Spider-Man: Homecoming: Review

Spider-Man Homecoming is a wonderful re-introduction to everyone’s favourite neighbourhood hero that doesn’t feel ham-fisted or cheesy.

Spider-Man, as a character, has had a rough time. As an IP he’s been tossed between multiple studios and in the last 20 years, there have been five movies, including this one. Two of those movies were good. Two of them were awful.

This one is incredible.

Tom Holland brings something to the screen we haven’t seen in Peter Parker before. That thing is a comfortable screen presence. Andrew Garfield wasn’t fooling anyone playing Parker. The broody, crying nature of those movies bugged fans because that isn’t what the character is about. He’s an awkward teen, who just wants to help. The over-arching villain thing works for the Avengers. It works for the X-Men.

Spider-Man however?

He’s a kid who is still trying to control his powers and is hungry for more responsibility and it’s here that we hit the plot.

After the events of Civil War in 2016, Parker has returned to New York, living out his double life as a super-hero and an awkward teen. The revamp of most of the characters works wonderfully here. With Aunt May being a cool and oddly attractive (played by Marisa Tomei) and Mary-Jane being somewhat of a side character, everything is set up perfectly.

Our bad guy is one Adrian Toomes or the Vulture. After the events of the attack on New York in The Avengers, he goes rogue after being denied working on the clean-up job by a Stark owned firm. He then begins to make weapons out of alien technology and sell them to keep his family going.

Michael Keaton is a fantastically sympathetic villain. You get why he’s gone a bit mad. Why he just wants to finish his work.

Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr also makes an appearance, which I was concerned about initially. His role is fairly minimal, however, with the focus solely being on Peter Parker.

Probably one of my favourite movies of the year, given how much respect is shown for the characters and the source material. Here’s to Holland being in future movies!