Spider-Man: Homecoming Is Extremely Okay

Title:Spider-Man: HomecomingCountry: USAYear: 2017Director:Jon WattsScript:Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik SommersStarring:Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr.

So we're in our third iteration of the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man's film adaptations (unless we include the 70's ones) and it has certainly been a bumpy ride. I did enjoy the first and second Spider-Man flicks with Tobey Maguire playing the main character of Peter Parker. Andrew Garfield also did a good job in The Amazing Spider-Man flicks, even though the second one wasn't really worth watching. As films, most of them worked, but didn't really do a very good job of telling a Spider-Man story true to the source material.Spider-Man: Homecoming is a curious case too. Taking place after the Avengers films and Captain America: Civil War — where this particular Spider-Man was introduced — it certainly goes its own way with the material. There is no origin story, no dead uncle Ben, no Mary-Jane and Aunt May is quite younger than we're used to at this point. As an adaptation of Spider-Man this is the farthest from the source material it has ever been, but that isn't entirely a bad thing.After the battle between Team Captain America and Team Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War, Peter returns home still excited over the experience. Wanting to prove himself he waits for a call from his new mentor Tony Stark, which never comes, and tries to get back to his normal life. That is until Adrian Toomes, played by Michael Keaton, shows up as the villain on wings - The Vulture - and a still inexperienced Peter is the only one who can stop him.The fact that there isn't a retelling of Peter Parker's origin isn't a bad decision, as we've had those aplenty already with the previous films. However we are dealing with a completely new rendition of the character and as a result, there is a little bit of an emptiness to Parker. It would be nice to at least take a few minutes to reflect over his past to flesh him out more.Speaking of the character, Tom Holland for me did an excellent Spider-Man, just like he did in Civil War, and he isn't doing half-bad as Peter Parker either. He looks and sounds appropriate for the role of a geeky teenager who doesn't fit in and gets picked on by other students. The side characters, on the other hand, are a different story. Not only Spider-Man had a nemesis or two, but Peter Parker also did in his daily routine.

Flash was that character who would bully him and has only been somewhat memorable in the original comics and the animated series. In Homecoming, he is that rich kid who came up with the insult "Penis Parker" and gotten plenty of others to say it too, while Peter is around. And that's basically the extent of how his character is, and it felt shallow to me.Peter even has a best friend in this one and that is Ned, who is yet another geeky kid. Most of the time he works alright, but other times all he seems to be able to say is "that's so cool" and "that's awesome," which isn't uncharacteristic for a teenager to say, I guess, but I really don't need to hear it so many times. Ned does get things to do, at least, and in some instances helps Spider-Man out, so he's got that going for him.Liz is the new love interest for Peter and actress Laura Harrier does a good job with the role. The character in itself, however, is very bland and makes me miss Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy from The Amazing Spider-Man.The film makers also really tried to make the downer girl Michelle a funny inclusion, but apart from one chuckle, she did nothing for me other than being slightly annoying. I suppose I'm not surprised, considering the amount of writers were involved in this film.Coming back to the villain of the film, however, The Vulture is played brilliantly by Michael Keaton here. In order to support his family, he leads a group of people to recover alien artifacts from after the battle in the first Avengers film.

When he is told to leave, he leaves with the stolen goods and spends several years building weapons to sell, among those the Vulture suit. A person with good intentions, but blindly going down the wrong path to do what he has to makes him an effective character, albeit quite simple. Whenever Keaton is on screen he steals the show immediately and won't let it go.

The inclusion of Iron Man isn't as intrusive either as I was expecting based on the trailers. At a couple of points, it would seem as if Stark would save the day whenever Peter would make a mistake, but that is not the case. There is a point to Stark interfering as he's trying to coach Peter in the right direction, while Peter wants to be the best he can be, even if this leads to plenty of slapstick comedy along the way, due to his inexperience.

The fact that Stark was the one who made the suit for Spider-Man is an odd change, instead of Peter being the one making it. The suit looks pretty cool and I suppose it makes more sense that Stark would create it, rather than Peter, but I never had a problem with Peter being the one designing it.

What makes it okay, though, is that Peter actually has his own suit, which is the proto Spider-Man suit, which hangs loose and isn't optimal at all. But that's what's charming about it. What I didn't like with the new suit is when Peter accidentally unlocks a virtual interface in a similar manner to Iron Man's suit, along with an AI voice that activates new functions for Peter.

At first, I didn't like this inclusion at all and thought it strayed too far from what Spider-Man is, but then there is this scene where Spider-Man has to wait for a huge warehouse door to open and there's humour in him talking to the AI and killing time practicing his new abilities. Very good idea here that isn't taken advantage by enough in the movie.

Spider-Man: Homecoming was very much an okay superhero movie, but it isn't amazing. It has got plenty of highlights and fun scenes, plus that the music is wonderfully integrated. But then it also has annoying side characters who say tired things because they're kids. Much of the humor stems from Peter Parker making an ass of himself as Spider-Man and I get that he is supposed to be new in the game of being a superhero, but sometimes it drags the experience down for me a bit.

I'm torn on this one and maybe I need to see it again later on, but as of now it's just extremely okay for me. Here's hoping its sequels will do things a little better. Spider-Man 2 is still the best one for me.

Final verdict: 5/10