Balancing High School and Saving the City

Spider-Man (Tom Holland) in "Spider-Man: Homecoming"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

After the disappointment of “Spider-Man 3” in 2007, Sony gave another crack at the superhero on screen five years later with “The Amazing Spider-Man.”  When its sequel failed to reach financial expectations in 2014, you couldn’t help but think what was going to happen with future movie adaptations of the beloved web-slinger.  Surely, we wouldn’t have to start all over again and watch another origin story, would we?  

Fortunately, Sony decided to share the rights to the character with Marvel Studios, which resulted in the latter adding the character to their Marvel Cinematic Universe.  After the character’s appearance became a highlight in last year’s “Captain America: Civil War,” it was difficult not to get excited about this latest version of the character.  In director Jon Watts’ “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” he delivers one of the MCU’s best films, an enjoyable superhero yarn that also functions as a John Hughes-like high-school comedy, and it all works.

Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is a high-school student who’s trying to juggle academics, his social life, and his responsibilities as Spider-Man.  When a man named Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) threatens New York City with alien technology he and his crew salvaged from the Battle of New York (the battle that occurred at the end of the first “Avengers” film), Peter will have to put his abilities to the test to protect the city he loves.

Marvel has had some perfect casting over the years, particularly Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, and now Tom Holland as joined their ranks as one of the best casting decisions in the MCU.  It’s an enjoyable performance where Holland captures the high-school adolescence of Peter Parker and the ambitiousness of Spider-Man trying to prove himself as a superhero.  Although Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield both did a fine job playing this character, Holland almost makes you forget about them because of the spiritedness he brings to all of his scenes, and it’s this energy that gets you invested in his journey.

Between Ego in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” and Michael Keaton’s performance, the MCU is having a surprisingly strong year with their villains.  Keaton looks like he’s having a blast in the role, which is an obvious, yet fun nod to his character in the 2014 dark comedy, “Birdman.”  With his menacing attitude, Keaton relishes every scene he’s in, but is able to refrain from going into hammy territory, and he ends up adding another memorable performance to the list that’s been growing since his comeback from nearly three years ago.

The screenplay by Watts, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daly, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers, which is based on the character by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, manages to tell a clear story and stay focused, even with this many writers.  The MCU tends to experiment with different genres, and this time, they take the high-school-comedy route.  With such an approach, what this film does better than Sam Raimi’s first “Spider-Man” and Marc Webb’s first “Amazing Spider-Man” is go more in-depth with the high-school aspect of Peter’s life.  These scenes are sometimes more fun to watch than the big special-effects sequences because of how character-driven they are.  And with the high-school portions of the film comes some terrific humor, as this is the first time in any MCU movie that none of the comedy is forced; all of it feels natural to how the characters would interact.

One problem with the screenplay is that the film has some similarities to the original “Iron Man” film; Robert Downey, Jr. and Jon Favreau even have substantial supporting roles as Tony Stark/Iron Man and his driver, Happy Hogan, respectively.  However, with the fun narrative, this is a forgivable hiccup.

Upon seeing the advertisements for the film, I was worried that the involvement of Tony Stark would mean that there would be too much shoehorning of Iron Man in the movie, which would have made it seem like Marvel Studios didn’t have the confidence to let Spider-Man carry his own movie.  Other than one major scene where Tony Stark dons his Iron Man suit, the rest of the film is, thankfully, focused on Peter.

Between the action sequences and the chemistry between Peter and his high-school friends, Watts delivers unending enjoyment in this irresistible superhero adventure.  Although this is the third version of the character we’ve seen since Raimi’s original “Spider-Man” 15 years ago, Watts still manages to bring something that feels fresh and thrilling to the hero’s story and the entire MCU.  With an abundance of heart, Marvel’s famous web-crawler makes a welcome return to the big screen, making this a coming-of-age story you can’t miss.

Final Grade: A-