Review of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) by Drew H — 09 Jul 2017

I am so glad I was wrong about this reboot. While everyone else kept the hype growing, I was growing more weary of it, worried we'd be just lead into another Spider-Monstrosity, and then the Spider-Man cycle would continue. Reboot okay. Get worse over time. Repeat. This spider-entry gives me hope for this franchise, bringing a breath of fresh-air into one of the most iconic superheroes.

Homecoming is everything a Spider-Man movie should be; full of John Hughes-esque teen angst, action, and twists. What the Amazing Spider-Man series arguably forgot about Spider-Man was that at his core, Spider-Man is about how a person would manage their normal life and life as a superhero if they were just a kid. TASM made Peter Parker too adult, dealing problems not many teenagers could relate to. It can also be argued this is also a problem with the original Spider-Man film.

The performances of each lead to those film series can just as equally be analyzed. Maguire's performance as Parker was too emotional, and he broke down at every little thing, not putting enough "man" in Spider-MAN. Garfield had the opposite problem, however. Garfield's Parker was a little to cocky, sarcastic, and arrogant, and didn't capture enough of Parker's young, emotional side. Holland strikes a good balance between the two, and does both well. He's emotional, but strong. A growing boy, but also a brave man.

A major thing this film does right is not wasting time with the backstory. We don't need it. Everyone knows the story of Spider-Man. The backstory is always the most boring part of Spider-Man and the Amazing Spider-Man, alike. It keeps the fast its pace, while also not using up precious screen-time with franchise building. The connection between Peter Parker and Tony Stark is also very enjoyable, and you feel a genuine father/son relationship grow between them. But for the first time in a Spider-Man series: the side characters are also great! They're interesting, funny, and feel like real people we all know. The villain also is genuinely intimidating, unlike most other big-screen portrayals of the web-slinger's enemies.

My personal biggest problem was that about 1/2 the time, I just couldn't see past the CGI. Whenever you see Spidey, you can't help but think "this isn't really happening", which in a film all about these moments is a problem. That, and that some of the action is pretty underwhelming. It constantly feels like you're waiting scene after scene for action, and then when it finally arrives, it's extremely short. Through most of the film, you just see Spidey get absolutely abolished. In most of the action scenes, we see him get destroyed, beat up nearly every time.

But a totally-enjoyable popcorn flick to watch with anyone who loves superheroes, 80s high school films, and especially fans of the Marvel Universe.