Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)

With great character comes...another re-imagining, I guess. I will concur with the general consensus that this is an entertaining and very effective re-imagining of Spiderman, but oh my god, am I ever sick of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

If you have Spiderman origin story or MCU fatigue, this movie will not be kind to you. 

Thankfully we do not have to witness the tiniest Peter Parker (Tom Holland) being bitten by the goddamn spider or failing to save Uncle Ben. Still, almost all the other familiar beats are there: X character is Y character’s father and you just nod and accept it, Spiderman hones his skills haphazardly, Secret Identities 101, lots of jokes, New York City really is a character am I right?. Most of the deviance from the formula, where it does occur, is good. It’s refreshing to not have to deal, again, with the very beginnings of an origin story. It’s lovely to see a teenager played by someone who looks and acts like a teenager! Tom Holland was an excellent, awkward Spiderman in the way that he should have been the whole time. And then there were bits of deviance that were…I’d say detrimental. While I’m glad we didn’t have to have another failure to save Uncle Ben or Gwen Stacey, without some real grappling over the consequences of his actions, Spiderman’s character is basically a petulant child. Missing that stuff out results in a character who feels a little blank. It's important to have a character with that inherent innocence and sense of good, but it's also important for them to have some depth. In the same way, prioritising a bunch of Avengers crap might make the world feel more integrated, but it definitely takes away from time that could have been spent establishing stronger connections and giving a more human element to the story.

That all probably sounded pretty negative. There were some real wins here beyond my unfathomable hatred for Robert-Downey-Jr-as-Tony-Stark and oh-my-god-don’t-make-me-watch-an-avengers-movie. The casting and in turn, ability to balance a comic tone, were excellent. Some of my favourite bits were with Hannibal Buress - who had all of two scenes but absolutely stole them - and Donald Glover - which was an interesting casting gag (I remember 2010 as well, guys). 

The action was great and the writing was too, for the most part. I feel like I need to point out some terrible inter-teenage dialogue, but that's going to be in nearly any movie about high school. And make no mistake: this feels very much like a movie about high school, nods to Ferris Bueller included. It's not a bad thing, and it's something I actually enjoyed with respect to a character who is often rushed out of his context.

I just wish…I wish there had ever been some real unavoidable moment for our hero to struggle with the people that die as direct consequence of his actions, as a part of the path to superherodom, and my god, I wish this had been a standalone movie. I wish we could have acknowledged the existence of the Avengers but not had to have so much Stark/Parker interplay and to maybe have left that for later. It was fun, and Spiderman is historically my favourite superhero franchise, but this was a so-close-but… moment for me.

Rating: 7/10 - What can I say? It was fun. It was a good take on the mythos. I just wish it stood alone and I didn't have to do so much unwitting teeth gritting.