Spider-Man Homecoming
2.5/5
Written by Luke Barnes
This will be a review that a lot of you disagree with, but ah well let’s get into it.
Recently I have been on somewhat of a Spider-Man kick and have been watching, playing and reading a lot of related things, in that effort I rewatched Homecoming again, having not seen it since I first watched it in cinemas, and it doesn’t really hold up.
The main pro I will say for this film is the twist, when Michael Keaton’s Adrian Tombs reveals that he knows Peter’s secret it is impactful and is genuinely surprising. I take my hat off to the MCU for being able to bury the lead to the point where I did not see it coming.
Also John Favreau’s Happy Hogan is a delight.
Now to get into all the reasons why I think this is a weak film, especially within the widely strong landscape of the MCU- justification incoming.
Firstly, the focus on Damage Control is odd, yes it is only a minor thing that was supposed to develop out into a TV series, that may or may not be happening now, but seeing it feature in the film felt oddly jarring to me.
Moreover, this film being in the MCU doesn’t actually help it, though most wont want to admit it, because they want Spider-Man and the Avengers to be together, having this film be in the MCU keeps it from really having an identity of its own. By that I mean rather than have this film focus on Tom Holland’s Spider-Man being Spider-Man, the film instead decides to spend most of its time focusing on him and Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark as a sort of father son comedy duo. Now I can understand why they did this from a business side of things, but it makes this film feel like less of a Spider-Man film and almost side lines the character within his own film, this has gone on to create the Iron Man Jr argument with regards to the character of Spider-Man
Adding to this, the film feels overstuffed with characters, not only do you have Peter and his high school friends, and family you also now because it is in the MCU have to have cameos from Avengers and other in universe characters which leads to the film feeling bloated and again not like a Spider-Man film.
Finally, in perhaps my most divisive statement in this whole review, I don’t like Tom Holland as Peter Parker, I understand this is a younger version of the character, but he feels too much like a goodie, goodie boy scout character, with the grit and tragic darkness that make up the character in the comics being gone. This blends into the MCU’s wider issue of favouring humour over everything else, and it feels like a watering down of the character. Garfield and McGuire were both better in the role.
Pros.
Happy Hogan
The twist
Cons.
Iron Man Jr
Too many characters
Tom Holland
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Another Millennial Reviewer 