Spider-Man: Homecoming

Returning to school after the events of ‘Captain America: Civil War’ Peter Parker struggles to balance his normal life with being Spider-Man as a new villain emerges to threaten New York.

That said, Spider-Man as a character feels like he’s never been away. After Sam Raimi’s three ’Spider-Man’ movies with Tobey Maguire and Marc Webb’s two ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ movies with Andrew Garfield, ’Spider-Man: Homecoming’ is carrying much more than just the future of the character.

…plunges us straight into the events after ‘Captain America: Civil War’.

Fortunately with Tom Holland in the title role as a much younger Spider-Man, ’Spider-Man: Homecoming’ thankfully skips another version of the origin story and plunges us straight into the events after ‘Captain America: Civil War’. Rather than starting from scratch, this Spider-Man movie feels like continuation of that story and it is all the better for it.

Whilst Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man 2’ continues to shine undimmed, ’Spider-Man: Homecoming’ manages the difficult balancing act of not being too-much of a Marvel ‘Avengers’ movie and neither a full-on high school drama. A lot of this due to the tight script with snappy dialogue, good human observation and enough time to let the characters breathe.

As Spider-Man, Tom Holland manages to bring both the best of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s performances whilst still making the role his own with a wide-eyed, infectious naivety which never feels forced. Add to this, the welcome, on-going return of Michael Keaton and you have two actors whose performances are grounded in an accessible way whilst deftly skirting the line between comic-book fantasy and the dourness of ‘Logan’ (there’ll be time enough for that in the subsequent, already green-lit sequels after this one).

With a pacy editing style and a solid score, this ’Spider-Man’ has a clear sense of where it’s going and plot-wise is a more than worthy alternative to DC’s dull, by-the-numbers Wonder Woman release this summer.

Lighter, faster and with more heart and snap-crackle dialogue, this is the ’Spider-Man’ movie you’ve been looking for. Wrapped up in a delightful coming-of-age drama with solid indicators for a decent sequel to follow, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is set to swing for some to come.