It has some studio problems but it ended up being a great Spidey movie!

Rating: 8/10 (8 July 2017)

This movie is a solid entry into the MCU(or is it?). Tom Holland I thought couldn't get any better than he was in Civil War but he blows all expectations. He has to be the best portrayal of Spidey so far. He captured that innocence and comedic timing that perfectly sums up who Spider-Man is. His arc mirrors Tony Stark in a way of the whole "does the suit make the man", but it surprisingly still feels emotional enough and works for this movie. We've never seen the character exist in a larger world on film before and to see him grow as his own hero is a nice spin on the story. We don't have to go through the origin or Uncle Ben's prologue again but it rather takes time to focus on the most important aspect that both the Tobey Maguire and a Andrew Garfield films just gloss over. That he's a kid. He's way too young to be doing any of this but he does, and you see him struggle with that. In that sense it doesn't feel like a movie we've seen before . I just have to say too this movie is really funny. It utilizes the MCU connections well and gives a lot of fun opportunities for the writers. The story is a great start for the character, becoming apart of this larger world we know through the MCU, it's a throwback to the John Hughes genre of teen films and you totally believe that's what they were going for. Having Iron Man be his mentor in the background of the movie was a smart move and including Downey along with Faveru was fun as it should be. I was really excited to see Michael Keaton as Vulture and I was mostly satisfied. I liked the way his character was introduced and I do believe he's one of the more interesting Marvel villains so far but I almost wanted more time with him because of that. Hopefully it's not the last time we see him. This movie is solid overall and I absolutely think it's worth it for the third time rebooting him, you should definitely go see it. But wait. There are some problems I wanted to share. On a filmmaking level the biggest thing for me was pacing. The movie starts off so great, and then slows down a lot in the second half. There's a point where it feels like it halts and it doesn't really need too. On a casting level this is where the movie started to take hit points for me. The diversity in the cast is reallyyyyyyyy forced. The actor playing the friend is fine, and Zendaya is surprisingly funny, however the actress playing Liz and the actor playing Flash stuck out like a sore thumb. She was serviceable but not memorable which is not something you don't want out of your female love interest in a Spider-Man movie. And the actor playing Flash does a good job but he misses the point of the character and it just doesn't make any sense why they made him Guatemalan. It's very obvious they're trying to appeal to every market they can and it makes me question who was really making this movie? Sony or Marvel. My guess is Marvel was told to limit their participation on the movie but all the good stuff was on their part. However this is my BIGGEST issue with the movie and why I fear for the future of this franchise. It seems to step backwards to Sony's safety net. They shadow a lot of moments from the Rami films and I'm dying for someone to upload a comparison video because there's a lot of scenes that reminded me of the first two Rami films. And that post credits scene at the end just shows me that Sony clearly has their own agenda for the franchise and they don't want Marvel involved once this movie, or the next one makes them a billion dollars finally. Be careful Marvel fans, this movie is indeed good, but I'm still cautious about Sony because we all know what they can do. I just hope Tom Holland can keep up and not have to go through what Garfield did. Go support the movie but just know that once Sony gets their money they'll give Marvel the boot and start the Sinister 6 plan all over again. Guaranteed. And unfortunately I can't say I liked it more than Spider-Man 2, but it comes close really close.