After rocky years and a brilliant tease, a return to form for our favorite web-slinger

Rating: 8/10 (6 July 2017)

We live in a golden age of superhero films, where we can have not only cinematic universes and iconic renditions of favorite characters, but also multiple iconic performances of the same hero.
Of course, as we well know, Spider-Man has had his up years and down years, so how does this latest visit from our friendly neighborhood web-head stack up?
Well, first off, Sam Raimi's trilogy of Spidey films defined a generation of fans, and after Tobey Maguire's brilliant performances (emo dancing not-withstanding) any actor can only succeed him, never replace. Andrew Garfield's two films, while they had their moments and he did an adequate job, just couldn't stand up to Maguire's legacy.
Now, in Tom Holland's first solo venture, we have a worthy successor.
We all wanted to see more after his brilliant introduction in Captain America: Civil War, and we got it. Set two months after the events of that film, Spider-Man: Homecoming finds Peter struggling to find his place in a world where he is considered a superhero but he's still a high school sophomore, with all the social awkwardness that comes with it.
Juggling between his high school friend Ned's incessant fanboying after he discovers Peter's secret identity (it was in the trailers), his neighborhood crime fighting turned serious with the appearance of Michael Keaton as Vulture, and his quest to gain approval in the eyes of Tony Stark, Peter Parker has his hands full, and he barely holds it together for most of it until finally things come to a head and we get what we all want from a Marvel film with the added bonus of it being a good Spider-Man movie.
It's only been twelve years since the last really good one!
In short, this film delivers on the patented MCU formula well, with a few twists. Mainly, that this is sort of an origin story without it being an origin story, and it doesn't rely heavily on any characters that were established in previous films other than Parker. Indeed, Tony Stark only appears in three scenes that lasted no more than ten minutes total.
While this film does have issues, mainly the fact that twists are fairly clearly telegraphed and some of the dialogue that is supposed to be purposefully on the nose for comedic value falls flat, they are minor compared to the overall product.
Spider-Man is back, and he is here to stay for a good while longer!