“After blogging about so many superhero movies over the past few years, I find it harder and harder to write about the new entries. Thankfully, while Spidey is yet another entry into the MCU, there’s a few things that make it stand out. So let’s just focus on that.
First off, yay Spidey in the MCU! I won’t go into the backstory there, I’ll just say that I’m happy he’s home. The tie ins to the existing U were fantastic touches that we’d previously been missing, and his mentor/mentee relationship with Iron Man is a new and exciting direction for both charaters. But most of all, I just feel like the people at Marvel know how to handle our friendly neighborhood friend, and know his place in the world.
Which brings me to my next point, his place in the world. It wasn’t yet another high stakes end of the world type of story. Spidey’s a teenager in high school, and it was an appropriately high school story. He’s he’s trying to get his chance to save the world, but his reality is that his own world needs saving and he has some learning to do. That was the absolute right way to fit him into things.
But just because his story is smaller scale, doesn’t mean his villain is too. Oh no, in Michael Keaton’s Vulture we got one of the best baddies we’ve seen in the MCU thus far. The character was more fleshed out than just a wronged someone on a rampage, and his relationship with Peter and how they fit together was more substantial than we usually get. Plus, Keaton is just amazing. I love that with the increased success of the MCU, they’ve been able to bring in more and more legit actors, and we all know Keaton knows his way around a super costume and how to give a stellar performance.
And on the subject of cast, Tom Holland is the spirit of Spidey. We haven’t seen an incarnation thus far that was as motormouthed as him, which I think also helps reflect his age appropriately. I also really loved his BFF Ned (Jacob Batalon), who somehow managed to steal scenes from our most dynamic Spidey to date. The other big plus was seeing John Favreau back with a substantial role.
Smaller point, but just when I was starting to get annoyed with all these end credit scenes that don’t offer too much (Looking at you Guardians 2 with your countless add ons), we get one of the absolute best ones to date. It doesn’t quite beat the Avengers schwarma scene, but it’s pretty close.
Spider-Man: Homecoming – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/”