- After a promising (if unnecessary) cameo in Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man finally takes his first feature-length webswing into the extended Marvel movie universe in Jon Watts' Spider-Man: Homecoming. For the most part, it's a good fit. With all due respect to Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland is the first Spider-Man actor to look like he could plausibly be in high school (the actor was 20 when filming started) and is easily the most charismatic chatterbox of the three of them. Like most Marvel movie products, the film itself is directed and written with a certain unremarkable competence, which may be exactly the kind of filmmaking approach this character needed after his second reboot.
- Spider-Man: Homecoming's most revolutionary choice may be its merciful omission of the origin story that everybody knows by heart. Instead, Spidey leaps right into action...by catching a bike thief and giving a old woman directions. Hey, it's not always easy to stumble upon crimes in progress, right? Unfortunately, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) made it clear that Peter wasn't ready to be an Avenger, so he's stuck checking in with Stark's bodyguard (Jon Favreau) all hours of the day just to make sure he's not needed for another big mission. One night, Peter disrupts an ATM robbery in which the crooks (Bokeem Woodbine and Logan Marshall-Green) are wielding some seriously advanced alien weapons. Maybe running their organization down will impress Mr. Stark enough to land Peter a spot in the Avengers?
- As it happens, the mastermind behind the alien weaponry is a blue-collar worker named Toomes (Michael Keaton), whose once-legitimate salvaging business got steamrolled by a government agency that exists purely to clean up after block-clearing superhero brawls. Now Toomes and his tinkering associate (Michael Chernus) have carved themselves out an illegal niche trafficking in alien weapons and committing robberies just small enough to stay under the Avengers' radar. Needless to say, battling it out with Spider-Man in the streets of Queens is the last thing Toomes wants. Actually, I take that back: the last thing Toomes wants is for anything bad to happen to his family. Suddenly, this version of the Vulture is much more interesting than the average Spider-Man villain, and it's great to see Keaton putting his well-cultivated growl to great use.
- I've gotten this far in the review without mentioning Peter's classmates, which is a shame, because they are easily the most fun and diverse set of characters that Marvel has introduced in some time. Peter's effortlessly hilarious best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) is a nerdy tech enthusiast almost as eager to assemble a Lego Death Star as he is to become Spider-Man's sidekick. Peter's love interest and academic decathlete Liz (Laura Harrier) seems interested in Peter, too, but is understandably confused by his alter-ego-related evasiveness. Peter's rival Flash (Tony Revolori) is a name-calling bully who finds no shortage of ways to substitute the word "penis" for Peter's first name. Finally, there is that quirky, quiet girl (Zendaya), whose name escapes everyone, including the film's writers, until the final minutes.
- Fortunately, Spider-Man: Homecoming makes up for that silly, self-indulgent character reveal by following it with a great decision that hopefully bodes well for the series' future. After spending the entire movie pleading for a seat at the Avengers' table, Peter finally admits to Tony Stark that he would prefer to remain a "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man" who just looks out for the little guy. Paradoxically, it took a decade-old, multi-billion dollar franchise to finally realize that Spider-Man really works best on a small stage. The various Avenger tie-ins and CGI-flooded battles pale in comparison to those very human moments Peter shares with his redoubtable aunt May (Marisa Tomei), his various high school friends, and yes, even his sworn adversaries. Now let's just hope they don't mess it all up in the sequels.
- Also featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, Donald Glover, Tyne Daly, Abraham Attah, Hannibal Buress, Kenneth Choi, Martin Starr, Chris Evans, the voice of Jennifer Connolly, and your old pal Stan Lee.
