[REVIEW] Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming had two main obstacles to overcome. Director Jon Watts had to prove that the web-slinger still had a place in Marvel’s ever-expanding universe, while justifying its own existence as a film: that another Spider-Man redux was worth our time and money at all. Homecoming meets those outcomes, not only cementing itself as one of Marvel Studio’s best films but one of the best superhero films of the last decade.

Underneath the suit and beyond his supernatural powers, Spider-Man has always been the everyman of superheroes. He’s a normal guy trying to navigate the trials of everyday life, who just happened to have greatness thrust upon him. While you might struggle to empathise with an eccentric billionaire, a perfect super-soldier or a literal god, there’s something a lot more relatable in the story of a regular guy trying to make a difference.

There’s a balance between the persona of Spider-Man and the day-to-day character of Peter Parker that hasn’t really been nailed by the actors who’ve previously stepped into the roles. Tobey Maguire excelled as Peter Parker, while Andrew Garfield gelled better with Spidey. It’s only with Tom Holland, however, that the series has an actor nailing the balance between the two. Michael Keaton turns in a solid performance as the film’s big bad guy: Adrian “The Vulture” Toomes, a blue-collar salvage company owner put out of business by Tony Stark’s newly-formed Department of Damage Control (they’re the guys cleaning up the mess after every super-powered showdown). Toomes and his team scavenge the leftover technology — Chitauri, Asgardian, Stark, et al — and repurpose them into black-market weapons.

Marvel has had a villain problem for a long time. For the most part, their bad guys are forgettable; they’re only there because the good guys need someone to fight, and that’s about the full extent of their depth as characters. Homecoming manages to sidestep this problem. The Vulture is the most memorable villain since Loki in The Avengers, and the most sympathetic villain of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’s not some mad scientist, wannabe tyrant, or a power-hungry god; he’s a construction worker turned arms dealer who just wants to provide for his family, and is willing to do whatever it takes to do so. He’s menacing, but not in an overtly evil way. The film opens with a flashback of Toomes and his team being kicked off a job by Damage Control, who openly mock the blue-collar workers. You genuinely feel for him; as someone who turned to crime out of necessity, sick of getting the short end of the stick.

Director Jon Watts knows how to combine genres into a cohesive whole. His 2014 film Cop Car perfectly blends a fun coming-of-age story — two kids taking an abandoned police vehicle for a joyride — with the tense thriller of the corrupt cop hunting down his car. Homecoming works in a very similar manner.

It’s a coming-of-age superhero story as much as it is a teen drama, compared to the previous franchise installments which were more concerned with what it means to be a superhero. Peter encapsulates the frustration of being a teenager and being ignored by your elders. He’s constantly trying to contact Happy Hogan (played by the consistently indifferent Jon Favreau) and Tony Stark, who barely acknowledge him. When they do finally acknowledge him it’s only so they can speak over the top of Peter or scold him. It’s irritatingly relatable. Stark acts like a surrogate father figure who Peter wants to both impress and be accepted by. He wants to prove he’s a Spider-Man, not a Spider-Boy, who can roll with the big dogs of the Avengers.

It’s in this high school setting that Homecoming shines the most. We’ve seen Peter is in high school before — in both the first Raimi and Webb Spider-Man movies –but those films always approached it as a setting, rather than considering it as an integral part of the story. The strength of these high school elements stems from the performances that come out of the supporting cast in the film. Rather than coming off as actors masquerading as teenagers, they genuinely feel like high-school students (something both of the previous Spider-Man series struggled with). There’s Peter’s nerdy but incredibly charming best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), the asshole-in-that-special-way-that-teens-are-assholes Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori), the popular overachiever Liz (Laura Harrier), and the sarcastic weirdo Michelle (Zendaya). If you stripped the superhero narrative out of the film, it wouldn’t be too different from a modern-day John Hughes high-school drama.

Compared to other recent superhero movies like Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Homecoming feels relatively dialled back. It opens with a quick montage of Spider-Man swinging through New York City, stopping bicycle thieves and neutralising would-be car-jackers. It isn’t afraid of the challenge to take Spider-Man out the city, throwing him into unfamiliar territory; a stark contrast with the location choices in the previous feature-film in franchise. There’s a suburban chase sequence where Peter is forced to deal with the fact there’s absence of skyscrapers, nullifying his characteristic web-swinging antics. In another instance, a class field- trip to Washington DC lends to one of the film’s best action moments: Spider-Man scaling the Washington Monument and saving his classmates from a broken elevator that’s about to drop them to their deaths.

There’s isn’t a particular cataclysmic event at the heart of the film’s final act; it’s just Spidey in his ratty homemade suit, taking on the Vulture one-on-one. The street-level everyman relatability shared by the hero and villain comes as a refreshing change of pace. Unlike the recent ‘origin films’ for Ant-Man and Doctor Strange it’s more concerned with exploring its characters and how they relate to one-another and the world they’re in, rather than set-pieces and special effect heavy action scenes.

Homecoming emphasises the fact that Parker and Toomes are two regular people who have just happened to have stumbled onto power. They both embody the idea of ‘the little guy’, although Spider-Man uses his powers to help those less fortunate. On the other hand, Toomes is driven by revenge and retribution. It sells the idea that with great power comes great reasonability, without anyone actually saying the iconic mantra.

While Spider-Man 2 remains the undefeated champion of films in the franchise, Homecoming comes the closest of any film attempting to capture why the web-crawler has remained as such an integral figure in pop-culture. There’s enough new in it that it stands as its own thing, while still managing to appeal to long-time fans. It’s funny without feeling forced (something most other Marvel movies tend to struggle with) and has the relatability that makes both Peter Parker and Spider-Man so endearing. It stands apart from the comic-book faithful approach of Sam Raimi’s trilogy, or the milquetoast mess of Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man. As the film commences with an orchestral take on the classic Spider-Man theme from the 60s cartoon, playing over the Marvel Studio title card, you can’t help feel excited that Marvel’s most iconic hero is finally where he belongs.