Our third reboot just three years after the previous film, who's going to keep up with all this?
Spider-Man Homecoming follows a teen Peter Parker trying to navigate life and also trying to be "recognized" as a superhero. I love how the film deals with Peter's inner fear of being alone and a nobody without ever telling us about it, we can feel his excited and desperation at times because of Tom Holland's great acting both physical and emotional. He really brings this teenager who's probably very conflicted about life and responsibilities, to life.
And man, this time (be cause I have seen these movies before and thought not much of them) I was kinda surprised that at their school everyone was young. This is not adults pretending to be teens, these are teens. They make stupid jokes, they go to parties, they have crushes and I think the movie does a better job of building Peter Parker's school life then it does building up his home life and struggles. So the highlights for me were internal struggle of not accepting himself as he is and his school drama, not so much compelling sides were his house life with his aunt and their lame larby jokes that try too hard to be cute.
Another thing this movie really does well is that it really brings a lot of city sound and visual language, atleast in the first half. One of the first shots is the camera panning down on the Avengers tower as it descends into a collapse building and you can see and hear pigeons flying off. The noises of trains and people everywhere of different cultures in New York is really great too, I don't remember seeing this detailed look at it before.
Visuals are most of the time pretty good, the Vulture design and his overall character is superbly played by Michael Keaton. His suit, the menacing wings, the helmet and leather jacket, green eyes, it's such a well-realized look. Keaton plays him with such an empathetic but dangerous air too, you know this guy is crazy and that he's too deep into it to give up but the movie makes him relatable and likable from the first scene.
Action scenes are a hit and miss, the Washington D.C monumental scene is held with a buildup of intensity and Spider-Man's getting inside the monument flying swing is beautifully intense and shot but the ferry scene has some awkward editing. I remember Vulture just flying here and there looking at a seemingly cardboard cutout of six Feds shooting at him and it looked meh
I think the first-half is actually better than the latter, it flows much better even with it's own weird pacing issues. I don't know why Disney keeps moving Spider-Man from New York with these movies but atleast the scene in Washington was exciting.
Overall: 7.5/10 A lot of marvel comedy still felt stupid to me and the movie sort of ends inconclusively, but atleast Peter's character has a real character development by the end.
Also the references to Ferris Bueller's Day Off were pretty fun to watch
