SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

 

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017)

Directed by Jon Watts

Written by Jonathan M. Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers

Starring Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey, Jr., Jacob Balaton, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, and Laura Harrier

Rated PG-13

Okay, another quick, even more off-the-cuff than usual one here because this weekend...everything went wrong.

But a week or two ago I took in this movie for the second time so it's fresh enough to blather on about for a minute and I'm really challenging myself to make this a habit again.

On to the blathering....

Spider-Man is my favorite comic-book hero. I remember picking up Spidey comics as far back as kindergarten. Spider-Man and Batman were my jam and they're still my two faves even tho finances and space finally put an end to my regular comic buying a few years back - and even then a few years later than they should have.

I've seen many of cartoon iterations (and still harbor a crush for Angelica "Firestar" Jones) and of course enjoy the heck out of the 1970s Nicholas Hammond-led TV series.

Now we have this latest, fifth live-action Spidey movie and the third 'reboot' in what? Fifteen years? How does this version match up against the others? Well, let's see....

There were many things I liked about the Tobey McGuire 'Spider-Man' movies. There were things I liked about the the Andrew Garfield 'Amazing Spider-Man' movies. None of them, however, got everything right. I liked McGuire's Peter Parker but his Spidey was too serious. Garfield's Parker never seemed outcast/nerdy enough but at least his webhead cracked wise once in awhile. 

This movie gets much closer to "my" vision of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Nerd culture is popular enough that being a smart geek alone isn't really enough for the movies to think that's a reason for someone to be an outcast (I'd argue that real life hasn't quite caught up, there) especially when in this movie he's in a science/technology oriented school so everyone, even obligatory bully Flash Thompson, is on the smarter-than-the-average-bear end of the spectrum. But Pete's devotion to his time as the webslinger has caused him to drop most all of his extracurricular activities so save for best-friend Ned, he's pretty much on his own. With great power comes great responsibility, after all. Tom Holland's Peter Parker and Jacob Balaton's Ned play well off of each other, whether it's nerding out about Ned's new Lego Death Star or daydreaming about Parker's crush, Liz. They come across much more believably "high school" than previous incarnations. Many of the high school scenes wouldn't look out of place in John Hughes movie.

It's really Holland's infectious enthusiasm about being Spider-Man that carries most of the film. Much like in his introduction in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, you get the sense that this is the coolest thing that's ever happened and he's just so darned happy to be there it's hard not to be happy with him. Based on his social media posts, you get the sense this applies as much to Holland the actor as it does to Parker the character.

The intro of this version of the character in the previous Captain America film is really what sets it apart. Finally, Marvel's flagship character has come home ('come home', 'homecoming', get it?) and can be included in the official Marvel Cinematic Universe. It also allows us to conveniently skip the whole origin thing. What we've sat thru for twice for the other runs of Spidey on screen is covered in a few quick lines of dialog here.

The inclusion in the larger MCU is nice, but it can carry a lot of baggage. Most of that is handled by Robert Downey, Jr., the father of the MCU, as Peter's mentor Tony "Iron Man" Stark, and Jon Favreau returning as Happy Hogan, who isn't terribly happy to have been stuck acting as liaison between Stark and Parker. I have to admit I prefer a less gimmicky Spider-Man, as in this movie Stark has provided him with an ultra high-tech suit with a ton of gadgets built in, but Peter's learning about what the suit is capable of provide us with some pretty good scenes.

Michael Keaton shines as Adrian "The Vulture" Toomes, the main villain of piece and one of the better MCU villains in general. Once again, it's a villain created by Tony Stark, this time because Stark and the newly created "Damage Control" take over the clean-up of New York after the events of the first Avengers movie from Toomes and his company, effectively robbing Toomes of his livelihood. But Toomes has already salvaged some alien tech, and with the help of his crew, they set about finding, repairing, re-purposing other technology, such as the Vultures 'wings', and carve out a niche for themselves selling weapons under the radar until a certain red-and-blue clad hero stumbles across them.

There's been jokes about Aunt May getting progressively younger, played this time around by Marisa Tomei, but when you think about it, unless there was a huge age difference between Pete's dad and uncle, it makes sense she'd be about the same age as Peter's parents would be. And she was great, delivering one of the best laughs in the film. Which in general is another thing this movie had going for it - it's easily the funniest of the MCU films so far, which works perfectly with the character of Spider-Man.

And there's of course nods to the comic books scattered around, a Stan Lee cameo, and one of the best end-credit tag scenes they've ever done for those patient enough to wait until the end.

Overall, this long-time Spidey fan was pretty happy.