Review of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) by Justin W — 21 Jul 2017

Having grown up with Sam Raimi's trilogy of films about everyone's favorite arachnid superhero, it was an impossible task for me to watch Homecoming without comparing it to that series. (On the contrary, I found no need to compare it to the easily forgettable films with Andrew Garfield.) My overall comparison: while the Raimi trilogy was driven by dramatic action and frightening villains, this film is nearly devoid of drama and instead relies from start to finish on comedy. Many viewers must have enjoyed this new direction and tone for the superhero, as evidenced by the high ratings on Rotten T. For me, however, this was an unnecessary and often annoying reboot in which Spider-Man is simply another pawn reeled into the chaotic array of superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I'm grateful that the MCU didn't exist when I was a kid. In 2002, Spider-Man was allowed to be an independent and self-made superhero, designing his own suit and fighting crime as he sees it. In Homecoming, Spidey's new presence within the MCU does nothing positive to the character, as his homemade outfit is replaced by a high-tech suit with at least 50 special functions and a computerized voice assistant; essentially, Tony Stark's ironman suit designed to look like a Spider-Man suit. In this film, Stark acts as Spidey's mentor and boss, designing his suit and giving him commands.

Tobey Maguire brought true heroism to his Spider-Man, being scarred both physically and mentally from fighting crime but going out every night to do it anyway. Maguire's nerdy personality and advanced years brought a certain maturity to the character as well. By contrast, the wide-eyed, squeaky-voiced Tom Holland evokes a much more juvenile version of the character, fighting bank robbers and bomb-makers at 15 years old. While this Peter Parker seems like a decent kid, he simultaneously displays the worst stereotypes of attention-craving millennials, as he seems incapable of approaching a crime scene without some pointless comical banter about nothing in particular. Tom Holland, a talented young actor whose merits were well-displayed in the 2012 disaster film The Impossible, gives his best effort in this film, but the annoyingly rambling script in combination with Holland's young age makes him seem less like a superhero and more like a teenager who gets to wear a cool super-suit.

Another feature that made the Raimi trilogy memorable was the truly frightening villains, including the Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus. Homecoming introduced a new villain, Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), a disgruntled city worker who wages revenge on the City of New York after his company is let go from their assignment to clean up NYC after the battle seen in The Avengers. Aside from one scene in which Keaton is particularly effective and threatening as he talks face-to-face with Peter Parker, his character is hardly present for most of the film. He is the evident cause whenever havoc ensues, but we hardly have time to explore his motives. Other characters include a new love interest, Liz, a student on the scholastic decathlon team with Peter. The few scenes showing the two of them alone never seem to build up the chemistry previously seen between Parker and Mary Jane Watson, with her character serving more as a plot device for certain scenes during this film. A cheerful and loyal friend, Ned, is instrumental in helping Peter track down Toomes's gang of bad guys. Finally, Marisa Tomei plays an Aunt May who is much younger and more bubbly than the frail, elderly lady seen in the Raimi trilogy. The absence of Uncle Ben and his tragic death from the 2002 film is purposeful in maintaining the comedic feel so foundational in this film.

While some of these new characters were interesting, I couldn't help rolling my eyes at the new comedic tone at several points during this film. For instance, there's a scene when Spider-Man saves several of his friends from certain death in the elevator of the Washington Monument just as it's about to plummet to the ground. The suspense of this scene is followed by the spider-suit's urging Peter to admit to Liz his feelings for her, and other casual comedic jabs spoken seconds after surviving death in a collapsing elevator. In another scene, Peter spends nearly a full minute choosing a name for the computerized female voice in his suit. He eventually settles on Karen. Was any of it necessary? Hardly, but this film seems to prefer eliciting random giggles from the audience over advancing the plot.

I also rolled my eyes at silly reminders of the film's setting within the MCU, as Captain America has cameos in instructional videos for a PE fitness exam and detention (yes, that's right, an instructional video for students in detention), and some girls in the PE class play "f***, marry, kill" with Avengers superheroes. Marvel seems to have gone from writing interesting stories with their individual superheroes to getting lost within their own endless cinematic universe. Times have clearly changed from 2002 to 2017. Marvel is going in new directions and seeks to attract different audiences. I understand that many people have and will continue to enjoy this shift in tone and style for the Spider-Man character, and am not averse to the idea that a comedic superhero film could be a success. In this case, however, it seems that Marvel newcomer Jon Watts tried too hard to model this film after Marvel comedic successes like Deadpool. The Raimi trilogy was certainly not perfect, but at least those films actually felt like superhero films. As DC is seeing renewed success this summer with the comedy-minimal Wonder Woman, I hope that Marvel will move away from their present overdependence on comedy down the road. But they'll probably just keep doing what they're doing, as long as it keeps selling them tickets.