Okay, so it’s been awhile, huh?
Where I was once an unyielding scribe of film criticism, I soon turned
to the world of sports—namely, baseball—and set aside the writing of
reviews. Now, I’m still a constant
movie-goer—always putting in a disc in the player or seeing the occasional
blockbuster in the theaters—but I had to turn my attention elsewhere and put
Cinema Bits in hiatus for a time (it’s a long story and I won’t get into
it). I’ve done it before, taking a
yearlong break until Star Wars: The Force
Awakens pulled me back to my film scrutiny and making me see the error of
my ways.
So, here I am, once again being brought back, compelled to write
about a film I’d watched with the exuberance and giddiness as my 9-year-old
self had experienced way back when I witnessed Star Wars back in 1978 (I didn’t get to see the movie until it was
brought back to theaters the year after its release). Yes…even though I’m going to be hitting 49
years old this coming November, I still felt like a little boy as I patiently
waited for Spider-Man: Homecoming to begin.
You’d think I would have already felt this way back in 2002 when
Tobey Maguire donned the webbed red-and-blues in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man—and I had felt that way as
the movie’s final money-shot elicited a huge smile on my face that took quite a
while to fade away even as I saw the movie again and again during repeat
viewings—but it wasn’t until the sequel to that film was released when I had
the state of euphoria that had equaled my Star
Wars movie wonderment.
I’ll state it here and now that the bar was set before going into
the theater to see this film—Spider-Man 2
was the film to which I’d compare all the rest. As it stands—and I know I’ll get some
arguments against this (goodness knows I’ve already debated about this with
many comic book film enthusiasts)—I don’t think anything has stood up to Sam
Raimi’s second Spider-Man
outing. The main dispute that comes up
is The Dark Knight, and yes, I do
believe Christopher Nolan’s second Batman film is great, but doesn’t have the
heroic comic book feel that Spider-Man 2 exhibits. Every time I watch the sequel, especially the
scenes where Spidey is fighting Doctor Octopus on the train, I feel like the
scenes are jumping out of a comic book, keeping me glued to the screen as I’d
been glued to the comic books as a kid.
That was how I’d wanted to feel again when venturing out to see Spider-Man:
Homecoming.
For obvious reasons, I’m not going to even address the Andrew
Garfield films because that’ll raise a level of negativity that I really don’t
think I can escape.
For the casual viewer of these recent Marvel Studios films, such
as the Iron Man or Captain America films, you may not
realize how important this film is to all of them. In short, Sony Pictures owned the filming
rights to the Spider-Man character for nearly two decades. Marvel Comics decided to create their own
studios—later, having Disney purchase the whole company—and decided to make
this whole cinematic universe to cross-over all their characters in multiple
movies. Basically, Marvel Studios have
most of their characters’ rights back, save for Spider-Man belonging to Sony,
with The X-Men and Fantastic Four belonging to 20th Century
Fox. However, Sony decided to cooperate
and share Spidey (it helped that those aforementioned Andrew Garfield films
bombed—I know, I said I wouldn’t get into that), so now there’s a deal in place
to share the character and split the wealth that comes with it.
Now, if only 20th Century Fox would smarten up and
follow suit…I’m sure they will soon.
Well, for now, let’s get into Spider-Man: Homecoming…
Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, young Peter Parker
(Tom Holland) returns home to live with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and resumes
life as a high schooler. Under the
watchfull eye of mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), Parker starts to
embrace his newfound identity as Spider-Man.
As Peter tries to go back to his normal daily routine, he’s distracted
by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just a friendly neighborhood
superhero. However, he must soon put his
powers to the test when the evil Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges to threaten
everything that he holds dear.
If you’ve been up-to-date with the Marvel series of movies, then
you’ve seen last year’s Captain America:
Civil War which showcased the first time Spider-Man has been brought into
this cinematic world…and, boy, was it an entrance! However, coming into this, I’ve got to admit,
my expectations were a little low. I
mean, come on, let’s face it…this is the second reboot of the character on
film, with the last crappy reboot still fresh in our minds (I know…I’m still
refraining…but it’s difficult), so it’s hard to think that any Spider-Man film can have any more tricks
up its sleeve to give us something fresh and exciting.
Before getting into the movie, let’s talk about the cast…
First up…Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man is the youngest
Spider-Man brought to life on screen at the suitable young age of 21. In comparison, Nicholas Hammond was 27 when
he played the Wall Crawler in the 1977 television series, Tobey Maguire was
nearly 27 as well when he took the role in the 2002 film, and Andrew (ugh!)
Garfield was close to 29. It definitely
helps here as Holland looks and sounds like he belongs in high school, not
having a five o’clock shadow certainly supports the illusion that we’re seeing
a young kid deal with the heavy burden of being a person endowed with super
powers. But his acting in this flick
comes across as how any of us would feel if we suddenly could flip and jump around,
crawling up walls and having the power to kick anybody’s ass…I think we’d feel
the same excitement. Well…at least I would.
The baddie here, Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes, aka The Vulture,
gives us a memorable performance as well.
At times, we see the comedian come out of him, but most of the time
Keaton plays this villain as a commanding head of a criminal organization. At the same time, we can side with him as he
starts this story off as the boss of a legitimate clean-up crew who gets gipped
from making a pretty good payday for cleaning up the mess left behind after the
Battle of New York that took place during The
Avengers. So, Keaton—as Adrian
Toomes—plays his role as anybody seeking fairness. Seeing him as the bad guy here in Spider-Man:
Homecoming, I can’t help but to conjure up memories of Tim Burton’s Batman; it’s very interesting to see
Keaton going from the heroic role to the villain. Though, I think we all know he has the
capability to do so, as he’s played the bad guy here and there over the years—Pacific Heights, Desperate Measures, and
Robocop are just a few that I can recall—so the choice to make him The
Vulture was good.
As you may have seen in the trailers, Robert Downey, Jr. is here
as Tony Stark/Iron Man, playing the mentor to young Peter Parker. We get just enough of Downey as to not make
this an Iron Man movie that features
Spider-Man, which calms the thoughts of many people who’d thought that this was
going to feature more than a cameo of the
billionaire-playboy-philanthropist.
Pretty much what you see in the trailers are all the scenes Robert
Downey, Jr. is on the screen and that’s a good thing. But he’s the same witty and amusing tech
genius that really doesn’t want Peter to get too involved in the superhero
business, obviously protecting him and not wanting him to get hurt.
Marisa Tomei as Aunt May is definitely a new take on the
character, but it makes sense when you compare the ages of her character and
Peter Parker. In reality, it’d be
completely normal for a fifty-something year-old woman to have a 15-year-old
nephew. I know all us Spider-Man comic
book fans would love to have the frail, old, grey-haired woman as Aunt May,
complete with hair tied up in a bun, but that would not be relatable…especially
between the two characters. I like what
they did here, casting Tomei in the role (which was already established in Captain America: Civil War), and I look
forward to seeing how her character evolves from this film.
The rest of the cast does well, with great chemistry between them
all. There are some Easter Eggs and
surprises to take in—I may need to take in another viewing to see them all
myself. I won’t go over them because
it’ll just bog down this review, not to mention spoil some surprises along the
way.
So…as I’d mentioned earlier, the bar was set with Spider-Man 2 as what I consider the best
superhero movie—let alone, Spider-Man
movie—ever. Does Spider-Man: Homecoming beat
it?
The quick answer is…no.
But that’s not to say that this is a bad movie, no, on the
contrary. Spider-Man: Homecoming is
the perfect introduction for the character to enter the Marvel Cinematic
Universe. Holland’s Peter Parker
definitely goes through an arc in the film, going from an anxious kid who’d
gotten a taste of superheroing with an awesome technological outfit, to an
adult-minded young man who understands what he has to do with his newfound
powers.
If anything, this is what endears the character to all who’ve
already seen him on the screen to everybody who’s coming into the character
brand new. To see Spider-Man as a
newbie, starting off as a bike-thief and car-jacker deterrent, but making
mistakes here and there, and going up against a real threat to prove himself
even after Stark takes away the tech suit…this all adds up to how valiant and
courageous this character has been throughout the years. At one point during the film, I was kind of
thinking about how we weren’t seeing any real web-swinging, but during a
pivotal scene in Washington DC where Spider-Man has to scale the Washington Monument,
it’s made clear that Peter hasn’t really climbed that high as we see him get a
bit of acrophobia at the top of the monolith.
No, Spider-Man 2 still
has stood the test of time with The
Avengers coming close as toppling that film as the best superhero flick,
but Spider-Man:
Homecoming is just a different type of movie that is great in and of
itself. I look forward to where this is
going and how the character will grow within the Avengers films, in its sequel, and how he’ll crossover into other
Marvel productions. Seeing the numbers
over this past weekend, I’m willing to bet that’s how everyone else felt as
well. I hope Sony realizes they have a
good thing here and doesn’t blow it.
So…my final “bit” on Spider-Man: Homecoming?
If anything, this movie has a lot of heart, almost going to the
point where they try to make the character as great as he’d been in past films,
only to dial it back to show you how grounded he should be. It’s truly an origin story without having us
go through the rigmarole of seeing the spider bite and the uncle’s death, but
to see how Peter Parker deals with having these great powers as he lives a
normal high school life. Tom Holland
does a wonderful job as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, giving us some
humorous moments as well as heroic ones.
It’s the perfect—official—introduction of the wallcrawler into the
Marvel lineup of films. I’m definitely
looking forward to the ones that are coming up.
Just a heads-up and you probably would know this already, but
there is a mid-credits scene that’s fairly important to the film and where
it’ll go from here. Also, there’s an
after-credits scene where the joke is on us…not going to go any further than
that, but it’s funny…at the movie-goer’s expense.
Thanks for reading!
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