Spider-Man: Homecoming
Director: Jon Watts
Writer: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
Based on: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko‘s comic
Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Hannibal Buress, Angourie Rice, Martin Starr, Michael Chernus, Logan Marshall-Green, Jennifer Connelly, Chris Evans
Part of: Marvel movies
Seen on: 18.7.2017
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Plot:
Peter (Tom Holland) is excited about the new superpowers he has gained and wants to become a proper superhero, like Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who recruited him not too long ago. But now Tony is keeping him at arm’s length and Peter is supposed to keep a low profile and go to high school, when he just wants to be properly heroic Spider-Man. When a new villain makes an appearance, Peter can’t keep still, though. Something needs to be done. And if nobody else does it, he will.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is entertaining and fun and has its fair share of problems. I enjoyed it, but not without reservations.

Spider-Man: Homecoming strikes the right tone for the story. Peter Parker is a funny guy and the film capitalizes on that. It made me laugh out loud a couple of times and time simply flies while you watch it – there really isn’t a boring second here.

But unfortunately I do have to come out with some buts. While I appreciate the move that the Marvel movies are trying to be more diverse and inclusive, with casting Zendaya as Mary Jane and casting Jacob Batalon as Peter’s best friend, but it’s pretty much window dressing as the film revolves around the white dudes anyway. And after the extensive internet campaign to have Donald Glover play Miles Morales, casting him as a gangster in the film feels a bit like an insult. Diversity also fails on the gender end of things, as pretty much the only women in the film are Peter’s current love interest, his future love interest and his aunt – who is weirdly sexualized.

And as much as I enjoyed Tom Holland as Peter, Peter’s age was a problem. Not only because Holland looks older than 15. It didn’t work regarding the plot and it didn’t work for the way the character is drawn. If he had been a few years older, a lot of it would have made more sense to me.

It also becomes more and more apparent that the Marvel films have a real Tony Stark problem. As in: this entire film wouldn’t have happened if Tony had taken one second to talk to Peter and that he didn’t talk to him didn’t make much sense. I think a proper Iron Man movie is called for, where they really work with the character and to repair him, because at the moment, he’s lost in a haze of writing that doesn’t really want to deal with him.

These are not small buts. Nevertheless they weren’t big enough for me not to enjoy Captain America’s (Chris Evans) awesome cameos, as well as big parts of the film.

Summarizing: Entertaining.