Spider-Man: Homecoming Review

The Mighty Marvel Cinematic Universe marches on! It's sixteenth film, a co-production with Sony, focuses on a certain wild and wooly wall-crawler. That's right, Spider-Man made his big homecoming, and I got to see it!

First of all, I think the title is actually pretty clever. Not only is Spider-Man "coming home" to Marvel as it were, but Peter Parker's Homecoming dance does play a role in the film. It's a minor spoiler, I assure you.

Basically, young Peter Parker, after the events of Captain America: Civil War, struggled to prove himself worthy of being an Avenger in the eyes of Tony Stark, while dealing with the threat of the criminal scavenger known as the Vulture.

First of all, I have to say, I love the fact that the Vulture is the villain here. It is tempting for a Spider-Man film to use the Green Goblin as the villain, as the Goblin is considered Spidey's greatest nemesis, like Red Skull for Captain America, Joker for Batman, or Lex Luthor for Superman. But this film chooses to use the first supervillain Spider-Man fought as its villain. Nice nod to the comics there. I also like the nods to the various nod to the Spidey canon in the film. I'll leave you to find them all.

The film had a lighter tone, with many funny moments, which was rather appropriate for a Spider-Man film. The cast is also very strong. Tom Holland shows a range of emotions as Peter Parker, Michael Keaton turns in a great performance as Adrian Toomes/The Vulture, Marisa Tomei gave us a wonderful take on Aunt May, Jacob Batalon is a joy to watch as Ned Leeds, and Zendaya does well as Michelle, a loner student. It's a great cast, and they are fun to watch.

I also liked the film's take on the Vulture, especially his armor. My only complaints are they should have tried to make the faceplate look more like a beak, and tried to slap more green on it. Otherwise that, I loved the armor. There was another twist with this version of the Vulture that shocked me, but again, no spoilers.

I do have one complaint about the film, though. There does seem to be some confusion about the timeline of the MCU in this movie. It didn't bother me when I was watching it, but looking back, yeah, they should have cleared that up. I also like that another trope that happens in the MCU was averted here.

I loved this movie, and I highly recommended it. Especially if you love Spider-Man. He's one of my favorite heroes, and the MCU did him justice. On to Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War!