Spider-Man: Homecoming

For those who are very nostalgic about the actual comics and very adamant about how Spider-man should be, I don’t know how this new take would appeal to them. As someone who has seen (only) the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfiled versions of Spiderman, this new Marvel version set in the Avengers universe was refreshing and entertaining for me. Unlike the other stand alone Marvel Superhero movies, Spider-man: Homecoming isn’t giving us a bigger picture about the journey of the character, but still the refreshing take makes it look appealing.

Peter Parker who is roaming around the city in the Spiderman costume is actually under the mentoring of Tony Stark. As Peter is still at school, Tony has advised him to stay out of the bigger tasks and to just focus on the small things like robbery and all. So while doing all those boring stuff, Peter happen to bump in to a group who apparently was doing some under the radar crimes and how his temptation to prove his caliber messes up the situation and how it all eventually leads to his maturity is what Spider-man Homecoming all about.

I don’t know whether you noticed that I skipped the spider biting part and the portion were Peter is exploring his new powers. It’s because those portions is not there in this Spider-man. Yes! I think people at Marvel were also bored of seeing those portions again. In the avengers universe Spider-man is this newbie and to make things exciting for him (and us) the suit this time isn’t the normal one; it’s designed by Tony Stark. So in a way they still manage to create that exciting phase we have seen in the other films where Peter is experimenting with his abilities, but this time in a slightly different way. And there is no Mary Jane here even though there was a reference.   Cutting all those clichés and giving more time to the fun side of it makes this Jon Watts movie entertaining.

Jon Watts manages to bring in the kind of charm these Marvel movies have managed to possess through all those witty one liners and present day references. The changes are there in the story according to time. Spiderman is from YouTube, Captain America is preaching school kids and people are aware of the whole Avengers thing. Have you ever wondered about the common man’s perspective of things happening in the Avenger’s world? Well Marvel sort of addressed this issue in Civil War when the catastrophic destructions were questioned and lead to the spilt. Even though Spider-man homecoming is pretty simple like, say an Ant-man, it somehow explores this perspective of the normal people in that universe. Michael Keaton’s Vulture is saying a lot of lines in the movie that addresses that side of the issue. I liked the way how they included the Battle of New York in to all this.  Technically the film looks solid with great visuals and good set pieces. As I already said, the humor is there in the movie to keep you occupied.

Tom Holland as the confused/ wannabe / insecure Peter Parker was really good. His portrayal has the sort of innocence and compassion this character demands. Birdman Michael Keaton was also impressive as Vulture. Jacob Batalon was really funny as Parker’s friend. Robert Downey Jr. appears as Tony Stark and I wonder whether that Indian wedding scene was some kind of an Easter egg or just a thing to excite all Indians. Jon Favreau reprises his role as Happy.

So Spider-man: Homecoming is definitely entertaining. The writers have managed to pitch the same old story in a totally different way. The only downside in my opinion is that the emotional struggle of Peter Parker in this outing isn’t that solid.

Rating: 3.5/5