G’day Spiderlings!
Warning! This is a no-spoiler review. I won’t be going into plot or characters that haven’t been heavily marketed and even there i will tread lightly. That said, what makes up a spoiler differs for everyone. So if you are very spoiler sensitive, please be aware that what I say may affect your viewing.
Spider-Man
Tom Holland’s first solo outing as the lead is a solid start. While not taking directly from any story, the creators are clearly basing this on the Ultimate Comics version of the character. So a lot of your enjoyment of the film will probably come from how you feel about that take on Spider-Man. Tom does a very good job of portraying that version of Peter Parker. If you are comparing him against the 616 version of Peter than you are going to have issues with some choices here.
Vulture
Michael Keaton as the Vulture is inspired casting for this role in the movie. His portrayal as a working man Adrian Toomes is believable while also conveying a sense of threat. He is more realized as a character with motivations than most of the other MCU villains have been to date.
Iron Man
Most of the Iron Man scenes were featured heavily in the marketing of this movie. While he is here to sell tickets, they have at least also made him important to the main plot. However that’s where my biggest complaint comes in…
Plot vs Theme
Thoughts been put into most of this film’s plot. I wish the same could be said about the themes. Themes are important as they can anchor and ground a movie. Sadly, it was the biggest lacking element of the film. You might be able to read into the script attempts at themes like fatherhood and responsibility. None of that is really fleshed out in a satisfactory manner. Even the title ‘Homecoming’ feels odd in retrospect. The title is more related to meta-text of Spider-Man being a Marvel Studios film than an element in the movie.
Marvel Universe
If there is one element the film gets right it is that this film takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are plenty of nods to almost all the Marvel Studio movies. Some are on the nose but they also include some nice subtle Easter Eggs.
All in All
This is a very good film but sadly not a great film. If Sony demanded the creators to make an Ultimate Spider-Man film featuring Iron Man than this is not a bad effort and we could have gotten A LOT worse. The screening I was at was very poorly attended so I am hoping this isn’t the norm as this film isn’t one that deserves a bad box office. This is a nice side Marvel film. I’d put on par with the likes of Ant-Man or Doctor Strange but I cant help but feel Spider-Man should have a little grander cinematic outing. I am interested in where this franchise will go and would be excited to return for a sequel with Holland.
Rating B-
@Jack: They downplayed the Spider-Sense in this movie because it’s something we’ve “seen before” in other movies. That doesn’t necessarily mean he that he doesn’t have it in the MCU though.
I saw the movie Sunday. I feel we should distinguish between the craftsmanship of the movie itself, vs. how faithful it is to ASM. I thought the craftsmanship was great, minus the high-altitude battle late in the film (viewers will know the one I’m thinking of; I couldn’t tell what was going on, or who was doing what to whom, most of the time). Now having seen the movie, I am, more than ever, convinced this is not the 616 Peter Parker / Spider-Man. Feige has said before that *none* of the MCU movies happen in the 616 universe. This movie cements that POV into place, in my opinion. So I can roll with the discrepancies, on the grounds that this isn’t the 616 Spider-Man. Some of their experimental changes worked for me, some of them did not (I think a certain character *needs* to be an athlete, because of irony and character-contrast purposes). And last, a question: I didn’t detect any spider-sense. Did I miss it?
Yes the filmmakers are basing this a lot on the Ultimate comics version of Spider-Man…but not Ultimate Peter Parker. This is very obviously Miles Morales as Peter Parker mixed in with USM cartoon (who is different to USM comics) version of Peter Parker.
Loved it. I give it an A + and it’s easily the best Spider-Man movie since Raimi’s Spider-Man 2.
@hornaceck Sounds legit
I’ll be going going to see this next week which makes it the first Spider-Man flick I haven’t seen day 1.
Though it’s great to see my main reason for wanting to see this – Vulture Keaton – doesn’t appear to be a dud. However the fact I’m excited to see Vulture should tell you my feelings going in.
@George – Probably has to do with the Coriolis Effect.
Eddie is in Australia, and “the next day” starts waaay sooner for their time zone.
Or – what Hornacek said. *nod*
I’ll be seeing it at 7pm tonight.
@xonathan – Obviously he told the studio that he was with the Crawl Space and they fell over themselves to give him a pass to an advance screening.
Thank you for the non-spoilers. I’m waiting to watch it tonight in apprehension. I wish it would be anticipation, but alas… Just out of curiosity, how did you find a screening for the movie?