Strengths of 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' are its jaunty high school scenes
鈥淪pider-Man: Homecoming鈥� is the first Spider-Man movie to entirely overlap the Marvel Comics universe. The reasons for this are corporate, not aesthetic (Columbia Pictures controlled previous 鈥淪pider-Man鈥� movies), and I suppose this means that instead of having, say, 47 intersecting Marvel spinoffs, now we鈥檒l have 326 stretching into the next millennium.
Tom Holland, reprising his appearance from 鈥淐aptain America: Civil War,鈥� plays Spider-Man, as, well, Spider-Boy. His engaging bumptiousness is a kicky change from Andrew Garfield鈥檚 more brooding incarnation. Peter Parker is very much the 15-year-old high school semi-nerd here, except for those after-class moments when he鈥檚 fighting crime. He has a crush on senior Liz (Laura Harrier) and ends up revealing his Spideyness to best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), who is a sort of geek Sancho Panza to Peter鈥檚 high-flying Don Quixote.
The Avengers are represented mostly by Robert Downey Jr.鈥檚 Tony Stark, in a cameo, who isn鈥檛 quite ready to give Peter his full Avengers seal of approval. Chief baddie is Michael Keaton鈥檚 Adrian Toomes, a salvage contractor-turned-superpowered arms dealer. His character is able to morph into the Vulture, outfitted with big metal wings that, inevitably, draw comparison to Keaton鈥檚 Birdman (but not his Batman).
Director Jon Watts and his five other screenwriters are better at the small stuff 鈥� the jaunty high school scenes 鈥� than the kapowie CGI battle sequences. At times, 鈥淗omecoming鈥� resembles a very good after-school special embedded in a cacophonous franchise flick. That鈥檚 probably not the demographic the filmmakers were most hoping to please. Grade:聽B- (Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, some language, and brief suggestive comments.)聽
