Spider-Man Homecoming Hits Home
I was originally a little hesitant about Spidey’s new movie. Not only was there a strange studio deal between Marvel and the not-so-terrific Sony, but the marketing for the movie left a lot to be desired. But thankfully it turns out that Homecoming is a breath of fresh air in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After the disappointing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which was quite simply forgettable, it’s good to see Marvel back at the top of its game.
Well…mostly.
But before I get to that, let’s jump in and analyze this thing.
Things I Liked.
Clear Character Motivations.
One of the best things about Homecoming is how director Jon Watts and his team of screenwriters were able to portray Peter Parker’s conflicting inner desires. While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was a mildly amusing film, it mostly didn’t succeed because it didn’t have clear or believable character motivations.
Compare that with Peter Parker in Homecoming and you have a stark contrast. And it’s not just that Peter has a desire, like a real person he has multiple things motivating his actions throughout the story.
The first thing on Peter’s mind throughout the movie is Tony Stark and the Avengers. For the whole film Peter is overextending himself in an effort to impress Stark in the hope that he will be brought into the fold of the larger than life superheroes. This is clearly the thing he wants the most, and it shows with every action and choice that Peter makes.
Parker’s loyalty to Stark comes first.
This can be seen on multiple occasions when Peter chooses to forego doing something to impress his high school crush by going off to do some heroic deed. But the thing that makes these decisions so impactful is that we can see that it mentally rips Peter up inside to have to make the choice in the first place. It’s not that he wants to leave his crush behind, it’s that he wants to become an Avenger even more.
The same goes for his schooling. He clearly wants to be a good student, but there are other more important things occupying his mind. Like girls. And saving the world.
These Three Actors.
Of course Homecoming wouldn’t have succeeded if someone with Tom Holland’s skill and raw physicality hadn’t been in the lead role. It was clear ever since Civil War that Tom Holland was going to be a force to be reckoned with, and Homecoming proves that point. He’s likable, charming, naive, and a little dorky.
It also helps that Holland actually looks like he’s in high school instead of a twenty something pretending to be an adolescent. This aids Holland in portraying a clumsiness to Peter Parker who is still trying to figure out how he fits into this strange world of heroes and villains.
Next up, Batman, er… Michael Keaton as the Vulture. I like Michael Keaton as much as the next guy, but I was a little unsure about him coming into the Marvel fold as a villain of all things. But thankfully I like being proven wrong.
Keaton’s performance was one of the highlights of Homecoming. While this particular character isn’t the deepest villain ever put on screen, he’s just menacing enough while also emanating an everyman quality that makes him both scary and relatable.
He proved to be a functional world weary counterpoint to Holland’s optimistic Spider-Man. There’s also a fun reveal involving Vulture that is a blast to watch because it makes you rethink your assumptions about this guy from the beginning of the movie.
But one of the best surprises in Homecoming is newcomer Jacob Batalon as Peter’s buddy, Ned Leeds. I was surprised to learn that Homecoming was Batalon’s first starring role in a major Hollywood movie. Many a time has such an inexperienced actor nearly ruined a movie such as this, but Batalon proved capable in just about every scene he was in.
The buddy-to-the-main-character part is a tricky one to pull off without quickly spiraling down the pit of annoyingness. Luckily Batalon managed to avoid such pitfalls and turned out to be one of the better aspects of the film with a natural use of hilarious comedic timing.
The Humor
The one thing I was genuinely surprised about was the amount of humor in Homecoming. Aside from a few particular characters that I’ll get to later, Homecoming was funny almost throughout it’s entire runtime. That’s a rare thing, even for actual comedies.
And it’s not just witty banter either, there is a smattering of physical humor thrown into the mix that left me dying in my seat. Director Jon Watts had a good eye for the kind of humor he was going for, and he nailed it.
What Homecoming takes into consideration is the silly situations a real life Spider-Man would endure if he was actually going around town looking for criminals to bring to justice. While Spider-Man might idolize the over the top adventures of the Avengers, his little escapades almost serve to make people laugh more than feel inspired.
Things I Didn’t Like.
These Two Characters.
From the get-go, I knew that these particular characters were going to drive me nuts for the whole film. One of the worst offenders was the character of Peter’s high school bully, Flash. In previous incarnations of Spider-Man, Flash has always been portrayed as a stereotypical bully, but not so in Homecoming. In Homecoming, Flash is a nerd like Parker, but his specialty is emotional abuse, not physical. He clearly takes pride in insulting and ridiculing Parker in public every chance he gets.
This new take on the character could have worked, but it just…didn’t. It’s not that Flash’s character doesn’t have his moments, but instead of making him a likable jerk that is genuinely clever with his insults, his public jabs are uninspired and crass to the point of being cringeworthy. I would have preferred the jock over this joke. The writers should have known better.
The worst character out of the whole lot is one of Parker’s classmates, Michelle, who is played by Zendaya. I know what the filmmakers were trying to do with this character, but the direction they decided to take her in was out of place and quite frankly boring.
It felt as if the writers were under the delusion that deadpan humor automatically constitutes hilariousness. Unfortunately for future Spider-Man movies set in the MCU, Michelle is the one character I’m not looking forward to seeing more of. Zendaya and the writers should have taken a few cues from Ron Swanson on this one…
No Memorable Soundtrack.
While the soundtrack to Homecoming was perfectly serviceable, that was exactly the problem. Just like every other negative aspect of this film, it’s not that it’s completely terrible, it’s just not great.
It’s not the composer’s fault that he’s following in the steps of Danny Elfman’s inspired scores. I’m sure it’s not fun trying to develop something original and memorable when you have such a momentous legacy to live up to, but it felt like the composer didn’t even try. Like many of the other soundtracks in the MCU, Homecoming fell a little flat on this one.
Aunt May
I could have included Aunt May’s character with the other characters I didn’t care for, but I felt that May deserved her own shoutout. Or shoutdown…
The new Aunt May was one of the aspects that I truly loved from the Russo Brother’s take on the web slinger when he was introduced in Civil War. I thought it was neat that they took this character who is usually portrayed as a feeble old woman and made her a into a much younger lady than what we’re used to seeing. It was fresh and it just seemed to make sense with what the Russo’s were trying to accomplish with their unique vision of Spider-Man.
But then Homecoming had to come along and ruin it all.
This isn’t a knock against the actress, Marisa Tomei. She was perfectly fine for the material she was given. It’s more a knock against the screenwriter and the director. In Civil War, Aunt May was portrayed as an ordinary individual that anybody could hang out with. That aspect of the character is what worked. She seemed like a real person, but in Homecoming they tried to turn her into an eccentric weirdo.
Worst of all, there was no gravitas or pathos to Aunt May in Homecoming. There is one moment that hints at Aunt May’s tragic backstory involving Uncle Ben, but that’s it. Instead of being a motherly figure to Peter Parker, she almost seems like a wacky older sister. In Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies, Aunt May served a purpose and helped guide Peter along on his journey to great effect, but this Aunt May kind of just gets on the nerves.
Conclusion
All in all, Homecoming is up there with some of the best MCU movies to date, but it wasn’t perfect. The movie made me laugh and helped make up for some of the lousy blockbusters we’ve had to suffer through this summer. *cough* Dead Men Tell No Tales *cough*.
As you’ll notice, most of the things I didn’t care for about this film involved some of the characters in Parker’s life. While they sometimes made me sigh or groan, they thankfully didn’t ruin the movie as a whole. It was also buoyed by some terrific and surprising performances to help balance the story out.
The acting was generally terrific and the humor involving Spider-Man was hilarious. It was nice seeing a young actor playing a young Peter Parker for a change, and the movie did a good job of introducing us to Peter without giving us yet again another origin story.
