Spiderman: Homecoming

Shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Spiderman: Homecoming takes us to Peter Parker’s high school life as a sophomore. In Homecoming, we see Peter Parker resuming his duties as the “friendly neighbourhood Spiderman” and at the same time trying to impress his mentor Tony Stark.

Spiderman: Homecoming presents us with a refreshingly authentic portrayal of Peter Parker’s high school life. MCU newcomer Tom Holland embraces perfectly both Peter’s purity and naivety in his intentions to help people with his superpowers. Director Jon Watts took full advantage of Marvel's trademark humour to capture the youthful energy of Peter Parker and his eclectic group of high school friends.

While most Marvel titles are infamous for their underdeveloped villains, Keaton’s Vulture acts as a serviceable adversary for Holland’s Spiderman. Compared to past villains who share the oft-repeated goal of eradicating humanity, Vulture’s motivations here are much more relatable and grounded.

The filmmakers of Homecoming walk a tightrope between making a unique reboot of the Spiderman franchise as well as connecting the story to the larger Marvel Universe. This is where the film fails to move me the way I expected it to. There is little dramatic tension and not nearly enough build-up to Peter’s “hero” moment for it to feel "earned". The whole mentor-mentee relationship between Tony Stark and Peter Parker also completely falls apart and that’s mainly because of how Tony Stark and his many morally questionable choices are portrayed in recent Marvel entries.

Spiderman: Homecoming is a very polished Marvel movie that will no doubt please the franchise’s faithful fans and serve as a great introduction of this new iteration of Spiderman. But that’s pretty much it with Marvel films these days, isn’t it? If you happen to like it, by all means, enjoy the good old Marvel fun. And if you don’t? Well, there’s always another one right around the corner.

(Originally posted on 13 July 2017 @projectunwrapped)