony works both ways even if the temporary split between the two companies last year resulted in Spiderman almost being yanked out of the MCU but thankfully cooler heads prevailed and for the time being, Spiderman is back home at Marvel.
Now, unlike what some Spiderman fans might claim, there's absolutely nothing wrong with having Spiderman join the larger MCU as it allows the filmmakers to create their own story that still fits within the confines of the world that has already been built for the Avengers and their associates. After all, ever since Spiderman's debut i