Green Goblin Reviews Spider-man: Homecoming
Ok. Confession time. I don’t know how long I’ve been able to keep this a secret, but it’s finally time I come out with it: I’m a HUUUUGE Spider-man fan. I know. I know. Hard to believe the guy who’s stuck with the net-handle “Green Goblin” from the 2002 film’s release and son of a man who grew up in Queens, NY might be a fan of the webslinger, but here we are. He’s my #1 favorite superhero. Period. I read the comics. I have action figures and t-shirts and video games and DVD box sets. I love Spider-man. Despite this however, I had not been excited to see a Spider-man film in nearly a decade. After the third Raimi film (which is honestly not as bad as you remember it), I remember having a little part of my spark for Spidey die with the trailers and eventual release of the Marc Webb Amazing Spider-man film. Everything felt wrong with that film and thankfully everyone eventually got on board with that thinking too; I just had to wait for the shitty sequel before people started to realize what a fucking dumpster fire Sony was trying to make a franchise out of. Then, as if etched into the heavens, the planets aligned and Marvel got the reigns to the franchise again in pretty much everything but name and have successfully brought Spider-man into the Marvel Cinematic universe. Just like with Wonder Woman last month, the character was introduced in a previous movie in their respective world. And I am happy to say that just like with Wonder Woman, they’ve managed to hit it out of the park.
Our story begins not long after the events of Civil War, where Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is dropped off back at home by Tony after his first real superhero moment in the big leagues. Eager to prove himself and maintain the same status as that of the Avengers, he reports back to Stark via Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and continues to maintain vigilance over crime in and around Queens, while also attempting to maintain his social life in school. For the most part, the mean streets of Queens are pretty tame, but he eventually stumbles on to a group of criminals that use Chitauri technology to use and sell as weapons. The group is an illegal salvage operation, led by Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), who were run out of their own industry due to the US government partnering up with Tony Stark to do the cleanup for all of the big superhero battles. When forced out of their honest profession, Toomes decided to hold on to whatever alien tech he still had on hand to create tools and weapons to enable him to steal more. With the help of his subordinate the Tinkerer (Michael Chernus), he creates a flight suit and takes on the title of the Vulture. And with Stark and Hogan not taking Parker seriously, it’s up to him to take down his first real supervillain threat on his own.
The thing I find really endearing about this film is that while this isn’t an origin story, it is still very much a young fledgling story for the new Spidey. He’s yet to fight a supervillain on his own. He isn’t even that use to web-swinging (which takes away from the film ever so slightly), staying primarily in and around the non-skyscraper landscape of Queens (He’s even a little afraid of heights). I’m honestly reminded of some of the first Amazing Spider-man comic books, where Peter is trying to figure out how to do this whole “superhero” thing properly by annoying other heroes. You really do get the feeling that he’s just a kid in over his head and trying to rise up to a level of performance that he’s just not ready for. The other thing I find myself impressed with is how they handled the world-building. One of the (many) problems with the Marc Webb films is that attempt at establishing new directions and avenues for their franchise to go felt both limiting and forced. When all the villains originate from Oscorp, it makes the world feel as if it revolves around that single corporate entity. With the fact that this Chitauri tech is just available on the black market, it means that new heroes and villains can come from virtually anywhere. Heck, in this film, you get the Vulture, the Tinkerer, the Shocker (a jobber villain who has never been more of a jobber than he is in this film) and a few more sprinkled in and the entire thing feels organic and a natural evolution of the world the events of the MCU has created.
The large scale superhero aspects of the film are all pretty damn good, but the film also shines when dealing with the high school social life of Peter Parker. It’s good to see a cast of kids in a film that feel legitimate. They’ve taken names and aspects of previously established characters and tweaked them to be a bit more based in the here and now. Flash Thompson use to be a leather jacket-wearing jock archetypal bully design. In this film, he’s modeled into more of a sleazy fast-talking douche who hates the fact that Peter is naturally talented in science, where he has to struggle and work hard. Or how Betty Brant is typically a reporter for the Daily Bugle, whereas in this film, she’s a co-anchor on the high school news program. Also, every kid in this film is very intelligent, so it doesn’t fall into the trappings of having a bully that’s just some mouth-breather or a high school diva that’s full of nothing but hot air. It adds a third dimension onto all the characters in Pete’s life. Even Pete’s bumbling best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) is shown to be capable in aiding Pete when the chips are down. Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) has also been updated to resemble what an actual aunt looks like, as oppose to an octogenarian Irish woman.
The things that I will say sort of take away from the film are honestly by design anyway, so it feels a bit wrong to harp on them. For one, this is a story that could almost be completely taken out from the rest of the MCU without much worry (and I know that more than likely has to do with whatever nebulous backroom deals that Marvel and Sony had to agree on in order to get this whole project off the ground). The other is because this film centers and focuses around Peter in high school, there is no reference to the Daily Bugle at all (though, to be fair, it’s gonna be damn near impossible to find another J. Jonah Jameson that measures up to the master work we got with JK Simmons). Perhaps it’s an avenue to venture into with a future film, but thankfully the movie didn’t feel like it was very lacking in terms of content, so these two minor gripes really aren’t going to be a make-or-break deal for anyone.
Long story short, this film’s not dethroning the Raimi films (by that, I mean 1 and 2), but it does come nipping at their heels. In the way that Spider-man is held with a sort of awe and reverence in 2002, this is a Spider-man film that’s more about how much he messes things up before he actually sets it all right. And that is a core component of Spider-man’s entire shtick: He’s got a good heart, but often gets in over his head and screws up. And it still runs laps around the Webb films. I could go on and on about how the Vulture’s characterization is the best of a villain in all the MCU films or about how Chris Evans seems to be getting cameos that are arguably better than that of Stan Lee. But suffice it to say that Spidey’s back and this film is a return to form.
9/10 Now seriously, Sony. Do NOT fuck this franchise up again. Please…