Spider-man is HOME!! (review/ spoilers ahead)

By Corey Floyd

Spiderman Homecoming is the third reboot of this comic Icon.  The Amazing Spider-Man wasn’t a good enough run to continue so Sony thought “third time's the charm” but the MCU stepped in and said we want Spider-man too. That's when one of the most interesting deals was made. Spider-man gets to be part of the MCU and Spider-man movies get co-produced and financed by Marvel. This also meant it's time for another Spider-Man casting. This time they made the smartest move ever. They hired a teen to play a teen. United Kingdom actor Tom Holland is our friendly neighborhood Spider-man. He made his debut in Captain America: Civil War. With just about 15 minutes of screen time, he won over millions. But can he hold his own in a Spider-man movie? That’s where we find Spider-man: Homecoming, a continuation from the last time we saw him from Civil War.

This was a very different Spider- man this time around. It was a coming of age story about a boy who happened to have super powers. If you're old enough to remember John Hughes movies The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink etc it gives you a lot of those vibes they even make fun of it in the film by showing a scene from FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF. Great chemistry between all the kids in this film especially Ned played by Jacob Batalon. This kid is hilarious every time he’s on screen. The chemistry between Holland and Zendaya (MJ) are hilarious plus we get a different MJ that possesses something that Kirsten Dunst version didn’t ….a personality.  

The bad guy in this one is the Vulture. They took this character in a different direction from the comic but it was for the better. In the comic Adrian Toomes was a Bald old man who looked a lot like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. He had a green flight outfit that gave him the power to steal youth from people and make himself younger. It was absurd then and it’s absurd now, instead, the backstory to this man is more relatable. Toomes who is played by Michael Keaton (The real BATMAN) who’s business was cleaning up New York of all the rubble from the Chitari invasion from The Avengers. Sadly he lost his job because Stark has created DAMAGE CONTROL a team who is in charge of handle all messes created by heroes and villains. Once again Stark makes a new enemy know Toomes becomes an illegal alien weapons manufacture. Michael Keaton's performance is just as relatable as it is menacing. There’s a scene where Toomes and Parker both realize that they know each other alias while in a car taking his daughter to the dance and it is tense moment can’t even laugh at it.    

Okay, let’s get real and talk about the difference between these guys. I decided to look at this a little differently. I looked at the world we lived in at the time of each Spider-man. In Sam Raimi’s Spider-man came out in May of 02. The climate in America was very different post 911. It was reflected in the movie as well. Spider-Man was very “Gung Ho” when it came to his response to action no time was taken to understand or even talk about the situation. Puch first asks questions later which was how a country responded at the time. But when you had a terrorist like the Green Goblin who literally held a trolley cart of kids hostage eliminating any redeemable qualities from the character. In the film, they even give a with us or against us stand on situations. Take a look at the reboot with Andrew Garfield that gave us a more negotiation style Spider-man.They also don’t bring up the poverty of the Parker family in this reboot. I  assume since it was a few years after the housing market collapse they choose not to reopen real world wounds. In both of Garfield's movie, we have bad guys who are somewhat relatable and have redeemable qualities. Dr. Conners just want to heal his hand, Electro wanted a friend, and the “goblin” wanted Spider-man's blood to help find a cure for a disease. Now in the new Spider-man, we have a new ideology that cannot be found in the either two and that is diversity and a larger world. In this world we have the MCU, Spider-Man is not the center of this universe.  That’s one of the main points of the movie. Every other film has been on a worldly scale and when we meet this new Spider-man he is just trying to figure out himself. That’s why we have a very diverse group of people in this movie based on a comic booked that was at one point was whiter than a rabbit in a snowstorm. The movie even plays with that concept when we see Peter going to pick up his date a black girl named Liz we never thought about the idea that her dad is The Vulture.   

RDJ gives more of the same Tony Stark we love but we also see him trying to be a mentor. We see that after the Civil War he takes things more seriously. He gives a great power , great responsibility but not in the same way that would be cheesy. Also, we see Happy Hogan return in this movie as well as a big surprise of Pepper Pots. This need to be a home run because If this movie does as well as I think it should maybe ……….just maybe Fox will reconsider the same deal offered to them some X-men and Fantastic Four. The Saltytruth of it all is this the movie wasn’t called homecoming because of the dance in the third act. It’s because Spider-man is Home with the MCU and we need to complete this reunion so get off ya buts and get to the theaters.

That’s enough out of me. Don’t forget to check out our Amerime Junkies podcast from wherever you listen to them from. Also, we will be giving away a copy of Destiny 2. How?! Well, be sure to follow us on all platforms and stay tuned.
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