This Week's Movies - Spider-Man: Homecoming

After the events of Captain America: Civil War, the young would-be Avenger Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is all dressed up – in an Iron Man-designed super Spider-Man suit, no less – with nowhere to go. Forbidden by Tony Stark from tackling the big bad guys, Spidey is forced to remain Queens’ “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man”, but still somehow manages to get in trouble with local salvage expert-turned-professional criminal The Vulture (Michael Keaton).

Pros:

1. Tom Holland is the best Spider-Man yet. Better than Tobey Maguire, better than Andrew Garfield, better than Christopher Daniel Barnes (who voiced him in the ‘90s TV cartoon, fact fans). His giddy, bouncy, youthful... sparkiness is what the character has long needed. Here’s the teenage Peter Parker, balancing homework (and homecoming) with protecting New York from the Green Goblin and company, embodied in a passionate, nerdy, eminently loveable performance from Tom Holland. A one-time West End Billy Elliot, his professional dancer background helps with the physical side of things, while his young-sounding, pitch-perfect American accent gives the Spidey one-liners a cute edge. Holland is going to be huge, trust me.
2. The comedic tone is bang on. The whole movie is just… fun. The jokes work, you care about the characters and the pacing is excellent. There is the seemingly-inevitable grey-and-grim big bad guy smash-up ending, but even that has some humanity at its heart. Spider-Man: Homecoming is playful, spry and warm. A real crowd-pleaser. Its funniest moment may be at the very, very end, I should point out, so be sure to sit in your seat until the credits have well and truly rolled and you will be well rewarded.
3. Finally, a standalone superhero movie that introduces a character without getting bogged down in a laborious origin story. Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider, he can now stick to things and has superhuman strength… let’s move on. There’s no complicated lore to unpack, just a breezy, entertaining summer movie that just so happens to star Marvel’s biggest and best superhero, finally back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe of Iron Man, The Hulk and Thor (though only Iron Man turns up in this one, I should point out). It’s easy. You will have a good time.

Cons:

1. This is the sixth Spider-Man movie in 15 years, and there’s a certain amount of Spidey fatigue setting in. Marvel and Sony do their best to breathe new life into the character, and do succeed for the most part, but there is an undeniable “Another one?” factor to it. There are a couple of plot wrinkles to keep things interesting, but the structure and set-pieces are reasonably routine.
2. In comparison to previous Spider-Man movies, particularly the brilliant Spider-Man 2, Homecoming is distinctly lightweight. There’s not much real heft here, and if you’re looking for a more tortured “with great power comes great responsibility”-type Spider-Man tale, this ain’t it. He has a supersuit, remember. Like, an Iron Man-ish supersuit. Oh, and the movie opens with the original ‘60s cartoon Spider-Man theme, so, you know, Gwen Stacy isn’t going to fall to her doom in this one, let’s put it that way.
3. He uses mechanical webshooters, which annoys some people (who prefer the organic version). Hey, it might annoy you. Am I getting too nerdy? I’ll shut up now.

Three word review: Surprisingly utterly brilliant.