Spider-Man: Homecoming - A Review
A witty superhero comedy-action film about Spider-Man that falters in its romantic subplot and underdelivers in its action-packed finale.
Following the events of “Captain America: Civil War,” Peter Parker (Tom Holland) returns to his native New York. He hopes to become a full-fledged Avenger, but Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) doesn’t want the 15-year-old to risk his life fighting dangerous villains. He insists that Peter should focus on small-time heroics. However, Spider-Man believes he’s ready for more than just helping old ladies cross the street. Therefore, he investigates the crimes of engineer Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), who, along with his gang, steals alien artifacts and turns them into innovative weapons for New York’s criminals. Toomes commits his thefts using a combat suit that allows him to fly, earning him the nickname Vulture.
The artificial intelligence of Spider-Man’s suit is voiced by Jennifer Connelly, star of “A Beautiful Mind” and “Requiem for a Dream.”
When we saw Tom Holland as Spider-Man in “Captain America: Civil War” last year, we were quite apprehensive. The young Brit didn’t seem charismatic enough to portray a superhero previously played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Fortunately, our fears were unfounded. Now that we’ve seen Holland’s “solo” film, we realize that Spider-Man in “Homecoming” is exactly as he should be. It’s simply a significantly different Spider-Man than the hero of Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” and Marc Webb’s “The Amazing Spider-Man.”
A New Kind of Spider-Man
What’s the difference? Previously, Peter Parker was the only superhero in the frame. The entire screen world rested on his shoulders, and those shoulders had to be broad enough – figuratively speaking, of course. In contrast, “Homecoming” integrates Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where adult and more powerful “supers” roam in droves compared to Peter Parker. This gives the guy the narrative right to be not a superhero, but a super-intern – a naive and enthusiastic kid who looks up to his older comrades, regularly messes up, and confronts street criminals rather than villains of planetary scale.
This isn’t the “super-Peter” we’re used to, but it’s the Peter who can live and be a hero in the same universe as Iron Man, Captain America, and other veterans of the Marvel film world, without overshadowing them, as often happens in comics where Spider-Man is considered the most popular character. Moreover, he’s a more relatable and human hero for young viewers, having more in common with Dave from “Kick-Ass” than with Tony Stark.
Comedy and High School Hijinks
Although the film doesn’t tell how Peter became Spider-Man or show his first heroic steps (thankfully – this topic has been covered and closed by previous films!), it portrays a guy who is still mastering his abilities and the capabilities of his Stark-gifted suit. The super-suit has artificial intelligence and an exorbitant number of options, but Peter hears about most of them for the first time during the action, turning his heroism into a constant and often hilarious battle with himself and the “armor.” In general, “Homecoming” is two-thirds farcical comedy, where Peter gets into trouble, or his chubby best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), who is an even bigger enthusiastic “nerd” than Peter, adds fuel to the fire. Ned learns Spider-Man’s secret early on, and he helps his friend as a hacker a couple of times, but mostly the film uses him as a clown, in the classic style of Hollywood in the 1980s, where plumpness was always equated with comicality.
Michelle is the only significant character in the film who doesn’t have a comic book prototype. However, for example, Ned in the film has little in common with Ned Leeds from Spider-Man comics. So, he can also be considered an invention of the screenwriters.
There are other funny characters in the film, including Peter’s classmate Michelle, played by Zendaya, the star of the Disney children’s sitcom “K.C. Undercover.” However, Zendaya has such a small role that it’s unclear why it was even worth spending time and screen space on Michelle. Was it only to write that a popular starlet was in the film and attract her fans to the cinema? Frankly, if Disney wanted to properly utilize Zendaya, they should have given Michelle Ned’s narrative function. This would have made the film simultaneously more politically correct, more sexy, and more original, since you don’t often see a guy and a girl who are just friends in movies. True, there would be less humor in the film as a result, since Batalon has his own jokes, and Zendaya has hers (Michelle is not comical, but sarcastic). If that was the main goal, then Marvel did everything right.
Missed Romantic Spark
Since Peter is constantly busy messing up, dealing with Ned, and fighting criminals, he has almost no time for a romance with the dark-skinned beauty Liz (Laura Harrier). And that’s good, because the romantic spark between Holland and Harrier doesn’t ignite, Liz as a character is unremarkable, and Harrier in terms of charisma is laughable compared to Kirsten Dunst and Emma Stone. It seems that Liz was introduced into the film only to give Peter the main problem of characters his age – the fear of confessing his love.
Action and a Disappointing Finale
Unlike the romance, there is more than enough action in the film, and it is quite convincing, spectacular, and fiery. “Homecoming” only misses at the very end, where the final battle with the Vulture ends sooner than it should and is not as dramatic as one would like. It’s a pity, because until that moment, the film does everything to turn Toomes into one of the best Spider-Man screen opponents to date. He is not a trivial psychopath or a faceless bureaucrat, but a man with a sound mind, leadership qualities, his own harsh life truth, and a willingness to do everything to provide for his family and subordinates (Toomes was previously a construction engineer with a team of workers). The culminating plot revelations about Toomes could have made his confrontation with Peter truly tragic, but the film doesn’t capitalize on the already awarded penalty and reduces the ending to a short fight in the air. It looks good, but it’s still disappointing, since it could easily have been made much more powerful, and without much expense. There are no complaints about Keaton – the former Batman and Birdman is excellent. But the six screenwriters missed.
As for Downey Jr., he doesn’t spend much time on screen and doesn’t steal the show from Holland. But with each of his appearances, it becomes clear who the brightest star in the Marvel film world is. The cycle will have a hard time when Downey leaves it, which could happen soon enough…
I want to give “Homecoming” a high rating, but the disappointing finale, weak romantic subplot, and excessive comedy (after all, this is “Spider-Man,” not “Scary Movie” or even “The Goonies”) prevent me from doing so. Beginner director Jon Watts made a convincing debut in blockbuster cinema, but not at the highest genre level.