***THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW.***
If THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN movies gave you a better appreciation for director Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN Trilogy, then you'll be happy to know SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING will make you fall in love with Spider-Man all over again.
This is the Spider-Man movie fans have wanted to see since Sony released their first SPIDER-MAN movie in 2002. This isn't meant to downplay Raimi and Tobey Maguire's SPIDER-MAN Trilogy because they achieved what the superhero movie genre needed at that time to take it to the next level. Their intentional comic book campiness is still fun to watch as long as you accept that mindset about those movies purposely being that way.
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING really delivers on all major Spidey story beats, from the comics, all the last movies missed on or didn't nail down. And all without the need to fall into the same Spidey story tropes his past movies fell victim to over and over again. Marvel Studios deciding to forgo the need to tell his origin story, a third time in fifteen years, was the right move here.
This is the definitive Peter Parker and Spider-Man movie. From his astonishment as a teenager to the many moments happening to him, and around him, both serious and fun, to the Wall Crawler's quips while he has the mask on. It is all there and exactly how it needed to be done to be considered the best Spider-Man movie made, especially since Peter absolutely loves the action and thrills of being Spider-Man. And it can be said that this is perhaps one of Marvel Studios' best movies produced yet.
Spider-Man truly feels like the new flagship of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a fresh and young perspective you haven't seen from any of the MCU heroes. This is because Spider-Man is finally being portrayed by an actor who looks and acts like he is in fact 15 years old. The "coming-of-age" 80s teenage movie influence is felt throughout and Marvel Studios nailed the tone feeling like a John Hughes-like film. There are a few references to those 80s teenage movies throughout so keep your eyes peeled for them during Parker's high school moments.
While we won't get into spoiler territory — you deserve to see it all yourself since it will give you a big ol' smile on your face throughout — we will tease some parts of this movie.
At the start you get a modern day twist of a young journalist Parker with a little student video filling you in with his perspective of his adventure in Germany from the events of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. You've known Parker to set up his camera to take photos of Spider-Man in action and this is the adapted modern day journalistic view of that character beat from the comics. It's fun, funny and a joy to watch things from Parker's youthful perspective and if you have seen the International trailer you already got a tease of this sequence.
The movie gets going as Parker is dropped off by Tony Stark coming back from their trip to Germany. Parker is back in school and bored out of his mind until he puts on the suit to become Spider-Man. The importance he feels as Spider-Man is a big part of this story in how he needs to become a hero with and without the suit on in order to make Stark happy and hopefully become an official member of the Avengers team.
The Spider-Man action scenes are so much fun from his littlest crime fighting to big action set pieces, but it's the performance of actor Tom Holland that is the big standout. Holland captures the essence of both Parker and Spider-Man perfectly where it was like he was born to play this role.
Aunt May and Ned Leeds are very important roles, as well as being funny in their own way, and Marvel Studios solves its perceived "villain problem" with the Vulture. Going into this movie there was a gut feeling the Vulture could be the next villain to fall victim to the one-and-done antagonist in the MCU, but actor Michael Keaton brings so much more to his role. There are layers to the Vulture's purpose that fit perfectly into the plot; so much so the Vulture is one of the best developed villains in the MCU. A big claim, for sure, but you'll see soon enough how this claim is warranted.
If you were worried about the potential excessive involvement of Tony Stark and Iron Man here you don't have to be because there is just the right amount both. It doesn't feel like he is being pushed too much into Spider-Man's movie where it becomes an Iron Man movie.
In order to not give too much away it we will wrap this review up by saying SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING is a wonderful movie showing not only how much Sony needed Marvel Studios to make the perfect Spider-Man movie, but how much Marvel Studios really needed a refreshing perspective and jolt of Spider-Man into the MCU. It's a match made in heaven where both studios should be applauded for coming together in a rare studio partnership to bring Spidey into the MCU. Sony may have the live action movie rights for the Wall Crawler, and will be making all the movie profits on this film, but Disney and Marvel Studios own all the merchandise rights for Spider-Man and are about to sell a ton of merch. A win-win for both studios, financially, and an even bigger win for the beloved character and all his fans, too.
After seeing the movie it now makes sense why Sony and Marvel Studios already green lit a sequel to SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING for summer 2019 back in December... because this movie really is that good and should be Sony's first $1 billion box office Spider-Man movie and Marvel Studios' fifth $1 billion movie in their roster of Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
Finally, about the end credits... stay through all of it as you should for every Marvel Studios film. During our press screener we saw two credits scenes with the very last one being so brilliant it might actually be Marvel Studios' funniest credits scene yet.
Written by Daniel Wolf, DailySuperHero.com Founder & Publisher
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