Movie Review: “Spider-Man: Homecoming” Is the Best Teen Comedy of the Year (and an Okay Superhero Flick)

Spider-Man has a lot in common with Iron Man, and not just because they now share the screen in Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios’ synergistic marriage of convenience, Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Tony Stark, an alcoholic, has some lost years, and so does Peter Parker, though in Peter’s case, it’s 2012 to 2014, when he was played by Andrew Garfield in Marc Webb’s woeful (and swiftly abandoned) franchise reboot. Stark’s Iron Man, at his lowest point, attempted to DJ while drunk. In The Amazing Spider-Man, Parker skateboarded in slow-motion to Coldplay. They both know regret too well.

Spider-Man: Homecoming, from director Jon Watts, is their detox; a giddy, goofy and frequently funny superhero flick tailor-made for tweens and teens. It’s the best kid’s movie of the year, and I don’t say that to damn it with faint praise. Young viewers will get far more from this than they will from, say, Logan, which is excellent, yet spiritually crushing. Spider-Man: Homecoming at least made me smile, a lot.

Here, Peter Parker is reset to age 15, and he’s played by Tom Holland, who was introduced when he interrupted an Avengers brawl in Captain America: Civil War (it was Stark’s idea). This time around, we mercifully skip his origin story (he was bitten by a radioactive bug; he has spider powers; he’s a science genius; you get it) and cut straight to his web-slinging do-goodery. We also get the added benefit of Robert Downey Jr. co-starring as Tony Stark, popping in to serve as a surrogate father figure. Well, most of the time he just teleconferences in, which is very on-brand for Stark, and very undemanding of RDJ.

(For years, Spider-Man and his fellow Marvel characters have lived in big screen isolation for the greatest creative reason of all: archaic legalese. Marvel Studios and Disney, who own the film rights to the Avengers, and Sony, which exclusively owns Spider-Man, have agreed to swap toys and share in the wealth for the first time ever. It’d be adorable if it wasn’t so devilishly shrewd.)

Homecoming begins with Stark dropping our hero back at his apartment in Queens, which he shares with his similarly de-aged Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). Peter insists he’s ready for more world-saving; Tony tells him to remain a “friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man”. So, it’s back to high school, with its awkward social and romantic complications, and moonlighting as a masked vigilante. That is, until Petey uncovers an underground alien weaponry trade, led by blue-collar villain Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), who occasionally takes flight in a winged ‘Vulture’ suit, but is mostly concerned with getting his criminal staff and their families paid. (He's like if Jimmy Barnes' "Working Class Man" was actually about black market gun-running, or if the scene with the "Henchman's Wife" from Austin Powers was turned into a full feature.)

As we rollick to the climax, the question becomes: Can Peter stop Toomes from destroying NYC and get a date for the school ball? Homecoming holds two ideas in its head at once, proving an action movie can still be compelling when grounded in the small-time stakes of high school popularity and academic decathlons (or, in the case of Toomes, financial security), rather than wars over civil rights and galactic domination.

But Homecoming introduces a new problem to the equation; one that hasn’t been faced in a Spider-Film before: Whenever Spidey swings away to his next adventure, you wish he’d hang back with his friends instead.

Watts—working from a screenplay credited to six different people, all men, because progress is a crawl not a march—doesn’t bring a distinct personality to Homecoming. It’s fitting that Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan, formerly Tony Stark’s right-hand man, returns to babysit Peter Parker, because his ghost as director of the original Iron Man (and role as Marvel template-setter) hangs over proceedings.

Anyone hoping for a return to Sam Raimi’s comic-book flourishes will be disappointed, and there’s certainly nothing to match the emotional weight of Spider-Man 2, which basically perfected the form. Keaton, however, as a legend of the genre, is excellent treading the line between gravitas and hammy playfulness.

That’s not to say Watts, who fails to conjure an iconic visual moment, doesn’t do fine work as helmer of the fleet-footed teen comedy at Homecoming’s core. His cast helps. Holland plays Parker with a sweet naïveté, and he’s partnered up with amusing sidekicks (Jacob Batalon, the dryly spacey Zendaya), stand-offish rivals (Tony Revolori, Angourie Rice) and oddball teachers (Martin Starr, Hannibal Buress).

Some of the picture’s bigger names are sadly underutilised, from Marisa Tomei (who injects real spark in her handful of scenes) to Jennifer Connelly, as Karen, a disembodied robot voice from within the Spider-Suit, whom Peter friend-zones despite her light flirtations with the 15-year-old (it’s a weird choice). Even Donald Glover is wasted in a glorified cameo as—if you know your comic lore—the uncle of a notable character who does not appear in the film. This is no consolation prize for the man who once campaigned to play Spider-Man himself.

If Tony Stark is trying to remake teenage Peter Parker in his own image, Marvel is definitely attempting to do the same with Sony. However, by importing their production line quality assurance, they’ve also imported their quality cap. (That said, they manage to outdo Marvel’s other, in-house efforts in one respect: This one offers the best post-credits sequence to date.)

Spider-Man: Homecoming never reaches greatness, but it aces goodness.

3.5/5

In cinemas July 6. Rated M for action violence.

Photo: Sony