So, I finally saw Spider-Man: Homecoming last night and I've got to admit that while I really enjoyed the film, I actually walked away a little underwhelmed. I'm sure a lot of that had to due with the fact that I had some pretty unrealistic expectations, but not all due to that. What the film did well was entertain the audience with lots of unique fun and laughs, but in the end, I thought what it direly lacked was the heart and emotional weight of some of its predecessors. While there is zero question that Tom Holland is the best Spider-Man we've seen by far, deep down, it was truly that emotional weight of movies like Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and even The Amazing Spider-Man (I'm actually a fan of this film) that made me first fall in love with Spider-Man.
One thing that is interesting is how much I appreciated the extent they went to avoid treading the same ground of the previous films, by avoiding things like how he gained his powers, learning his Spider senses, and the Uncle Ben death. However, what they didn't do well was back-fill that weight in other ways well enough. Its almost like they wanted to simply replace weight with more quips, and they ultimately took it too far. The terrible movie music score did not help in the slightest either. In fact, not having close to the emotional score of its predecessors was maybe one of its biggest downfalls. Scores truly can make or break the emotions of a movie. With that said, I've got other positives and negatives from the film that I'd like to note, so I figured a list would be the most appropriate. Caution: Very Mild Spoiler territory beyond
Positives
-Tom Holland is by far the best Spider-Man actor ever. While I liked some of the movies, I never liked Tobey or Andrew in the role. Tom Holland IS Spider-Man in every sense of the word.
-Loved the true high school kid format featuring the true diversity of Queens
-Really liked the John-Hughes vibe of the whole film which made it creative and unique
-The Vulture was one of the best villains in the MCU yet, probably right up there with Loki. Great performance by Keaton.
-The movie was hilarious with a lot of credit going to the supporting cast like Ned
-The movie tried hard not to retread aspects of previous Spidey films (if anything, they tried too hard though)
-Loved how interwoven the movie was into the entire MCU with a bazillion Easter eggs
-Had probably the best twist yet of any MCU movie. The twist made my jaw drop and was one of my favorite things about the movie.
-That dinner and car scene with Michael Keaton was terrifying and one of my all-time favorite scenes of any MCU movie. My wife was screaming during it.
-Just really loved the overall characterization of most everyone in the film
-Sets up the future of the MCU as well as Spider-Man's own personal world well
-Loved how they used smaller stakes in this movie, but made them feel big and personal. Not every movie has to be potential world-ending or city-destroying.
Negatives
-I thought the movie, while hilarious, went too far with the funny quips at the expense of more emotional weight
-Just overall lacked the heart and emotional weight of some of its predecessors or even its MCU peers
-Hated the characterization of Happy Hogan. The dude was a **** throughout with no redemption.
-Tony Stark was also a bit too much of a jerk throughout, even though he wasn't as bad as Hogan
-Really didn't love the overboard Ironmanization of Spidey's suit. Too many gadgets. I want Spidey to be more Spidey and less Iron Man.
-I thought the overall action was decent, but not great. Had Spidey do a few too many unrealistic too CGIish moves at times too.
-Actually wish the movie would have retread some things a bit more than it did to fill in some more backstory for us
-There was no iconic emotional moment like the Aunt May "Hero in all of us" speech of Spider-Man 2, no Spidey jumping the buildings while injured in The Amazing Spider-Man, no "with great power comes great responsibility" moment.... etc. Just never had that one big moment (my next point didn't help).
-While the music score was good fun at times, like pretty much every MCU movie to date, I thought the overall score just sucked. There was no new iconic Spidey songs like its predecessors that could hit hard with the emotion of the movie. In fact, I can't think back and remember one single song of the movie.
In the end, if I could sum all of this up in a few words, I'd almost have to say that my biggest disappointment in this movie was that it had too much fun with too little heart. Therefore, while it is up there with my favorite Spidey movies of all time, it is not my favorite, Spider-Man 2 is. That isn't to say that this movie isn't better in many ways than Spider-Man 2, because it is. It just didn't hook me emotionally the way that movie did to the point where Spider-Man became one of my all-time favorite heroes of my childhood. As for a MCU comparison, I think this movie also just has too many flaws to put it up there in the top tier. Like its fellow movie this year GOTG vol. 2, I'd call it much more of an upper second tier MCU movie. In fact, I thought this movie had many of the same flaws of GOTG vol. 2, but did at least have a better villain. For another summer comparison, I liked Wonder Woman better. While Homecoming had a better villain than Wonder Woman, I thought Wonder Woman balanced the comedy and drama better.
FYI... I'll soon repost my full MCU rankings to include this movie.
