When the Marvel Cinematic Universe logo appeared with an orchestral version of the cheesy 60s Spider-Man cartoon theme, I wasn’t sure what to expect. No other superhero has gone through so many different film iterations since the start of the millennium as Spider-Man. The beloved Sam Rami/Toby Maguire films began the incredibly successful superhero franchise, with heart and faithful spirit by Rami, being a huge fan of the original comic books himself. Then, after the troubled development and critical turnout of Spider-Man 3, and the “creative differences” that followed between Rami and Sony, Rami left, and the cast followed suit. The series sat in pre-production for years, however as time drifted ever closer to Sony losing the rights of their goldmine IP, the decision was made to simply start from the beginning again, barely five years later after the last film, with a new “shared-universe” franchise to compete with Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.
This was The Amazing Spider-Man, showing us a gritty, tortured Spider-Man played by Andrew Garfield, to once again, polarizing reception, and a sequel two years later that was unpopular to say the least. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a film in competition with Spider-Man 3 for how overstuffed and ridiculous a script could be, and not even the talent of Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Jamie Fox could save it. The box office turnout was also lackluster (for Sony’s standards of a Spider-Man movie anyway). Realizing their new Spider-Man universe was probably going to continue to drop from there, Sony finally reached a compromise with Marvel Studios, and now the Spider-Man franchise has been brought into the continuity of its competition, though with Sony still maintaining creative control. That means another reboot, no more than 3 years later, that makes you wonder why you should even care at this point.
One paragraph of convoluted soulless Hollywood junk later, how is the movie?
Spider-Man: Homecoming is actually quite strong, and easily ranks as one of the finest examples of portraying the character in live-action. Gone is the cartoonish silliness of the Rami films, gone is the darkness and feelings of “did this really need to exist” of the “Amazing” films, Homecoming is simply a really fun movie about a kid who is a clumsy, inexperienced superhero with a strong heart. The character’s introduction in Captain America: Civil War played up his ‘youthful’ nature in relation to the adults surrounding him, and Homecoming goes further into making Spider-Man fit into the cliches of a early high school student. Peter has a nerdy best friend, he has a crush on the popular girl, he is bullied by a guy who also likes the popular girl, he’s naive, he wants to go to the ‘big party’ to get closer to his crush, homecoming dance is coming up, etc.
During the film it was like filling out a scroll, yet the strength of the execution is almost never overshadowed by these familiarities. In fact, many reviews feel the film is at its best when “dealing with the awkwardness of adolescence” with heart and comedy, and the superhero action itself doesn’t compare. True enough, comedy is front and center in this movie, especially compared to any pervious Spider-Man film, and it all works on a general level, unlike the pervious Marvel movies having a frustrating need to sprinkle modern pop culture references throughout (I’m looking at you on-going Beyoncé gag in Dr. Strange). When there are references in Homecoming, they’re usually homages to all areas of Spider-Man mythos, rewarding those who have sat through the pervious films, as well as for comic fans with nods to different iterations of the character both old and new. It also works as a good standalone film, with scenes dedicated to building into up-coming Marvel films being almost nonexistent. Working as both a film for casual audiences, and a film for fans, Spider-Man: Homecoming is what Ghost in the Shell wanted to be.
Despite the growing, looming dread this year has produced, at least we got two great blockbusters in a row! Will War for the Planet of the Apes continue this streak? Probably. See you next week!
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