Spider-man: Homecoming resets superhero cinema
The best Marvel Cinematic Universe films aren’t strictly superhero movies. The typical superhero film is full of rescued damsels and world-ending supervillains raining death from above, a handful of plot holes and special effects, sprinkled with funny quips and a score that swells to stand in for character earned emotions.
Marvel has several films of this type, of course. Those films exist as they are to further the box office domination that drives the Marvel machine, but that successful formula has allowed for an expansion into occasional departures.
Ant-Man, for instance, was ostensibly a heist film. Captain America: Winter Soldier was a political thriller inspired by Three Days of the Condor. The Guardians of the Galaxy films are comedic space operas. These films are examples of the best Marvel has to offer, full of relatable characters, realistic humor, and genuine fun, rather than a film meant to set up the next sequel. Spider-man: Homecoming is yet another exceptional installment from the Marvel machine.
It’s a coming-of-age film of young Peter Parker, with notes of John Hughes, meant to capture the awkward youth of Marvel’s best known high school hero.
We all know Spider-man’s origin story: radioactive spider bite leads to wall crawling webhead with super strength and extrasensory perception. The film, for once, doesn’t need to rehash this here. Spider-man was first seen in this universe in Captain America: Civil War so he’s already been established fairly well.
We also don’t have to go through the loss of Uncle Ben and the whole “with great power comes great responsibility.” Instead, the film begins with a collection of videos made by young Peter Parker (Tom Holland) during his Stark “internship” from the previous film, reminding us of his age and his enthusiasm.
After the events of Civil War, Stark encourages Peter to be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and stay out of the limelight. Peter is gifted the fancy suit from Stark and told to stay in touch with his driver, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau).
There aren’t any shots of Spider-man swinging his way around Manhattan—Peter stays close to home in Queens, occasionally heading out to the suburbs where he learns webslinging is a strictly urban pastime. Besides his night job, Peter goes to school and increasingly sees it as pointless—he’s already basically an Avenger. But he tries to balance both, to varying degrees of success, until he encounters a group of criminals trying to boost an ATM with highly advanced weaponry. This sets him on a path towards the mysterious Vulture (Michael Keaton).
As I mentioned, the film is very much a teenage drama akin to Pretty in Pink or The Breakfast Club. Conflicts arise from an inability to manage personal relationships and the reluctance of adults to listen to teenage concerns. This is very much to the film’s credit.
Peter Parker seems like a teenager—he’s not especially wise, is often impulsive, and genuinely loves his cool new powers. He’s too young to see the burden he carries or the threats that might come from being a vigilante.
The film, which features an extensive writing team, managed to create a very authentic character in Peter Parker. However, his counterparts are largely one note: the goofy friend, the beautiful crush, the bully, the father figure.
Given that the film is already trying to be two things at once, it’s hard to criticize the execution. If anything, Spider-Man: Homecoming has more teen drama than it does superhero excitement. It works due to the overall appeal of Holland in the role—he fits in the way Andrew Garfield never quite did, mostly in that he plays the role as a wide eyed innocent without an ounce of chill. Peter Parker is not especially cool and Holland does a good job portraying that.
It’s worth noting that Spider-Man: Homecoming is the third reboot of the character, one that came when Sony realized that they were never going to have another successful Spider-man film outside of the MCU.
I still maintain that Spider-Man 2 with Toby McGuire is the perfect superhero film and the best portrayal of the character outside of the comic books. Holland is excellent in the role, but Sam Raimi nailed Spider-man in his second outing.
But now that the wall-crawler is back where he belongs, in the same universe as the Avengers, there will be plenty of stories to tell. It’s hard to complain about that.