Spider-Man: Homecoming *** (2017, Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei) – Movie Review

The 5′ 8″ 21-year-old Tom Holland from Kingston upon Thames, England, is propelled to stardom as Peter Parker in this 2017 Spider-Man reboot that sees our teen hero returning to his home where he lives, rather awkwardly, with his surprisingly young and sexy Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). She keeps surprising him in his bedroom, for heaven’s sake!

Just back from his time with the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Peter is trying both to live like a ‘normal’ 15-year-old high school teen, learning stuff and finding he’s an outsider, fancying both classmates Liz (Laura Harrier) and Michelle (Zendaya), while every now and again getting his kit on to sort out the Queens neighbourhood villains as Spider-Man. Boy, can he spin a yarn!

Balancing the two careers isn’t easy, especially when you have new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) breathing down your neck, and just popping up all over the place.

Luckily, he’s got a good pal in computer nerd Ned (Jacob Batalon). But unluckily, Peter attracts the interest of new villain, the Vulture, aka Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), who pretty much wants to take over the world, or that kind of thing anyway.

This is an amusing enough episode, entertaining overall, but a bit slow to start, then quite a bit long seeming towards the end (it’s two hours and 13 minutes), even though the second half of the movie is the better. Or maybe it is the third act that is the best. The movie adopts a jokey tone, which keeps it lighthearted and fun, and still delivers plenty of the web-spinning action we have come to see. This keeps the actors and the CGI animators very, very busy, and gainfully employed.

There are some good gags and some big laughs, and a couple of total surprises. All good. It is a little bit retro, kitsch and campy. The tone is just right.

It has some big action set-piece scenes like the one when the Staten Island Ferry transporting cars is split in two or the one on the Washington Monument. They are okay, quite good, as far as they go. But they don’t get anywhere much, go on too long, and eventually just pass by unremarkably as the film moves on to something else. Instead of a series of increasingly thrilling climaxes, it produces a feeling of a series of eye-catching anti-climaxes.

Probably a good enough choice, Tom Holland is pleasant and amusing, getting by on puppy-dog charm and youthful athleticism (he wasn’t a stage Billy Elliot for nothing). Keaton is expertly funny as the villain, though occasionally the chilling side of funny. Both of them nail it. Batalon is a good sidekick for Holland. He keeps it low-key amusing, getting his laughs without upstaging the star.

Downey’s role seems tagged on at a later stage to give the Spider-Man reboot a cast-iron success at the box office. This makes Tony Stark sort of extraneous to proceedings, and gives even Downey a little bit of trouble to score. He needs to be more centre stage and not a deus ex iron machina.

Harrier is good and sassy, Favreau is useful, Tony Revolori has nothing much to do as Peter’s school tormentor, Tyne Daly has nothing to do as a New York official (they should have cast her as Aunt May) and an odd-looking Gwyneth Paltrow is wasted putting in a cameo at the end as Pepper Potts.

For all the $175,000,000 spent on it – and it does look fantastic – the film is pleasant, nice but disposable. They have a premise – take Peter Parker back to being 15 and at high school – but they don’t really have a story, just a series of incidents. This is mainly what makes the film disposable. It’s hard to remember much about it afterwards. But who remembers the plot of Captain America: Civil War?

However, they’ve takes a deep breath and done the reboot, which was always going to be tricky, and they haven’t let anyone down. Let’s wait and see where they can take it next.

This might seem mean to say, but I miss Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man (2002). Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007) followed.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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