Spider-Man Homecoming (2017) Review — A Great Coming Of Age Story
In my Spidey rewatch, I now reach the second reboot and the first Spider-Man film made with Marvel Studios in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Around the time of the Amazing Spider-Man 2, Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, was in talks to include Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man and his films into the MCU before Sony decided to fire him and start over with a new version. After agreeing to have the new incarnation of Peter Parker debut in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Tom Holland was cast for the role. After his stellar introduction in Civil War, Jon Watts got the job to direct Spider-Man Homecoming. There were certain rules put in place by Sony to help make this new Spidey feel fresh.
The origin story wouldn’t be shown, Uncle Ben would not be mentioned by name until later, and a few prominent MCU characters must be in the film. In the early development of Homecoming, Tony Stark and Happy Hogan weren’t the only MCU characters to be featured as Steve Rogers and Rhodey were supposed to be in it as well. Apparently, in an early rumored draft, Steve would mentor Peter a bit and at the end of Homecoming, Peter was going to join Steve’s side and was gonna to be with Team Cap in Avengers Infinity War (2018) before the idea was revised to be what it was in the film. While Steve Rogers was cut from the present day storyline, he is featured in some educational videos in Peter’s school and the role Rhodey was gonna have was given to Happy Hogan. The idea of Tony being a father like figure to Peter was still kept the same and it was something that Sony really wanted after the great scene of him and Peter in Civil War.
The theme of father like figures in Spider-Man’s life is nothing new, especially with the films as Norman Osborn had that role for Tobey’s Peter and Curt Connors had that role for Andrew’s Peter. Peter being a fanboy who idolizes the Avengers and his other superhero peers has been around in some of the comics so this approach was nice to see onscreen. Tony Stark had a very small role in Homecoming and is only in it for around 15 minutes or less. He doesn’t overshadow Peter in my opinion but some people felt he did when watching the film. Tony Stark’s presence is needed as it does tie in with the motive of the main villain, Adrian Toomes/The Vulture played by Michael Keaton.
Michael Keaton is no stranger to the superhero genre and comic book films as he played Batman and he gives a great performance as the Vulture. He’s one of the best villains in the MCU and he is a reflection of Peter in a lot of ways. They’re both regular guys from the neighborhood who have to deal with consequences left by rich people who don’t care about them. In a rather fantastic twist, the Vulture is the father of Peter’s love interest, Liz Allen. In the comics, Liz Allen was Peter’s first love before other iconic love interests like Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson and was never featured in a film until now.
Playing Peter’s best friend in the film is Jacob Battalon as Ned Leeds. In the comics, Ned Leeds is a white guy who becomes the supervillain, Hobgoblin while in the film, he’s Filipino like Jacob and Ned is a nerd just like Peter. There has been some controversy with Ned as people believe he is a rip off of Ganke Lee. Ganke is a Korean American who is the best friend of Miles Morales who’s also Spider-Man. The casting for Ned was open casting which means they had no idea what race they wanted him to be until after Jacob was cast.
Personally, I find the comparison a little insulting because you’re basically saying because Ned and Ganke are both Asian and are friends with a Spider-Man, they’re automatically the same. Also in the film is Zendaya as Michelle Jones who becomes a love interest for Peter in the sequel, Far From Home. In Homecoming, there are hints she has a crush on Peter and it’s revealed her nickname is “MJ" as Feige and Watts confirmed they wanted a version of Mary Jane Watson that was familiar but different. Like Ned’s casting, this caused controversy as some racist fans hurled insults and tried to boycott over this choice. Zendaya took to social media to respond to these bigots by saying she’s MJ and she even dyed her hair red at one point to piss off the racist haters.
There’s more diversity in this film than in past Spider-Man films as Jon Watts wanted to reflect an authentic New York classroom by having a lot of Peter’s fellow students be people of color as New York is a very diverse place. Jon Watts wanted to make this high school movie of Peter Parker feel like a true coming of age story and it does work. Out of all the Spider-Man films, the teen characters finally felt like teenagers and the high school setting is used well. Peter wants to be Spider-Man whenever possible and he hates school but loves his friends. He’s also trying to prove he’s Avenger material and wants Tony to stop seeing him like a kid.
The friendly neighborhood and teenager aspect of Peter is done well on this film and Tom Holland does a great job. I know some felt that Homecoming played it safe in some parts but it does try new things and does tackle new elements. There’s some nice action and Peter’s arc against the Vulture is fun to see and reminded me of some early comics I read. There are some flaws though like I do think some of the pacing could have been better and while I really liked Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, I do wish there was some more screentime with her. I do appreciate the fact she was cast for Aunt May as in my opinion, she felt more believable than past versions of the characters.
There are some jokes in Homecoming that don’t really work but it doesn’t really bother. The directing, writing, and acting is very smooth and it was really needed after the Amazing Spider-Man 2. The cast does a great job, even a lot of the smaller characters like Aaron Davis and some of the villains underneath Vulture get time to shine. Spider-Man Homecoming is a fun and solid Spider-Man movie. I give it the same rating I gave Spider-Man (2002) and the Amazing Spider-Man which is 4 out of 5 stars.
If you feel like checking it out, go ahead and I hope you have fun.
