Go Peter Go!
Spider-Man: Homecoming starts in the perfect way possible. The Sony logos are shown and you think to yourself “Okay I’m watching another Spider-Man movie” you prepare yourself for some this brief moment of excitement before questioning your feelings on the film a few weeks later. The prologue is playing and you’re a little excited and hope the hype is real. The prologue ends and you think “Okay okay I can get into this.” At this moment your excitement levels are pretty high and you think that maybe, just maybe, Spider-Man can finally be done right. The next shot starts and the music starts to get louder and it is at this moment that a marvellous thing happens and then, suddenly, it’s 2 hours later and you’ve just watched the best Marvel film yet.
Spider-Man: Homecoming follows the story of Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, after he helps Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War. Peter is under the impression that he is now an Avenger and with his new Spider-Man suit he chooses the life of a superhero over the life of a normal teenage boy. Instead of going to school, hanging out with his friends, having crushes on girls and going to parties he instead fights crime on the streets of New York. Peter finds out about Vulture and his gang’s weapon’s cartel where they are trying to sell alien weapons to make money and after the Avengers ignore his calls to help stop them he goes after them himself.
Let us start off by saying that Tom Holland is the best Peter Parker. He is easily the Peter Parker that you know as Spider-Man, he’s your Peter Parker. It’s not just the way he looks its the way he acts both by himself and with other people. There are times when he is acting and you genuinely believe that this kid could be Peter Parker, simply another fantastic Marvel casting choice. The Peter Parker in this film isn’t held down by being stuck in a film that is too grown up for him though as Homecoming isn’t really that much of a superhero movie. Homecoming is instead in the vein of films like Ferris Bueller and The Breakfast Club but with a kid trying to be a superhero at the centre of it. Instead of having a scene with Spider-Man every third scene it is instead Peter and his friends, all the actors in the high school really make this film even better, and it is the mixture of the high school movie feel of the film, the character developments and a really good score that creates a new type of superhero movie.
The film’s ability to shake off the overshadowing gloom of superhero exhaustion is a great achievement in itself but the fact that the film gives you both superhero moments as well as a great high school movie is spectacular. The film never lowers itself to be like other blockbusters and remains surprising and true to itself as if the film and it’s main character are going through a weird deja vu moment of both experiencing something new and different for the first time. Homecoming feels fresh and polished and it really seems like a solid group of people who love the character and want to give him his shining spotlight came together and created an amazing film.
Unlike most superhero movies these days where you can see twists and turns and events happening from a mile away, Spider-Man: Homecoming is a surprising ride. It contains my first gasp moment during a film in quite a long time and when I say gasp I mean the whole cinema all at once. It’s truly something I’ve missed from movies and to be honest I’m kind of mad at Homecoming for ruining future blockbuster films for me…expect the next one to be scored badly for not having a gasp moment. That was just the thing about Homecoming that I loved and the audience loved, it was something special like lightning in a bottle or a better example would be catching a spider in a bottle. Homecoming is a film not just about Spider-Man and his love but instead about Peter Parker, it’s a Peter Parker movie, and it’s more of a celebration of Peter Parker coming back to Marvel.
Peter Parker is a character that everyone somehow relates too. I mean think about it, we don’t relate to Spider-Man most people hate spiders. We relate to Peter Parker, the kid who is bullied in school, the kid who is so smart yet can’t figure out how to get the girl, the kid who hides away the pain inside, the kid who just wants to live the best life he can and the kid who simply just wants to have fun. Peter Parker isn’t dark and brooding or helped by a secret serum, he’s just like you and I and it’s something that this film really portrays well at its core.
Amongst all the Ferris Bueller-like moments there are obviously awesome Spider-Man moments and a lot of them are true to who he is and the fans of his comics. Who would’ve known that The Vulture would turn out to be the most sophisticated villain in a Spider-Man movie yet? Michael Keaton does a fantastic job as him and his run of playing bird related characters is still going strong. The thing about The Vulture in the film is that his actions are actually who he is. Adrian Toomes, The Vulture, goes around and scavenges for alien tech and then uses it to better himself and be stronger. That’s what Vultures do! Can’t believe its taken this long for a superhero film to have a villain that actually does what his wacky persona does in real life. It’s crazy good.
The action in the film is great and it isn’t over the top or anything because it doesn’t need to be. The set pieces are good and there’s the right amount of high school moments compared to action moments and vice versa. My only downfall for the film is that the final battle is a little bit weaker compared to the solidness that is the rest of the film. It’s kind of missing it’s Dark Knight moment where Batman scales the tower beating everyone inside to get to The Joker. However, I will let it slide a little in Homecoming because the film is quite perfect and you can argue either way as to whether it needed that moment or not.
The event of Homecoming is in Spider-Man: Homecoming but one might wonder if that is really the only reason why it’s called Homecoming. This is Spider-Man back at Marvel and they let you know and it really shows. The amount of care and thoughtfulness that is clearly put into this film is extraordinary. Every fan in the world wanted the perfect Spider-Man movie but what you realise when you’re watching Spider-Man: Homecoming is that what you really want is this perfect Peter Parker movie, the boy who you relate to because someone finally made it painfully obvious that we don’t need Spider-Man, we like Spider-Man, but we do need Peter Parker. Welcome, home buddy.