Movie Review: Spider-man: Homecoming

[VidKid]

Thought for sure Dave was going to 'swing' into this topic.  Guess I'll 'spin' the tale of Spidey's new movie.
 
Premise: Nerdy and awkward kid, Peter Parker, gets bit by a radioactive spider and gains the proportionate strength/agility/ability of a spider..... yadda yadda.. we all know this storyline since its been done over and over. This time, he faces off against the Vulture.

Review: Guys, this movie was excellent. As a fanboy, and some would say a purist, I could only find a couple small faults with this movie. And nothing that distracted, per se, or took away from what a great Spider-man movie this was. It was so awesome to have Marvel back in control of the flagship character. I was excited and pretty pleased with that first Tobey flick, but this movie was so much better. It took the nerdiness of Tobey (as Peter) and the coolness of Garfield (as Spidey). Holland really killed it. The kid was good.

There were a lot of pros to this movie:
- No retreading of old material. There are literally, yes, literally, 2 comments (and maybe a joke thrown in) about the history of Spider-man's powers and Uncle Ben. In fact, they don't even use his name.
- Right amount of comedy and action without forcing it on the audience. A typical Marvel balanced approach (based on the character, of course, I mean GoTG had more comedy then Cap)
- Young characters that can grow with the universe and take over in Phase 4
- Easter eggs galore (some for the mainstream Marvel fan, a couple for the purists)

Not going to list cons as they may ruin / spoil parts of the movie and they were more personal items than anything against the film itself.

We get a couple different 'beginnings' with this movie. First is our villain's origin. And really, he's not even a villain, so much as a guy, down on his luck, taking advantage of a situation that screwed him over. He doesn't even want to really fight Spidey and be the stereotypical villain. He wants  to just tell Spidey to stay out of his way and he'll stay out of Spidey's. There is a great convo between the two later in the movie really showing their similarities in terms of what life has dealt them.

For Spidey's beginning, we get a 'behind the scenes' look during Civil War. Some great 'found footage' style videos from Peter's perspective of working with Iron Man, fighting Cap & Ant-man. Everything else becomes dull after that encounter and Spidey spends most of the movie trying to convince Iron Man he's ready for the big missions and to join the Avengers.

In this movie, RDJ is more than the team leader. He becomes the father figure for Peter. Focusing on Peter's potential to be even greater than Iron Man. You can almost feel the pain in RDJ when he has to 'ground' Peter. This has really been the perfect role for him. 

I think of all the Marvel movies, even more so than GoTG, this targeted that younger audience. The cast was younger, the jokes were younger. There was no kissing scene or heavy love story. And it worked. We all grew up with Parker. We went through life's rough spots with him. This approach is going to open up the character to a whole new group of kids. Hopefully they appreciate his story as much as we do.

[Dave Gray]

I really enjoyed this flick a lot.

[Spider-Dan]

I liked it, in much the same way that I liked Ant-Man: I thought it was good, but not incredibly memorable.  I think I still prefer the first two Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films, but I haven't watched them in 15+ years, so maybe that's nostalgia goggles.

I thought this movie had a very Iron Man feel (and not just because of RDJ).  The plot was a lot more tech-focused than you would expect from a Spider-Man movie, and the premise of having new abilities, then losing them and courageously soldiering on without them is very much an Iron Man story arc.

I loved the Vulture and think he was the best Spider-Man villain in any movie, by a sizable margin.  There is one particular scene of his (you'll know it when you see it) where many people in the audience audibly gasped.

[bsmooth]

I really enjoyed it as well, and I am not a huge Spiderman fan. I would go out on a limb and say it is better than the Maguire films. This guy felt like he truly embodied Parker, I never felt that way with Maguire.

[mecadonzilla]

I was blown away by this movie.  I thought it would be fun, and I enjoyed Holland in Civil War, but I was a little wary of a 6th Spider-flick.  I didn't think the first two Raimi movies couldn't be beaten, but I stand corrected.  This movie captured everything I wanted out of Parker and his alter ego. The humor was appropriate and well timed.  I LOL'd a lot, which is not something I normally do at the movies.  I loved the young cast, especially Ned the Chair Guy and Zendaya (her true identity reveal made me gasp).  Keaton's Vulture was a well rounded villain who wasn't simply evil for evil's sake.  I didn't think I'd care for the Vulture on the big screen, but his abilities were handled very well.  I even liked the tease of Scorpion.

This was a highly entertaining movie, and I can't wait to go see it again.  As much as I loved GotG Vol. 2, I think this was a better offering.  Now, I'm wondering how I can hold out until November for Ragnarock.  Big congrats to Marvel because they just keep turning out high quality work. 

[Sunstroke]

I'm gonna repeat some of what Meca-dude said, because I was also absolutely impressed with this movie. Holland makes a more believable Spidey, imo, than either Maguire or Garfield, and after seeing him in "The Impossible" recently as well, I am fairly convinced that Holland has a long successful film career ahead of him. Ned the Chair Guy is possibly the coolest supporting character in any of the Spidey movies, and Keaton as the Vulture was as real and as gritty as villains get.

Can't wait for the next installment in this franchise, and sincerely hope we get at least 3-4 Holland-Spideys in the franchise before he becomes too old to play the part.