Large Popcorn Review

MPAA Rating: PG-13
Family Friendly?: Yes

“This is my chance to prove myself”   -Peter Parker
After his iconic debut as Peter Parker/ Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil war, Tom Holland instantly became the new Spider-Man to everyone. This led to a collaboration between Disney and Sony to create movies set in the MCU that allowed Disney to incorporate Spider-Man himself into the universe. Spider-Man: Homecoming is the first attempt at having the lovable web-slinger in a world where there are multiple superheroes, and it works well with some issues that I personally had with the way they told a new tale on this classic superhero.

PLOT:
This film follows a younger Peter Parker (Tom Holland) trying to balance his dual life as a high school student and as a superhero. When he comes across a weapons dealer (Michael Keaton) who is selling to street level thugs, he tries to put a stop to the dealer in hopes to make his mentor/ sometimes father figure Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) proud of him and make Spidey an Avenger. Will Peter be able to put a stop to this dealer and finally become an Avenger, or will he realize too late that he bit off more than he could chew in this dangerous world.

WHAT DOES IT DO?:
The first thing I can say about this film is that it finally does the character of Peter Parker and Spider-Man justice. Other attempts at Spider-Man franchises were good at making either Peter Parker or Spider-Man comic accurate, but they were never able to do as good as a job as Homecoming does. In this film, we see Peter as he goes through daily routines as he uses his science knowledge to secretly make gadgets during class, him hiding his athletic abilities from other students, and him having to suffer from being constantly bullied by Flash Thompson. Tom Holland did a fantastic job bringing the true comic book spirit of Peter Parker onto the big screen. Even though he does a great job portraying the double life of Spidey, however, there are sometimes annoying parts in the film of wanting to prove his worth.

I love the idea of Tony Stark being Peter Parker’s mentor in the MCU, however, this movie makes Iron-Man seem like a babysitter that won’t let Spider-Man do anything productive. Not only that, but Peter is obsessed with wanting to impress Tony Stark throughout the movie, and this is something I didn’t enjoy from the film. This led to constant scenes where Peter acts out at school, wanting so badly to be an Avenger and besties with Tony Stark, that he almost loses all of his loved ones he has in his life because of it. Thankfully the movie changes this to be more about Peter worrying about his personal life as a student and a person later in the film, but it feels like they spend too long on wanting to impress Tony Stark. In the comics, Spider-Man never needed a mentor to be the hero we all know and love, and I think that the future films should explore more on him being a hero, without needing approval from other heroes.

After many okay villains in the Spider-Man films (From Spider-Man 3 all the way to The Amazing Spider-Man 2) we finally have one amazing Spider-Man villain in the form of Michael Keaton’s Vulture. Keaton as the Vulture is funny because this is his 3rd time playing a bird related character (Batman, Birdman, and now Vulture). Keaton brings his acting skills to deliver a cool, relaxed, and intense Vulture to the MCU. Audiences can easily tell that after the eight-year time jump from the start of the film, that Keaton’s character is confident, strong, and has a sense of ease in terms of being an experienced weapons dealer. Not only does he bring his A-game to portraying the character, but he also does an amazing job at being a formidable foe to an inexperienced Spidey. Along with the revelation at the end of the film, you find out there is a connection between the protagonist and antagonist that makes each other respect the other, but at the same time, it makes their influence to stop each other. After this film ended, all I can say is that I hope audiences will see more of Keaton for future MCU films.

CONCLUSION:
Overall, Spider-Man: Homecoming was a breath of fresh air in terms of getting the spirit of Spidey right from the comics, and making one of his villains worthy of being the main villain in this movie. Though I was bothered by Peter constantly trying to make Tony Stark proud of him throughout the film, some audiences will want to see more of their father-son-like relationship in future movies. After the terrible attempts with The Amazing Spider-Man series, Sony finally found a perfect home for Peter Parker… the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

4.6/5 POPCORN KERNELS