Spider-Man: Homecoming

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)

The main goal that the creators set for themselves came out only halfway. The anticipated connection of superhero grandeur with ordinary high school adventure ultimately endures moments when they don't fit well together and often clash loudly. The teenage storyline, in fact, is sewn with an unnecessarily hot needle compared to the purely Marvel-esque (events from The Avengers and Captain America: Civil War are mined almost to the core) and thus the resulting impressions surprisingly have to be pulled up by Tony Stark himself in an unsurprisingly awesome performance by Robert Downey, Jr. Tom Holland enjoys the costume to the last line and tries to be that modern version of Spidey, but even though I was optimistic after he was introduced, he has been slow to win me over. Even though he is as close to Spider-Man as Tobey Maguire once was, the memories of Andrew Garfield and the whole Amazing Spider-Man are too intense and positive for me to accept this new reboot so quickly. 70% and the hope that when entering the same river for the third time, they will not cowardly retreat this time. (10/26/2017)

From the sympathetic protagonist to one of Marvel's finest protagonists to Giacchino's music, almost ubiquitous but unobtrusive humor and one very mildly unexpected twist... Everything is done right here. I'm not gonna blame Spider-Man for targeting a younger audience when Peter Parker is a teen this time. On the contrary, it is an advantage, because from his age stems the great desire of a boy to be big, to belong somewhere and to be useful, which drives it all forward. The latest addition to this comic book family is, in short, a lively spectacle that does not hold things back with things we've already seen (Spider-Man's origin and so on), but tells something new nicely, clearly and with ease. (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)

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. (09/28/2017)