Peter Parker tries to balance his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens but is put under threat when he tries to stop a criminal on his own.
Under Jon Watts' direction Tom Holland capture's the Peter Parker/Spiderman character nicely, the handfuls of writers inject Homecoming with the humour of source material. Here Parker is not a reporter yet, he's still really a Spider-boy. Thankfully it's not another direct origin story but Spidey is coming used to his new skills.
In this Marvel film universe Parker has an intelligent computer Iron Man-like suit, Karen, voice by Jennifer Connelly. The computer and Parker's relationship makes for some genuine laughs. But it's never clearly defined what Spidey's powers actually are without Karen the A.I. suit, aside from strength and practical web-shooters. It's great that his mask has visors, providing more expressiveness to his appearance like in the comics/cartoons, but we need more Spidey sense.
Watts has a lot of practical and causal suited up Spiderman but there's still too much obvious CGI as appose to just wire replacement. The on location feel helps sell the environment and you buy into Parker's world. Holland has the 70's live action TV show likability of Nicholas Hammond and captures the spirit of Spiderman in the dialogue and action set ups but also the teen angst.
Without drawing too many comparisons, yes, it's another actor, another Spiderman, while Tobey Maguire was a good actor, arguably Sam Raimi's offerings struggled to capture the comic or cartoon feel. Although Andrew Garfield was perfectly cast and Marc Webb's films were closer to the Parker we love, it wasn't fresh enough coming in the shadow of the previous three. All suffered from a reliance on a CGI Spiderman and overlong paint by numbers story. What Watts and writers do get right is the bad guy, Michael Keaton does a great job as grounded villain Vulture that offers a curve ball revelation in the last quarter. His character isn't black and white, with bags of motivation and purpose.
As a nod to fans they also subtly introduce MJ and Flash is updated fittingly. There's some Avengers jokes and the comedy in general hits the mark. Especially with Holland's Michael .J .Fox toned quips and Parker's Teenwolf-like high school insecurities and Superman identity crisis work. His sidekick friend Jacob Batalon's Ned who offers some good comic relief. Uncle Ben is omitted. Stan Lee has an obligatory cameo.
Jon Favreau's Hogan and Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark/Iron Man do turn up a little too much and feel forced fan service in there extended cameos. Gwyneth Paltrow Pepper Potts briefly appears along with Tyne Daly. Bokeem Woodbine has notable screen presence as Tom Holland's Shockers replacement. Also stick around for Keaton's telling mid-end credits segment.
Overall, as a superhero film it's good, as a Spiderman film it's probably the best to date but not without it's faults.
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