Spider-Man: Homecoming

Let Peter Parker be a kid

Superhero/Action ‧ 133 minutes ‧ PG-13 ‧ 2017 ‧ 5 min read

"If you're nothing without the suit, then you shouldn't have it."

I think Spider-Man: Homecoming has suffered a little from just how much Spider-Man content came after it. Between the MCU, the Tom Holland movies, the other Spider-Man movies, and the endless arguments about which version is the "real" Spider-Man, it is easy to forget what this movie actually was when it came out. It was the first time we got a live action Peter Parker who was allowed to actually be a teenager.

That is the part of Homecoming that I think people sometimes overlook. Tom Holland gets an unnecessary amount of hate from people who claim they love Spider-Man while mostly meaning the versions they grew up with in live action or the version they know from the comics. I like Tobey Maguire. I like Andrew Garfield. I like Tom Holland. They are doing different things. I do not need every Peter Parker to be the same character played three different ways.

Holland's Peter feels young in a way the other live action versions never really got to be. He is excited about Spider-Man. He wants to prove himself. He makes stupid decisions. He is bad at lying. He still has schoolwork to do. He gets distracted. He has friends who have no idea what is actually going on with him. There is a looseness to him that I really like because the movie remembers that this kid is supposed to be fifteen.

I also think the complaints about Iron Man being all over this movie are exaggerated. Tony Stark is important, obviously, but he is not constantly taking over the movie. He is part of the reason this version of Peter exists in the first place. Peter lives in the MCU, and it makes sense that a kid who idolizes superheroes would be obsessed with one of the biggest ones around, especially someone who personally chose him.

Honestly, Peter liking Tony makes more sense to me than people pretending he should not care about him because Spider-Man is supposed to be independent. He is a teenage superhero in a universe where Tony Stark is basically a celebrity, inventor, and Avenger all at once. Of course Peter thinks he is cool. That does not stop Peter from being Spider-Man.

The best part of the movie is actually watching Peter slowly realize that being Spider-Man is not about impressing Tony. Peter wants to become an Avenger. He wants to prove that he belongs. He thinks getting a better suit and helping with bigger threats will make Tony take him seriously. Instead, the movie eventually takes all of that away and forces Peter to deal with a problem on his own.

That should have been the end of the arc. Peter gets stuck with the old suit, goes after Vulture anyway, and proves that he can handle being Spider-Man without Tony or some fancy technology telling him what to do. That is the moment where I think Homecoming really understands its version of Peter. He does not need to be Iron Man's sidekick. He needs to be Spider-Man.

Unfortunately, the movie then backs away from that idea. Tony offers Peter a place with the Avengers, Peter turns it down, and it feels like the movie is setting up a future where Peter can finally become his own hero. But the next movies keep pulling him back into the larger MCU machinery anyway. In hindsight, that makes the ending of Homecoming feel less like a conclusion and more like a direction the franchise was never really going to follow.

Michael Keaton's Vulture is also one of the better villains in the MCU's Spider-Man movies. I like that he is not trying to destroy the world. He is a guy who sees an opportunity and takes it, and he is willing to do some pretty terrible things to keep making money. The reveal that he is Liz's dad is a little ridiculous when you think about it, but it works in the moment because suddenly Peter's superhero problem and his school life collide.

The supporting cast is good here too, although this is one area where the larger series eventually hurts itself. Jacob Batalon is funny as Ned, Zendaya is good as Michelle, and Laura Harrier works well as Liz. Flash is basically a completely different character from the comics, but I do not particularly mind that in this movie. Everybody around Peter contributes to the feeling that this is actually a high school movie instead of a superhero movie where everyone happens to wear backpacks.

That is something I wish the later Holland movies had protected more carefully. I like seeing Peter become more experienced, but the more the series expands into bigger MCU stories, the less time there is for this version of Peter to simply exist as a kid. Homecoming's biggest advantage is that Peter's world is small. He has school, his friends, his neighborhood, and a guy stealing weapons from Stark technology. That is enough.

The movie's action is also better when it keeps Spider-Man at that scale. The ferry sequence is obviously much bigger, but I prefer the smaller moments. Peter crawling around the suburbs. Peter getting stuck outside someone's house. Peter trying to stop a robbery and realizing he might be completely out of his depth. Those scenes are funny because they are exactly what I would expect a teenage Spider-Man to get himself into.

The movie is also helped by the fact that it does not spend another two hours explaining Spider-Man's origin. We already know who Peter is. We already know what happened to Uncle Ben. We already know he has powers. Homecoming understands that we can just start with Peter already being Spider-Man and build the movie around what this specific version of the character is like.

That makes the movie a lot easier to enjoy than some of the other Spider-Man films. The Amazing Spider-Man 1 spends too much time retelling things we already know. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 spends too much time setting up things that never happen. Homecoming, for the most part, just tells its own story.

I do still think the movie has a problem with Peter Parker versus Spider-Man. It is very good at showing us Spider-Man as a teenager. It is less successful at giving Peter much of an emotional life outside of the superhero stuff. There is not really an equivalent to the loneliness of Tobey's Peter or the grief that drives Andrew's Peter. Homecoming is much more interested in Peter wanting to prove himself than in Peter having to live with some deep personal loss.

That is not necessarily a bad thing. Not every version of Peter needs to repeat the same emotional story. In fact, I think it is good that Homecoming tries something different. But it does mean that I connect with the Raimi movies more. Spider-Man 1 has a lot more emotional weight for me, and Spider-Man 2 takes Peter's personal problems much further.

I also think the movie gets caught between wanting Peter to be independent and wanting the MCU connection to matter. The Iron Man stuff does not bother me nearly as much as people claim it should, but the franchise eventually turning Peter into a central part of the wider MCU does make the smaller version of this character in Homecoming feel more special in hindsight.

That is probably why I have landed on 3.5/5. I like Homecoming. I think Tom Holland is good. I think this is one of the best attempts at showing what a genuinely young Peter Parker would act like in live action. I like Vulture. I like the high school setting. I like the fact that the movie does not retell the origin for the fourth time.

I just do not think it is the definitive Spider-Man movie that some people make it out to be. Spider-Man 1 is still the movie I connect with most. Spider-Man 2 is more technically impressive and digs deeper into Peter's life. Homecoming has a very specific thing it does well, and I think it does that thing really well.

Spider-Man: Homecoming gets a 3.5/5. Tom Holland is not the problem with this version of Spider-Man. In fact, I think he gets the younger Peter Parker almost exactly right. The movie's best idea is letting Peter actually be a kid, and I wish the series had held onto that idea for longer. Tony Stark is part of the story because this is an MCU Spider-Man, and I do not think his presence overwhelms the movie nearly as much as people claim. The bigger issue is that the movie finally lets Peter prove he can stand on his own, only for the larger franchise to keep dragging him back into everything else.

(Peter Parker finally gets to be a kid. The MCU just cannot leave him alone.)