Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-man is probably the only comic book that has never quite managed to target the right kind of audience and choose an adequate image. The first attempt was the most mature, and things went downhill from there. At the moment, after a short break, the protagonist has changed and from a fresh adult who can hardly buy alcohol in a shop we have a superhero who has a hot ID. Whether this teen move is good or bad is hard to say, but there is no significant move forward, it just came from somewhere else, and the result is average again. There are highlights, of course. The boat scene (already in the trailer) is impressive and everything about Keaton as the main villain is a treat (the conversation in the car is incredibly tense), but the action, in general, is not so good and there isn’t much of it. And the schoolyard banter and the artificially grafted femme fatale who makes it difficult for the spider-man to make a decision about (not) saving the world is there just to give the story a dramatic arc and the main character a life dilemma. (09/29/2017)

I am slightly shocked. A director, who has so far shot only a couple of B-rated horror movies, suddenly elevated his movie career with a film that is probably the most entertaining Spider-Man story ever. It is true that they played around a bit with the character of Spider-Man so it would be best if you immediately forgot about Sam Raimi’s original trilogy. They turned him into this poor superhero who can’t do anything, who sucks, and is literally a pain in the butt of the famous Stark Industries. Michael Keaton is also no two-dimensional villain but surprisingly a rather real person who really surprised me with his role. A precisely targeted humor that makes out Spider-Man to be a poor thing is surprisingly very nice and the high-school setting is very beneficial. Surprisingly, a very well-done Marvel movie. (03/13/2018)

This is the third reboot, so I wasn't that curious, I prefer newer characters, but still I wasn't bored and a few things surprised me, so I have no problem with a better rating. Tom Holland sat well with me in the end despite my prejudices, Laura Harrier is incredibly cute, Michael Keaton is a decent bad guy after a long time, and Robert Downey Jr. steals every scene for himself. As for the action, there is not that much and it's rather mediocre, which is one of the bigger criticisms, otherwise the humour was pretty good, the school setting was fine (I still expected more though), and there was one interesting unexpected twist which may well have decided the final rating. I liked it more than Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy, I would put Spidey in the category of slightly above average Marvel movies. 7/10. (07/06/2017)

It took fifteen years and required six attempts, but in the end they managed to turn Spider-Man into a successful movie. It's not Spider-man. It´s more like Iron Man Junior, but even this is enough. Sometimes Parker's high school fateful melodramatic adventures were more successful, other times Spidey's acrobatic moments. However, Waits manages both approaches by acting as two communicating vessels, which goes hand in hand with the fact that, for the first time ever, the Parker / Spidey duality does not act as two unrelated characters, but only as a Parker teenager without / with a ski hood over a face that he has much greater ambitions and ideals than he currently has the skills to do. Yet Spidey's best incarnation is still that by the Insomniacs. The only drawback is, sadly, the lengthy confusing final night action with zero room for Aunt May, the ignored spider's sense and the need to adjust it to "Avengers MCU". It's way too much highlighted and it's not needed (however Captain America's educational videos are worth some patience). Otherwise, Waits plays with the topic, it´s packed with imaginative details (à la difficulties outside the urban area), sidekick is not annoying, humor works, the villain does the job, his motivation is clear, Padawan (not) origin is well conceived and a there´s a nice relaxed approach like "we don't save the world and skyscrapers do not fall, but we can create a tense atmosphere of Mann's scope even from a meeting with a father before the prom". (07/07/2017)

Marvel is going a little differently again. Spider-Man draws heavily on teen and high school comedies from the 1980s, and it's in the moments when the lovable Tom Holland tackles the problems of an ordinary teenager that the film is most entertaining. Spider-Man lags a bit in the action, which is unfortunately especially evident in the finale, but it's still a solid above average film. Plus, it can lean on the excellent Michael Keaton, whose villain is more interesting than he first appears. The two actors' scenes together are the strongest moments of the entire film. It's all the more disappointing that Jon Watts overstays his welcome unnecessarily and that he's a little short on the visual effects scenes. Still, it's a very fine Marvel film that tries to embrace the comic book genre a little differently than the previous ones. And I kind of like it that way. (08/16/2017)