SPIDERMAN HOMECOMING
My Thoughts
Spiderman Homecoming is officially in the books after a long and anticipated wait of finally having what was once (and still is to me) Marvel's flagship superhero and pretty much the face of Marvel; Spiderman being returned home to Marvel Studios on the movie front (well actually shared with Sony, because like, they just can't let him go)
Having watched it last Saturday, I'm gonna give you my two cents on how I felt about the movie, things I liked, things I didn't like etc, this is pretty much gonna be a rundown of sorts not a traditional detailed review.
Back when the Spiderman movie franchise was announced to be shifting over to Marvel through a joint venture with Sony back at the tail end of 2014 after the abysmal all over the place train-wreck that was The Amazing Spiderman 2, it was pretty much safe to say that Spiderman/Marvel fans all over the globe breathed a huge sigh of relief and expressed barrage of joy, as the handcuffs of mediocrity that Sony had Spiderman locked in was finally lifted, Spiderman was finally coming over to the promise land the Marvel Cinematic Universe which was just crying out for Spiderman after it's big success.
The Amazing Spiderman 2 was truly a underwhelming and bloated entry in the Spiderman film franchise, even though it could be argued that Andrew Garfield was great when he was in the Spidey suit.
Fast forward to 2015 and we had the announcement of who would be taking up the Spiderman mantle on the big screen going forward in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; none other than a young upcoming Tom Holland.
Captain America Civil War would be a movie that would test the waters with what we could expect from the new Marvel Cinematic Universe Spiderman going forward and boy did Tom Holland knock it out of the park, his take on both Peter Parker and Spiderman were both proven to be hugely successful and well received, and I for one felt that it was a big breath of fresh air and for the first time in a very long time since Sam Raimi's Spiderman 2 did I actually feel like I was watching Spiderman from the Comics really come to life on screen.
We all breathed a sigh of relief when the Spiderman film franchise was announced to come home to Marvel, which would see Tom Holland cast and go on to put on a highly praised performance in Captain America Civil War
Let's forward to Spiderman Homecoming now and the things I liked:
What I really adored about this movie was the whole dynamic of Peter Parker balancing the everyday obstacles of School life with being Spiderman and saving New York, which is pretty much what the comics that everyone knows and loves were built on, this dynamic in the movie really felt just like real life, what any 15 year old teenager would be going through and that is what makes the foundation of Tom Holland's Peter Parker so relatable to the audience (especially teens)
Also add in the fact that we have such a diverse casting of actors in Peter Parker's school, the real life factor is at an all time high as in previous Spiderman films we had a Predominantly Caucasian casting, which is something that isn't very real world, the reality is school's have a huge diversity of ethnic backgrounds, the cherry on top here is that all of the characters play their part extremely well and bounce off of Peter Parker very well too, the chemistry and dynamics here are well on point.
A Relatable and Diverse setting: Spiderman Homecoming producers really knocked the casting for this movie out of the park, Peter Parker's life feels very real and relatable to fans and viewers
Peter Parker's best friend Ned Leeds, portrayed by upcoming Phillipino actor Jacob Balaton is the perfect yang to Peter Parker's ying in this movie as his deadpan moments of comedy really compliment Peter Parker's charm and wit.
The Deadpan Sidekick: Peter Parker/Spiderman's 'Guy In The Chair' Ned Leeds was a great touch in this movie and I felt his somewhat dimwitted character had excellent chemistry with Peter, they bounced off perfectly with one another in every scene they featured in
Michael Keaton as the Vulture is just a masterstroke of casting in this movie as in my opinion he could well be close to being the best villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far, the way in which his character is gentle but yet brooding really had me glued whenever he appeared on the screen and the fact that he wasn't just another run of the mill Marvel villain plotting to 'Blow up the world' with some kind of laser beam (sigh) was great to see, he was pretty much a everyday street level guy that you could sympathise with in some cases.
Michael Keaton (above) bought a great layered performance as a street level down to earth villain as The Vulture
The scene in particular that I absolutely loved and is perhaps my favourite scene in the movie that put Michael Keaton's Vulture on the top of my MCU villain list is the scene after the whole shock twist reveal that Adrian Toomes/The Vulture is actually the father of Peter Parker's love interest Liz Allan where Toomes/The Vulture gives both Liz and Peter a ride to the high school prom and asks Liz to go along into the prom while he and Peter have a man to man chat, the suspense that was building all the way from Peter's visit to the Toomes household in the car to the prom where Toomes/The Vulture is slowly piecing together that Peter is actually Spiderman is perfectly blown off here as Toomes turns around to Parker with passive aggressive menacing expression on his face, telling Peter that he knows who he truly is and if he get's in the way of his plan to feed his family he will kill him and everyone he loves, this scene then triggers off a big sense of urgency and danger that felt very real to me when watching it and it was a nice surprising change of tone in an other wise lighthearted comedic movie.
The pacing of the movie is incredibly done and did not bog me down with any scenes that dragged, as a matter of fact I don't think there was one boring scene in the entire film. The story is very simple and it works, 8 years after the Battle Of New York in the Avengers movie, Adrian Toomes and his salvage company are contracted to clean up the aftermath of the event in the city, however, Tony Stark's Damage Control department take over the assignment driving Adrian Toomes out of business, this in turn causes Toomes to move to an agenda along with his crew which includes another famous Spiderman foe The Shocker of keeping the Chitauri technology salvaged from wreckages to create and sell advanced weapons, Spiderman discovers this and makes it his simple mo to stop Vulture causing chaos.
In what is my favourite scene in the entire movie, the light hearted fast paced comedic tone suddenly gets serious and silent with big sense of danger as Adrian Toomes (above) figures out Spiderman's identity, I feel this scene is sure to go down as an iconic superhero movie scene as time goes on, it really is that good!
The pacing of the movie is incredibly done and did not bog me down with any scenes that dragged, as a matter of fact I don't think there was one boring scene in the entire film. The story is very simple and it works, 8 years after the Battle Of New York in the Avengers movie, Adrian Toomes and his salvage company are contracted to clean up the aftermath of the event in the city, however, Tony Stark's Damage Control department take over the assignment driving Adrian Toomes out of business, this in turn causes Toomes to move to an agenda along with his crew which includes another famous Spiderman foe The Shocker of keeping the Chitauri technology salvaged from wreckages to create and sell advanced weapons, Spiderman discovers this and makes it his simple mo to stop Vulture causing chaos.
The interesting aspect of Adrian Toome's crew was the inclusion of a very familiar Spiderman foe, The Shocker which despite having a interesting take on the character I felt that their needed to be more of a development for him, I felt that he could of done a little bit more in the movie as a nemesis for Spiderman, but I do hope that we see him get expanded in future films
The action set pieces in this film were very well put together and did a very good job of showing a very young spiderman that hasn't quite grasped his powers yet which made him feel vunerable at times and there were definatley times where I felt Spiderman was going to be in real trouble especially when he went up against Vulture.
Due to being a very young and un-seasoned Spiderman, it truly felt like he was in trouble when going up against the bad guys in this movie which was a good thrill
Now let's get to the stuff that I particularly didn't like about what is otherwise a excellent superhero movie:
Something that did bug me in this film was Spiderman's over reliance on Stark Tech, to me this Spiderman did not feel like a traditional Spiderman who uses his natural instincts to survive, and yes I know that this is a very young Spiderman who hasn't grasped his abilities yet, but I just couldn't help feeling slightly annoyed by a super-teched up Spiderman who even has a built in Siri system called Karen, it felt like Spiderman was just another Iron Man, I really do hope that in future films, Peter distances himself from the use of technology and finds his inner natural abilities.
One gripe I did have about one of the Spiderman vs Vulture fights was the moment where The Vulture dropped concrete flooring on top of Spiderman and we then had a scene where Peter was willing himself up using his strength to lift the pile of rubble off of himself, instead of having the voice of Tony Stark willing him on, this would of been a fitting moment to throw in a bit of Uncle Ben by having his voice quote some kind of inspirational phrase, Don't get me wrong, i'm delighted they chose to move away from the much milked Uncle Ben story in this Spiderman film, but I thought they didn't need to do away with him entirely, just a nice little voice from him in Peter's head would of made for a great 'rising up' scene.
Zendaya's Character in the movie 'Michelle' was one that I did not quite take to too much despite having some moments that made me chuckle, but that's not what annoyed me about her, it was the clever quip that was thrown in at the end where she was referred to as 'MJ' which she claimed her friends call her, and yes MJ is an allusion to Mary Jane Watson, I feel that this was quite unnecessary and it seemed to go over viewer's heads in the cinema, what the producers here seem to be doing with the Michelle character going forward is potentially setting her up to take characteristics of Mary Jane Watson and set her up to be the main love interest of Peter in upcoming movies (the seeds are planted with her saying that she's very observant of Peter),which is something I just can't picture in my head right now as I can't see the way in which this character is portrayed, filling in that Mary Jane role for the MCU. But we shall wait and see about that.
Something that did bug me in this film was Spiderman's over reliance on Stark Tech, to me this Spiderman did not feel like a traditional Spiderman who uses his natural instincts to survive, and yes I know that this is a very young Spiderman who hasn't grasped his abilities yet, but I just couldn't help feeling slightly annoyed by a super-teched up Spiderman who even has a built in Siri system called Karen, it felt like Spiderman was just another Iron Man, I really do hope that in future films, Peter distances himself from the use of technology and finds his inner natural abilities.
Too Much Tech: It was weird seeing Spiderman equipped with so much technology in the film (above), he was pretty much Iron Man in a Spiderman costume and it did feel a bit annoying as I didn't get the feel of a traditional Spiderman
One gripe I did have about one of the Spiderman vs Vulture fights was the moment where The Vulture dropped concrete flooring on top of Spiderman and we then had a scene where Peter was willing himself up using his strength to lift the pile of rubble off of himself, instead of having the voice of Tony Stark willing him on, this would of been a fitting moment to throw in a bit of Uncle Ben by having his voice quote some kind of inspirational phrase, Don't get me wrong, i'm delighted they chose to move away from the much milked Uncle Ben story in this Spiderman film, but I thought they didn't need to do away with him entirely, just a nice little voice from him in Peter's head would of made for a great 'rising up' scene.
I felt like scenes similar to the one above featuring a beaten down Spiderman/Peter Parker could of used a nice little 'voice of courage' from Uncle Ben as a light nod to the absent character
Zendaya's Character in the movie 'Michelle' was one that I did not quite take to too much despite having some moments that made me chuckle, but that's not what annoyed me about her, it was the clever quip that was thrown in at the end where she was referred to as 'MJ' which she claimed her friends call her, and yes MJ is an allusion to Mary Jane Watson, I feel that this was quite unnecessary and it seemed to go over viewer's heads in the cinema, what the producers here seem to be doing with the Michelle character going forward is potentially setting her up to take characteristics of Mary Jane Watson and set her up to be the main love interest of Peter in upcoming movies (the seeds are planted with her saying that she's very observant of Peter),which is something I just can't picture in my head right now as I can't see the way in which this character is portrayed, filling in that Mary Jane role for the MCU. But we shall wait and see about that.
In a nod to an iconic love interest of Peter Parker, Michelle's character reveals that she is called 'MJ' by friends, which was a weird twist by the producers and I don't quite know how I feel about it, it is pretty obvious however that she is going to end up being the main love interest of Peter Parker in future movies, maybe what feels weird now will make sense in the sequel which is years away, as our High School characters will be more grown up and feel different by then
One last gripe that I also had with the movie was there seemed to be no chemistry between Peter and his love interest Liz, there didn't seem to be much of a build up to them getting together, and when they came together on screen and interacted with each other, they looked really out of place with each other (and no it has nothing to do with ethnicity)
Overall Spiderman Homecoming is a blast of a super hero movie that is a no nonsense barrage of fun, and a complete breath of fresh air for a movie franchise that has been ill fated for the past decade.
There just didn't seem to be much in the way of chemistry between Liz and Peter (above) for me in this movie and there was really no real build between them
Overall Spiderman Homecoming is a blast of a super hero movie that is a no nonsense barrage of fun, and a complete breath of fresh air for a movie franchise that has been ill fated for the past decade.
Spiderman is back. And he truly feels like he's back home in the MCU, hence the fitting movie title.
Feel free to leave your comments on how you felt about Spiderman Homecoming.
- Simeon Barrett
