Tom Holland is a superb lead in Spider-Man: Homecoming and also provides a superhero kids can finally relate to
Despite being the third Spider-Man star in 15 years this film has enough twists to make it the best
Spider-Man: Homecoming
(FILM OF THE WEEK)
(12A) 133mins
FINALLY a reboot that saves us from a damn origin story!
If there’s one thing 99% of the world’s population knows already it’s that Peter Parker got bitten by a radioactive spider.
Now spare us another montage of him drawing his costume in a schoolbook will you and (as Roxette quite rightly sang) don’t bore us, get to the chorus.
Spider-man: Homecoming did away with all that backstory via the clever insert in Captain America: Civil War a couple of years ago, meaning we can just get straight into it - and we certainly do just that.
Answering an often-wondered question, we meet the salvage teams lumbered with collecting all of the mess, debris and broken weapons left over after The Avenger skirmishes.
It’s their job to catalogue and return to the heroes, however it has created a black market for alien weaponry - and the chief architect is (this) Spider-Man’s first nemesis - Vulture, played by an astounding Michael Keaton.
Entrusted with his new Stark spider suit, Parker has been busy solving street-level crime in Queens, but dreams of joining the 1st Team on their adventures, and spends more time looking expectantly at his phone than he does on his studies.
Like a truant pupil, he tries desperately to slip from the surveillance of Tony Stark to prove he has what it takes - and obviously winds up way out of his depth when he captures Vulture’s attention.
This is the 3rd Spider-man in 15 years and the 6th movie - but the first, under the helm of director Jon Watts, that treats it with the intended tone of the original comics.
Rather than having someone pushing 30 pretending to be at school, they have an actual kid playing a kid, in this relatively light-hearted coming of age adventure that had a whole cinema full of kids whooping with joy!
The set pieces were impressive without being overwhelming, it has a great little twist, a smattering of the traditional Easter Eggs and just the right amount of Marvel Universe weaving, making it both familiar and utterly refreshing.
Tom Holland is superb in the lead role.
MOST READ IN FILM
Not ripped to the gills, not improbably handsome and just the right amount of geekiness to be relatable to teens, holding his own in every scene (which when they’re alongside Downey Jr and Keaton - is no small feat).
In fact the cast as a whole is really strong - in particular Jacob Batalan as goofy buddy Ned, Marisa Tomei as Aunt May and Zendaya as the slouchy Michelle.
They’re like The Breakfast Club meets Modern Family.
Finally a superhero kids can relate to! Mine hadn’t been this excited about a film in years.
Easily the most enjoyable Marvel Universe movie for the under 16s - and not far off it for the rest of us.
Rating: 4.5/5