Spider-Man: Homecoming

Comic Book Movie Review (9/10) "Amazing" (non-spoiler)Spider-Man: HomecomingDirector: Jon WattsStarring: Tom Holland (Peter Parker), Michael Keaton (Adrian Toomes), Robert Downey Jr (Tony Stark), and Jacob Batalon (Ned Leeds)Plot: After successfully taking on Captain America's Avengers in "Civil War" in Berlin, Peter Parker is back in Queens, New York and juggling with school work, catching bad guys, and his non-relationship life. Toomes is a disgruntled business man that makes weapons from salvaged alien tech and Spider-Man must stop him before others are caught in the crossfire. I'm going to say it outright from the getgo: this is the greatest Spider-Man movie ever made. It's not perfect, but it definitely overthrew Raimi's Spider-Man 2 (2004) as my favorite Spider-Man movie of all time. This movie gets the villain right - which is big considering how lackluster the villains in the MCU have been for the majority of movies; the movie feels like a Spider-Man comic; and most importantly it gets Peter Parker right. This movie's Peter Parker is only 15, and though Holland is in his 20's, he definitely sells the idea that he is a young teenager battling with his hormones, his sense of self-worth, and trying to impress his friends. One of the key conflicts that sells this idea is the fact he struggles with whether he should reveal the fact that he is really Spider-Man to his friends to gain popularity. Most teenagers deal with their sense of self-worth, their sense of belonging to a group, and every little problem feels magnified and this movie truly makes you feels these things with the high school setting, Holland's superb performance, and Parker's environment. "He treats me like a kid" says Parker. "But you are a kid" replies his friend Ned. This scene is also shown in the trailers, and it really tells you the premise of the movie in two sentences. Stark is the perfect foil for Parker's sense of self worth and need to prove himself, and Stark's involvement in this movie feels very natural rather than forced in to bring box office numbers. Iron Man boosts movie ticket sales (i.e. Iron Man 3 and Captain America: Civil War surpassed $1 billion worldwide respectively) and he might feel forced into this movie to raise this movie's profile, but he is included in this story as a mentor figure and has pertinent goals that push the narrative of the movie. Keaton also delivers a great villain performance, as he feels like a threat on Spider-Man and his friends and whenever he comes on screen Toomes feels like a threat and is capable of bringing Spider-Man down. Smooth, calculating, and smart, Toomes is a perfect antagonist to Spider-Man in this movie as he tests Parker to his limit. Ned is also a great character in this movie, and though in the comics he is a reporter working for the Daily Bugle and the third Hobgoblin, he is Parker's best friend and his confidante in a high school world riddled with Spanish tests, judgmental bullies, and the dreadful school dance. I probably laughed the most from the interactions between Ned and Parker as well as other characters, and he is the comic relief often times when the movie gets too serious. This movie tiptoes between the super serious, and the super light-hearted masterfully and a major reason for this tiptoing due to Batalon's portrayal of the character. The only things that I didn't like from this movie were Marisa Tomei's Aunt May and how she was constantly being hit on by other men and this seemed to be a running joke that came back a few times and overly done; it felt a bit farfetched that the Avengers would also not notice Toomes' operations before Spider-Man showed up if the Avengers had SHIELD and its omniscient presence in New York; and the movie's plot is a bit predicatable towards the end. Still this movie's combination of a great Peter Parker/ Spider-Man and a great premise makes a great entry to the MCU as well as my favorite Spider-Man thus far.

Homecoming is the newest live-action incarnation of Spiderman with this version of Peter Parker/Spiderman, being played by Tom Holland. The character was actually introduced during Captain America Civil War, fighting on the Iron Man side, and the events of this movie are mostly set after the events of Civil War, with Peter Parker going back to life as a high-school student. He is still being mentored by Stark (mostly from afar), and being watched over by Happy Hogan (played again by Jon Favreau). The movie also has ties to the first Avengers movie with the Chitauri technology playing a large role in the plot of the movie. Peter becomes more concerned with fighting crime than he is with school, which does not always work out well for him. The movie also sees the return of Michael Keaton to the superhero genre, this time in a much different role. The rest of the cast is very strong and includes Zendeya, Jacob Batalon, Donald Glover, and Marissa Tomei, as Aunt May.For those who get the 4k-UHD set, there are two discs, the UHD disc, and a regular blu-ray disc. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is great, and the movie looks and sounds wonderful in the format. The UHD disc has one extra, the Spidey Study Guide, that allows the movie to be played with pop-ups that have trivia and facts about the movie. The rest of the extras are on the regular blu-ray disc. Those include a short gag reel, about 16 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, eight different making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes that run about 45 minutes, give or take, all totaled, a photo gallery, the movie trailer, and trailers for other Sony titles.Overall, the movie is very good. It has a nice blend of action and humor and is a bit more light-hearted than some of the other MCU movies. Holland does a great job as the lead, and you can buy him as a teenager even though he was in his early 20s when the movie was made. Robert Downey Jr. is always entertaining as Tony Stark (especially when he was hitting on Aunt May), and both Batalon (playing Peter's best friend, Ned) and Zendaya (playing Michelle/MJ) were great in the younger roles. For me, however, Keaton really stole the show and seemed to really be enjoying his return to the superhero genre. It is a great movie that is definitely worth checking out.

This movie was really good! The acting was phenomenal! This movie felt more amazing each time I watched it. This movie deserves my 5 star rating because of how enjoyable and comforting it was. I would recommend this movie to someone who enjoys marvel and who wants to watch a movie that they will never get tired of.

Tom Holland was great in this movie!