"Spider-Man: Homecoming" review

Spider-Man. The teenage years. Again.

Peter Parker. Responsibility. Superhero stuff. Honestly at this point, I don’t even know what to say.

The first joint venture between Sony and Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe has yielded its fruit in the form of “Spider-Man: Homecoming” a movie that is objectively solid and a fun change of pace for a universe composed of franchise films that have been escalating above the more relatable ground level but when compared to some of the better moments of the title character’s previous outings, comes up just a bit lacking.

Following the debut of this setting’s Peter Parker in “Captain America: Civil War,”  “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is probably the single most traditional superhero movie to wear the MCU banner since the original “Iron Man.”

Peter Parker returns home to Queens under Tony Stark’s apprenticeship to become a hero of the people just as former debris clean up manager Adrian Toomes utilizes abandoned weapons and technology salvaged from Avengers conflicts to adopt the villainous mantle of “The Vulture.”

What basically ensues from Peter Parker’s subsequent attempt to chase his newfound responsibility with the sincere but misguided zeal of a teenager being granted a Lamborghini a day after attaining a driver’s license is the best world building exercise of the MCU that’s unfortunately lean on elements that should sell this as a standalone film series.

The benefit of following a street level superhero after several straight movies of cosmic travelers, larger than life political figures and dimension hopping sorcerers is that “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” similar to previous MCU installment “Ant-Man” serves as an excellent palette cleanser for its genre.

Seeing the everyday consequences of these larger than life battles accumulate over the last couple of years from the perspective of ordinary Joes and noncombatants really makes the science fantasy nature of the world feel real and settled in; no matter how relatable and familiar it may seem, this world has developed along a clearly different path and getting to see how this impacts the children of the world really drives home what it means to be a hero or villain in this setting.

All of this is sold by Jon Watts’ low key direction that brings focus on the smallest details of any given scene and a cast of great performances, not the least of which are its 2 central characters.

Tom Holland continues the development of a young Peter Parker still coming into his own and really gets to run the gamut of emotions on this character from his trademark charisma and goofy clumsiness to a stark reminder that being ostensibly a child soldier, he has a lot of intangible vulnerabilities. Something sold perhaps too well.

Meanwhile, Michael Keaton’s take on The Vulture is quite possibly one of the best villains of the entire MCU. The old shafted working class stiff by the upper class plot line may seem a bit cliché on the surface but his sheer conviction to the material along with operating on a clearly defined code of ethics leads to an astonishing pay off in the movie’s third act and that not only frames the sense of character development that the film’s titular protagonist was desperately lacking but optimized him as the perfect foil for a superhero whose dramatic kick off was the choice to ignore the basic human decency.

The strength of these dynamics alone go a long way towards making “Spider-Man: Homecoming” a strong summer blockbuster but as easily enjoyable as the film is, there’s just no getting around the undeniable sense of rehash present in every ounce of it.

A big deal has been made of the film glossing over the origin story and the murder of Uncle Ben in order to give it a lighter and more fresh feel and while the previously botched reboot makes revisiting the origin a redundancy, a lot of “Homecoming’s” content just doesn’t feel right within the context of those events having happened.

The complaint about cinematic “Spider-Man” portrayals feeling too tortured is one that I never quite understood. Sure, the character is bright and charismatic but the murder of one’s beloved father figure isn’t typically something that you just put behind you overnight, much less after learning that you could have stopped it by simply acting as though you had a human conscience.

To that end, one of the biggest issues with Holland’s otherwise spot on portrayal is that he’s a bit too sincerely spastic regarding his excitement to be a hero.

That’s not to say he has to carry blatant self doubt and guilt on his shoulders the same way that his predecessors have but to me, there’s something off about a teenager that was saving people from disasters as penance for the death of his uncle, being recruited to fight against half of the mightiest heroes on the planet in a morally grey political conflict, and then having to apparently learn that major actions have consequences for a character arc.

Not helping this is the general tone of the film. The effort to be something of a modern John Hughes movie with a superhero flair is the type of admirable genre experiment that I’m an absolute sucker for but it does once again draw attention to “Homecoming’s” fundamentally flawed approach.

It attempts to inject as much humor, heart, life, and character into its setting and cast as possible but at the end of the day, all I was reminded of is how the best thing previous “Spider-Man” movies had done was gloss over the high school days as a footnote to a larger and more meaty narrative.

Perhaps if this were a television series, where the villainous revelations and ramifications of the hero’s investigation at the cost of his personal life could be more thoroughly examined and basked in to enhance the impact of every character of the movie’s supporting cast, the concept would have flourished.

Despite a strong finish and compelling world building touches however, a series of 2 hour movies, unless stacked back to back with one another production wise a la “Lord of the Rings” or “Harry Potter,” just can't feasibly examine this very brief period in the main character’s life as the cornerstone for an entire franchise and the notion that they may vainly try to for the duration of both production companies contracts just fails to excite me for what’s to come despite a plethora of potential introduced through background gags and Easter eggs in this movie alone.

“Spider-Man: Homecoming” frustrates almost as much as it impresses, though not through much fault of the film’s actual craftsmanship as much as the studio politics behind it getting made. It’s good in every way that you want it to be but not great in every way that you hoped that it could, resulting in a movie that I appreciate having but never would have asked for despite the final results.

It’s just not possible for me to really separate my apprehension for the future of this franchise from the worth of the movie itself but if you can isolate it from almost any messy context that it’s associated with, you’re still left with a fun crowd pleaser in what has thus far been a rather drab summer.

7 Rewards of Action out of 10