Spiderman Homecoming
Directed by: Jon Watts
Grade: B
Spiderman Homecoming opens right after the events of the first Avengers movie and then jumps to Peter’s adventures during Civil War. Even though this is a Peter Parker movie through and through the Marvel Universe definitely looms large and I think is an added benefit and one of my favorite parts of the movie.
This is a weird one. Because in the end- I enjoyed the movie. Great cast. Great performances. Finally a good villain but to be honest it left me kind of cold. (That’s not to say this wasn’t a good movie in terms of acting. Tom Holland is great. I can’t think of anyone who wasn’t great or good.)
I really liked mentor Tony Stark and Happy (Jon Favreau) being Peter’s point man led to some funny moments. There was a quick moment when Tony was trying to give Peter encouragement because his dad never did about the time Peter was screwing up again. This scene was one of my two favorites- It wasn’t Uncle Ben pointing out with great power comes great responsibility (Thank God!) but Tony raising the very good blunt point that anyone dies when Peter goes off the handle Peter has to live with that and pointing out that if Peter died that would be on Tony.
FYI- I still believe Tony’s story is coming to a close in the Infinity War movies and the appearance of Pepper and their relationship being fixed was lovely but only reinforced that for me.
Michael Keaton was really great as Vulture as well. A somewhat sympathetic and understandable character. It’s funny to the only spoiler I accidentally read for the movie involved his character and turned out to be wrong so when a certain thing was revealed I was legitimately surprised there.
His work here with Holland where he’s figuring out that Peter Parker is Spiderman and Peter knows he’s putting it together all while trapped in a car with each other was probably my favorite scene of the whole movie.
I also thought it was a cute little Easter egg that Peter’s Stark suit AI was voiced by Jennifer Connelly real life wife of Tony’s AI Jarvis (Paul Bettany) now Vision.
Marissa Tomei and Zendaya were good but really underused. I get the impression their roles will be expanded upon in the sequel but I much preferred Zendaya’s character to Liz (Laura Harrier). In fact other than the cute Captain America videos and Michelle (Zendaya) annoying the gym teacher I could have done without most of the high school stuff.
I know Peter Parker was super true to the comic book character but at times I just wanted him to slow down and take a breath and be a little less quippy. I also couldn’t help think while watching the whole Washington monument set piece that it was pretty much Peter’s fault it was happening. The ferry thing- well even Peter knows he screwed that up.
Anyway, I need to stop before I keep rambling. This movie was entertaining and well acted (even cameos and small roles were on point). Tom Holland is going to make a great Peter Parker. The Easter eggs were enjoyable and since I’ve watched all of these movies I picked up on them! (And then I realized I have watched all of these movies! I think I might need a break after Infinity Wars.) I just wish I connected with it more.
Recommend: Yes. Despite my not connecting with it I was still entertained and much bigger Spiderman fans than myself are loving it. I am hoping however for more (and something different) from Ragnarok and Black Panther. Also still a firm believer that a Deadpool appearance in Spiderman would be awesome!
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