A Movie Review Nobody Asked for – Spider-Man: Homecoming

It’s been tried twice before. Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield gave it their best shots, but ultimately they fell short. Given the past showings, they may have attempted to capture the essence of the most difficult superhero to accurately portray.

Spider-man has always been my favorite superhero. Batman is great, Superman is…well…super, but there’s something about Spider-man. He was always a kid trying to figure out life stuff while at the same time trying to calm down a genius with robotic tentacles coming out of his back or a man who is really a scorpion. At the end of the day, when the baddies were put away, he’d go back to algebra homework and figuring out how to talk to Mary Jane.

Tom Holland captures that with his performance in Spider-Man: Homecoming. We get the awkward teeny-bopper that Maguire and Garfield just can’t evoke. Holland shows the ability to get a laugh out of a tense situation, and that is my favorite part about Spider-man’s character. When the Green Goblin is tossing little pumpkin bombs at him, Spidey has the kind of personality to say “Hey, you forgot this!” while throwing the bomb right back at the Goblin.

You also really get the feeling of Spidey trying to fit in with the superhero world. Sure, it’s written in as a plot point, but you really feel the frustration that Peter Parker has whenever Tony Stark tells him he needs to keep focusing on the little things. Holland easily plays a teenage Spidey who feels unappreciated.

Another area where Homecoming hits the nail on the head is with the villain. Michael Keaton is a terrific actor who has played many roles. In Homecoming he plays a dude you could almost level with. Sure, he makes a living stealing things and turning them into his own creations but his reason is sort of admirable. The government screwed him over, so he now does what he does to get back at them. Plus, his suit is pretty cool. I like the pseudo-robo Vulture.

Overall the movie was good. I’d give it 4 out of 5. A little word of warning heading into the movie, the beginning is slow and it takes a minute to get going. One of the biggest victories for this rendition of Spider-man, though, is that they don’t spend half of the movie telling you what you already know. In the movie, Uncle Ben died a while ago. So much so, I do not remember a conversation between Aunt May and Peter where they mentioned Uncle Ben. Big plus, I say.

So go see it. Go see it if you like action, go see it if you like superheroes, and definitely go see it if you’re a fan of the Web-slinger. For this installment, the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man, will have you walking out of the theater satisfied.