Review of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) by David B — 28 Jul 2017

When it was announced that Spidey was set to become part of the MCU, I was excited to finally get the chance to see my favourite superhero join the Avengers on the big screen but also slightly worried that Spider-man would feel very stale with it's second reboot and yet another teenage version. Thankfully those fears were misplaced.

As you'd hope in a Spider-man film, Tom Holland steals the show as Peter Parker, making the best on-screen version yet. Jacob Batalon also does a great job Peters best friend, Ned Leeds. The two work incredibly well together and provide plenty of laughs. And not to be out done, Michael Keaton makes an excellent villain as Vulture.

Homecoming picks up where Spider-man left off in Civil War so thankfully we don't have to go through another origin film with Peter coming to terms with his powers. Instead, he's doing every thing he can to try and impress Tony Stark in order to become a full time member of The Avengers by taking on Vulture as he sells illegal weaponry throughout New York. It's a good story that provides plenty of laughs and some good action set pieces throughout as well as one of the best villains in the MCU so far.

Unfortunately the film is let down a little by it's supporting cast. Marisa Tomei is good as Aunt May but she feels a bit underutilised whilst Tony Stark and Happy Hogan feel a bit shoe horned in. The worst offenders though are some of Peters classmates. Peters love interest Liz is flat and rather lacking in personality. Edgy longer Michelle feels like she's there to act as nothing more than a cringe worthy MJ reference whilst school bully Flash comes across more as a whiney annoyance than an intimidating bully. There is also quite a few failed attempts at humour. The film is funny as a whole but a number of jokes just don't work.

These faults are relatively minor though and don't get in the way of the fun of the film. Spider-man: Homecoming is a solid new entry to the MCU.