Review: Spiderman Homecoming
Spiderman Homecoming is the third incarnation and it's the best we had yet. Now fully integrated into the MCEU while still with Sony, the new Spiderman is just pure entertainment from start to finish.
Plot
Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May, under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark, Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine - distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man - but when the Vulture emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened. Written by Benett Sullivan
Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/?ref_=nv_sr_1
The writing is fun and the movie manages to not be an origin story while still giving enough explanation should anyone not know who spiderman is. Although Spiderman is already established and was introduced in Captain America: Civil War, we still get the hero's journey, we get to see Spidermans potential only to have it taken away from us in the middle of the movie. One of the best things of that heros journey is that we see, how much Peter Parker has to sacrifice to be Spiderman. Peter struggles to combine being Spiderman and also being a normal teen in school and several times we see him missing out on school thing or activities with friends and we see how hard that is for him.
Another great thing is the Vulture as a great villain. Micheal Keaton gives a great performance as Adrian Toomes, as you would expect. His performance, and the good writing creates one of those villians who's motivation you can kind of understand. You never feel he does those things out of pure perniciousness, but out of necessity. As a last element the Vulture suit is a great interpretation of the original comic suit. The metal wings that can be used as hands and as weapons, combined with the mask, turn Adrian Toomes into a truely scary monster. What by all accords shouldn't work, an old man with wings, is turned into on of the most memorable villains of the MCEU.
Recent MCEU movies had this bad habit to not allow dramatic scenes to play out, but to abruptly end it with a quick gag to ease the tension. Mantis is hit by a rock in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and when Dr. Strange puts on the cloak, it starts messing with his face. I always found this things annoying, as if the director didn't trust their actors to properly act out the drama. So I was ecstatic, when in the few dramatic scenes we get in Spiderman Homecoming are actually allowed to play out, let the drama and fear take effect.
The conectiv tissue to the MCEU is Tony Stark who is tutoring Peter. And while he was very present in the marketing, especially the trailers, his role in the movie is rather small. He is used in a few key moments to further the story and drive spiderman on, but the movie is a spiderman. In all parts the movie is about Peter Parker and his journey.
If I have to mention something I feel could have been done better, I would like to see more regular interaction of Peter with his friends and aunt. Yes there are a lot of scenes with Peter and Ned, but that is mostly focus on Peter being Spiderman. The other schoolmates and even his aunt May come a bit short for my taste.
In my eyes Spiderman Homecoming is not only the best Spiderman we had so far, but also one of the best MCEU movies. It's a pure joy from start to finish.
My rating 9/10
