Peter Parker's Day Off: A Look Back at Spider-Man: Homecoming

Imagine you’re a member of a basketball team. The team’s pretty good, but as with any team, your team has a star player, whom we shall call Marcus. The coach, recognizing the raw talent of Marcus, spends all of their time and energy focusing on developing Marcus anyway they can. Every play is centered around Marcus; if Marcus doesn’t have the ball, it is your job to make sure he gets the ball. Your entire purpose in life is to make Marcus look good. But then one day, Marcus leaves the team. Maybe he’s recruited, maybe someone I, Tonya’s the fuck out of him, who knows? He’s just gone. Suddenly, you have a team of fully capable, yet underutilized, players standing around like a bunch of jackasses. The coach does what any good coach in a cliché sports movie would do and works with each of the players to become the most unstoppable force on the court. Things are going great, but then outta nowhere, here comes muthafuckin’ Marcus, miraculously back from the hospital! Well now we’re faced with a dilemma. Does the coach go back to feeding the ball-hog or does the team continue to work like it's worked since some mysterious hero piped Marcus in the face?

You can't prove anything!

In 2015, Marvel was faced with a similar choice. In an unprecedented move, two major studios elected to play nice and have Spider-Man, arguably the most recognizable and popular comic book character, return home. Spidey was finally able to play in the same sandbox as the rest of the cool kids. While excitement was palpable to the point of suffocation, the fact remained that Marvel had proved that they didn’t need Spider-Man to be successful, as evidenced by the amount of popular and profitable franchises they had been able to churn out in his absence. But as soon as it was announced that Spider-Man would be in Captain America: Civil War, it was as if the rest of the MCU blinked out of existence in the minds of the audience. It didn’t matter that Civil War would be introducing Black Panther, or that Thor: Ragnarok was gearing up to change the way we watched films starring the Asgardian. All that mattered was that the Arachnid-Kid could come out to play. And boy was I salty about it. Marvel spent the rest of the marketing campaign for Civil War focusing on the return of Spider-Man, and the release dates for both Ragnarok and Black Panther were pushed backed so that the golden child could get a prime summer release for his stand alone flick. Is this what the world needed? Was anyone clamoring for yet another look into the world of Peter Parker? It turns out, the answer to both of those questions was yes.

Smug son of a bitch.

By sending Parker back to high school and filling the film with endearing humor and teenage awkwardness, Spider-Man: Homecoming accomplished what I thought was unthinkable after the disappointing Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2; Marvel made Spider-Man interesting again.

What Works

Tom Holland

The benefit of rebooting Spider-Man is that you can make him (or her) whoever you want. Parker has always been the most accessible hero because his experiences are universal, so why not make him representative of the diversity in this country? Marvel had the opportunity to make him Black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American instead of a pasty White kid, which I believe would have added an extra layer of depth to the story without requiring the screenwriters to do any extra lifting. Suddenly, the story is about an inner-city minority trying his best to find his place in the world instead of another White kid whose life gets just a little bit easier by winning the superpower lottery. AND YET! In the in the face of change, diversity, and representation, Marvel and Sony decided to go with ANOTHER pasty White kid. Again, we’ve had five of these movies with white guys in the titular role; why was it so impossible to do something a little different?

Fat Spider-Man! There's your hero!

Then they introduced Holland and I had to shut my fat mouth right the fuck up. All of the ill-will I had towards this decision was quickly washed away as soon as 'A Film By Peter Parker’ appeared on screen, and after seeing Holland in the role I can’t imagine anyone else playing Peter Parker, including Maguire and Garfield. Besides having the general look of Parker down, Holland is able to convey the pure optimism associated with the character; a welcome change from Garfield’s brooding take on the role and Maguire’s… well…

The less said about Spider-Man 3, the better.

I think what Holland does best is make the audience realize that he’s just a kid. The scene on Liz’s roof is heartfelt, as Peter looks down and tries to decide if he should show off his skills as Spider-Man and punch Flash square in the face. Watching him awkwardly ask Liz to the Homecoming Dance is painfully autobiographical in its awkwardness. For me, the best scene for Holland to display his acting abilities is the scene in which he is trapped under the concrete slabs after confronting Vulture. Parker is desperately crying out for help to anyone that might be close enough to hear him, and the absolute fear in his voice shook me. I believed beyond the shadow of a doubt that Holland was a scared little kid in over his head, and I genuinely feared for his life.

"When will my reflection show... Who I am... Insiiiiiiide?"

This vulnerability is a completely different take on a superhero and solidified Holland as the Spider-Man I’ve been waiting for.

I’m Birdman

I would never in a million years want to date Michael Keaton’s daughter, son, pet, or any of the other things that Republicans say I can marry because gay marriage is legal now. This dude is absolutely terrifying, comes across as more than a little unhinged, and causes me dread just to think about him knocking on my door. So let’s talk about Adrian Toomes, the guy that this manic was hired to play.

*Shudders*

The movie starts with Toomes salvaging the still warm carcasses of the Chitauri after the Battle of New York, which is great. Start with the villain. We’ll care more. Then low and behold! The MCU’s greatest villain Tony Stark comes and swoops the job out from under Toomes instead of just, you know, hiring Toomes and his crew or something as equally simple. It’s interesting to watch Toomes’ arc unfold over the course of the movie in so much as he isn’t trying to take over the world or even fulfill some personal decade-long vendetta against Stark. He’s just trying to provide for his family the best that he can and if that means building a highly advanced wing suit that makes Falcon’s backpack look like a paper airplane, then that’s what he’s going to do, damn it!

My nightmares are getting awfully crowded...

What makes Toomes a scary villain, more than his look or the fact that he’s played by Michael Keaton, is that he has absolutely no qualms with threatening to kill a kid. Remember, Peter’s a minor in this movie and Toomes flat out pulls on a gun on him after finding out his secret identity. Then! Big Bird threatens to impale him with his razor-sharp wings after repeatedly slamming his frail body into the ground. Toomes goes to great lengths to inform the audience that he is not too good to slash a 15-year-old’s throat, and the performance by Keaton indicates that the man is just crazy enough to do it.

"It's showtime!"
Seriously though, if any of your kids go missing, start here.

In spite of it all, Toomes is a man of principle. When Gargan shows up in the post credits scene and asks if Toomes knows who the Spider is, Toomes protects Peter’s identity. Maybe he’s trying to settle his own score, maybe he’s repaying Peter for saving his life, I don’t know. What I do know is that Toomes is far more than a mustache twirling super-villain, and the movie is better for it. Spider-Man’s Rogues Gallery is second only to Batman’s, and it’s great to see Marvel take full advantage of having the superest of villains back in their house.

Ground-Level Hero

Part of what makes Netflix’s Marvel properties so unique and fun to watch is that none of those heroes are fighting to save the entire world. Matt Murdock has The Kitchen, Luke Cage has Harlem, Jessica Jones has herself, and Danny Rand has… got to be killed off sooner or later, right? I mean really, who thought this guy was a good idea?

"Dur I have to save K'un-Lun durdur," - Jessica Jones, probably

The ‘stopping everyday crime’ routine has been dismissed by nearly all big-budget superhero films in favor of the ‘End of the World/Personal Vendetta/Organized Crime’ storylines. Like, Batman doesn’t get out of bed to stop burglaries unless the mafia is involved or you’re dressed up like an asshole.

"COME BACK WHEN YOUR ORGANIZED!" - Batman, probably

One of the many great things about sending Peter back to high school is being able to have him straddle both sides of that line. Granted, he’s called up to the big leagues to take down Captain America and has a run-in with Vulture, but he also finds the time to help a lady with directions and stop a would-be car jacker from… stealing his own car. It’s cool to me that the story doesn’t get much bigger than: “I should do what is right because it is right.” What’s more, this ground-level perspective gives us a glimpse into how the ‘normal’ world is effected by such extraordinary events. From the history teacher lecturing about the Sokovia Accords to the Captain America PSAs (which leads to my absolute favorite post-credits tag) it’s nice to climb down from the ivory tower and see how the commoners are dealing with potentially world ending catastrophes; it makes the Marvel Cinematic Universe feel that much more realized.

Yeah, Math ain't gonna save you from Thanos, big guy.

The Guy in the Chair

Since Ant-Man Marvel has done a pretty amazing job at creating memorable secondary characters. Luis, Kraglin, Mantis, and now Ned. Which, where is their movie? Call it the ‘B-Team’ and throw Korg in there for good measure.

In FreeForm Voice: "FROM DIRECTOR WES ANDERSON!"

Ned is able to act as surrogate for the audience by genuinely asking the questions and making the comments that we would find ourselves asking and making. I don’t think a single one of us out there would be able to keep our mouths shut if our best friend was an Avenger. I think that all of us would immediately try figure out how to use this information to our advantage like Ned did at the party. I think that every one of us would do our best to insert ourselves into our best friend’s life in any way we could. And while I could write about Ned being just generally lovable, I would be remiss to not mention the fact that the filmmakers use Ned as a clever way to deliver exposition in a way that doesn’t feel forced or like the movie is coming to a standstill. As soon as Ned finds out that Peter is Spider-Man, he starts asking about his powers and how he got them. In addition to this being a funny little moment between two friends, it gives anybody not familiar with the Wall-Crawler a chance to learn a little bit about why and how he does what he does without watching Uncle Ben die for a twelfth time.

Take notes, Batman!

Touching back on the previous section a bit, I think that Ned is representative of the fully formed world that Peter lives in, as every character is appears to be real. From angsty-and-woke Michelle to the beautiful and friendly Liz to the checked-out teachers to the mascot that never seems to be on time, Peter’s world is populated with the same rich and colorful characters that we all remember (or try to forget) from high school. I can’t wait to see what the future holds in store for these characters.

What Doesn’t

The Suit

Honestly, there isn’t a lot I don’t like about this movie so it’s time to get real petty. I really like the AI Karen and the suit itself looks cool, but it really bugs me that so much of the plot and Spider-Man’s powers were based on and around the suit. Even though Spider-Man isn’t a stranger to occasionally using gadgets, what I always liked about Spidey is that he puts on a pair of tights and he’s ready to save the world. We do get some scenes centered around him experimenting with different web-fluid and enhancing his web-shooters, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that Parker isn’t really in any mortal danger as long as he’s wearing Stark-Brand Stark-Tech from Stark. Hey, I freely and openly acknowledge that the suit does not ruin the movie, and led to some pretty funny moments with him trying to figure out how everything works. Plus, the affirmation that he didn’t need the suit to be a hero is what "made him realize he had the power inside him all along yeah!" but that doesn’t change the fact that for me, it seemed like they spent Spider-Man's movie trying to set him up as the next generation Iron Man. Hey, Stark’s character is probably going to die within the next couple of weeks here, so maybe that’s exactly what they’re doing. While it didn’t take anything away from the overall experience, and though the new-new suit seems to play a BIG role in Infinity War, this minor gripe is something I hope they can tweak for Spidey’s next solo adventure.

Dat suit looks real cool doe.

The Action

There have been five Spider-Man movies since 2002 and a special guest appearance by the Web-Head in Civil War; I understand that crafting a new visual language for Spider-Man is basically asking for the impossible at this point. Not only do the filmmakers have the action in the previous films looming like a black cloud over the movie, but they also have to battle the expectations of the audience. After all, the audience wants things a certain way and if what’s presented on screen doesn’t directly align with their own opinions of what the film should be then your movie is garbage and you should probably kill yourself.

No, YOU get over it!

All of that having been said, it’s disappointing coming off of Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that the most visually interesting set-pieces that this movie had to offer were to do battle against a green-suited friend’s dad in a glider and a fight against public transportation.

This is why I drive.

There isn’t anything inherently bad about it, but I’ve seen it. During most of the action, I found myself thinking that I would much rather be following the continued adventures of Peter and Ned without any of the super-heroics thrown in. Clearly this says something about the strong writing in this movie, but I feel says far more about the lack of engrossing fight scenes.

Final Thoughts

From the outset, Marvel and Sony wanted to create a John Hughes movie starring Spider-Man, and they accomplished that goal, at least in my estimation. This movie feels like a high school movie set in the 80s, and succeeds in crafting a relatable ‘coming of age’ story, albeit one that includes an invisible plane. One of my biggest complaints lobbied against DC is that aside from Wonder Woman, they haven’t trusted their characters enough to make them distinguishable from each other, and I genuinely think they can learn a lot from watching Spider-Man: Homecoming. From the beginning, both studios were completely onboard to really lean into what makes Spider-Man a great character: he’s a hopeful kid from Queens. That’s all you need. Structure a story around that, structure other characters around that. By starting with that stable foundation, Marvel and Sony were able to craft the Spider-Man movie I didn’t even know I wanted, and they made me excited to see what shenanigans Peter’s going to get into when he meets the rest of the MCU in Avengers: Infinity War.

So where does Spider-Man: Homecoming rank in my list of MCU Films?

  1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  2. The Avengers
  3. Captain America: Civil War
  4. Iron Man 3
  5. Iron Man

 6. Spider-Man: Homecoming
  7. Guardians of the Galaxy
  8. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2
  9. Captain America: The First Avenger
10. Avengers: Age of Ultron
11. Thor
12. Thor: The Dark World
13. Doctor Strange
14. Ant-Man
15. Iron Man 2
16. The Incredible Hulk

END

Well that was fun! Tune in next week for a look at Thor: Ragnarok! Only two movies left until the big day, folks! In the meantime, if you like what I’m writing, please like, comment, and share these lil’ guys. They love to be read! I’m on the tweeties @TheJamesBrock and on Instagram… also thejamesbrock. Still no idea of how these things work, I'm basically my dad.

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Until next time...

Be kind to each other.


-James