Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Jon Favreau, Jacob BatalonYear: 2017
Genre: Action, superhero
Tom Holland acts as Marvel's third Spiderman in this new superhero movie. It is fast paced, funny and incredibly entertaining.
Tom Holland made his first appearence as Peter Parker/ Spiderman in 'Captain America: Civil War' and since then fans have been eager to see his standalone feature. Now it is here and it is excellent all round. Marvel have clearly learnt from their underwhelming films with Andrew Garfield (no offence to Garfield who is an excellent actor otherwise) and Holland perfectly encapsulates Spidey.
Besides being a likeable and entertaining protagonist, Holland is able to make him strikingly relatable. The separate narrative with Peter at school lets the film explore his other lifestyle, in a world where everyone is oblivious to his superpowers and the film does a good job at portraying school life for him. He suffers from bullying, from embarassing friends and has a crush on a girl. All this helps make the film connect with audience members (especially teenagers) who are familiar with this. This was a great decision by the directors to look at this because it adds an extra layer to Peter.
In terms of how the film handled his alternative life as Spiderman, it was fun, light hearted and action packed. And this isn't the explosive, over-the-top action that the 'Transformers' films opt for. It shows how Peter is only one person with limited experience. He is keen to gain Tony Stark's approval, but can't resist doing things his own way.
The fighting is exciting and entertaining, sprinkled with Parker's quips and witty puns. This adds a light heartedness to the fights.
Spiderman's abilities are explored in much more depth than in previous films. During the second act, we can see the vastness of his abilities and many are utilised here.
The plot is well handled. The action begins immediately with many nods and links to previous films, which is extremely satisfactory for die-hard Marvel film fans. Yet, it is not too dependent on the audience knowing past films that it doesn't make sense to those who aren't as knowledgable.
There are many enjoyable sequences whether it is Parker on his own, with his best friend Ned (Batalon), with Tony Stark or Happy (Downey Jr. and Favreau respectively) and the action sequences. Each of the latter has different elements to it and are significant in their own individual ways.
The humour is brilliant as it is for most Marvel films; however, in 'Homecoming' it is consistent and not in an irritating way. It is rare for a scene to not have some kind of humour in it. The humour also targets a teenage audience. This is most prevalent when Peter is with Ned and/or his other school friends. At some points it feels as if it is an action comedy- but it completely adds to the film. Ned is one of the main sources of humour, but he isn't a comic relief which the film relies on. The screenwriting is clever and well done in this sense.
The antagonists are good in this film. Keaton's portrayal of Vulture is good in the sense that he is sinister but his motivations are only loosely looked at. The film pays more attention to Peter which is great, but means that the villains aren't as fleshed out. The film successfully avoids too much exposition (another bonus point for the script) but this means that some details about the bad guys are more ambiguous.
The only other thing that could be seen as a negative for this film is the last 10 minutes. The writing feels very rushed and awkward with some jokes not hitting the right spot. Also some of the dialogue feels clunky and doesn't fit in with the otherwise perfect script of the rest of the film. This made the ending slightly less satisfactory as it could have been.
Ultimately this is an excellent Marvel film. It feels well constructed for the most part and well handled. Holland is brilliant as the new Spiderman as is the rest of the cast.
Verdict: 9/10
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