The originality of Spider-Man: Homecoming’s narrative combined with a solid performance from the cast make this release a must see.
Summary
The story centers around two different characters. We have Adrian Toomes (Micheal Keaton) whose scrapping business has fallen on hard times after a contract to clean up after the battle of New York is ripped from him and given to a Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) lead government task force. He has a choice of either letting his friends and family fall into financial ruin or devise a scheme to make money quickly. So Toomes decides to take what scrap they still have from the alien invasion and build a suit that will allow him to steal more alien technology from the government. The ultimate goal was to get enough scrap to make weapons to sell on the black market
We also are following the exploits of 15-year-old Peter Parker (Tom Hollard). Parker was last seen in Avengers: Civil War as he was there to try and help Mr. Stark bring in Captain America. Now he’s back home after all of this excitement adjusting to life under the watchful eye of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and trying to keep up his grades. While Tony is insistent that he take this whole superhero thing slowly, Peter feels held back. Our young hero stumbles into the heart of the Toomes operation and rather than seek out the help of people who are more qualified for this sort of task; he decides to take this matter into his own hands in the hopes of impressing his mentor Mr. Stark.
What Worked
All the credit in the world needs to be given to both Jon Watts and Johnathan Goldstein. They were the task to take something that had already been repackaged multiple times and come up with a clever way of introducing us to that same character once more. We weren’t bogged down any backstory on how Peter got his powers or even with what happened to Aunt May’s husband. The focus was building the two narratives up. What turns an owner of a scrap metal business in Queens into a villain? Where does Parker’s heroism stem from?
It was clever for the writers to have Stark’s motivation for mentoring Peter be about him being a better person. Remember, these events happen just after Avengers: Civil War and he realizes that the blame for the divisions in the group falls on his shoulders.
The casting of Jacob Batalon as Ned was a stroke of genius. He provided immense amounts of comedic relief and helped ground the narrative. My favorite interactions between these two are when Peter tells Ned he has to go track down these weapons and Ned responds with, “But you’ll miss your Spanish Quiz.”
The ensemble was perfect. The cast gave this story about the rise of a new hero a very Breakfast Club like vibe.
Tom Holland!!!!!! How could you not love the exuberance and the innocence in his portrayal of Peter Parker? His performance has made me interested to see where this franchise could be headed in the next few years.
Keaton gave us a different spin on the traditional Marvel villain. Whiplash was motivated by vengeance; Green Goblin was insane, Vulture is driven by a need for his family to survive. All his character wants is to continue to make money so that he can support his family and that’s all. He even tries to explain this to Peter in the end. His performance was nuanced just enough to pull this type of character off.
This film has the best stinger that I’ve ever seen in a Marvel release. DON’T LEAVE UNTIL THE MOVIE CREDITS ARE DONE!
What Didn’t Work
Would have liked a bit more world building. If we are going to be getting three new Spider-Man films, then some groundwork needs to be laid out for future movies (not just in one of the two stingers at the end of the film).
Overall
Spider-Man: Homecoming is a welcomed example of originality in a genre that can be quite rote at times. The film is anchored by a great ensemble and solid performances from both Holland and Keaton. This certainly should be seen in theaters on July 7th. Hopefully, the success of this collaboration with Sony will lead to other ventures with Marvel. That certainly would be fantastic for all us.
