If there’s one thing that Josef and Luke have in common, it’s their love for Spiderman. Tom Holland made his debut as our favourite webslinger last year in Captain America: Civil War. Homecoming is however the first solo movie to hit the MCU and has a lot of high expectations. Our boys went to go see the movie around the same time and have their initial impressions and reactions to the film here for us. Without further ado, lets swing some webs and get this dual review on the way. We’ll be avoiding spoilers to the best of our ability.
Initial Thoughts and Feelings
Spiderman climbs heights and shoots baddies like it’s the 60’s all over again.
Josef: It’s good to be home. Spiderman is finally part of the MCU and his first solo film is a treat for those who have been patient enough. When you see a Marvel film you know it’s going to be fun already, but spider-man is something next level. While the Toby and Andrew adaptations were fun to some degree, there’s something special about Tom Holland. Ever since he popped on screen in Civil War I knew he was gonna be the Peter Parker for me. He bumbles around awkwardly in a slightly cringey manor, which is exactly how spiderman should be. It’s easy to say that I had high expectations going into this, I was ready for a solo movie, and I’m sure Luke was too.
Luke: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I’VE WAITED FOR THIS DAY SINCE THE MCU FIRST STARTED!!!!
Okay now that’s out of my system it’s probably no suprise how excited I was for Spidey to be FINALLY entering the MCU, after 20 years of reading the comics, watching the cartoons and even making excuses for the previous films I finally had hopes that someone would do my favourite, cocky, idiotic superhero a bit of justice… and Marvel did not disappoint me on a single level.
Story and Plot
Look at him, he looks so fresh and dorky at the same time.
So the events of homecoming take place fresh after Civil War. Peter Parker is back in to his high school routine awaiting his next mission with Tony Stark. Unfortunately for him he doesn’t exactly get a mission for a long time. Peter fits his role as the ‘friendly neighbourhood spiderman, helping people he finds and being generally nice. He’s pretty decent at managing his time and you can tell he has fun swinging around. It all changes for him when he meets the Vultures crew. They’ve been scavenging weapons from avengers battles and turning them into their own devices. Peter makes it his goal to go after them, making his double life a lot harder to manage.
Josef: It’s Spiderman at his best, and the plot keeps Peter busy while he has fun. The pacing is great in the sense it allows us to see some classic neighbourhood action, and follow him up to the big leagues. Tony Stark also makes some appearances here and there and I feel that he didn’t make it an Iron Man movie like some people were afraid of. He’s very much at the sidelines, and he’s able to develop his arch without taking away from Peter’s story. Marvel do tend to struggle with 3rd acts of their films but recently they’ve been on form. There wasn’t a scene where I felt it was getting bad or boring. In fact by the end of it I was wishing for more, and could have happily had an extra hour of Spiderman action.
Luke: It was just nice to not have to go through ANOTHER rehash of the origin story of Spiderman again, I think everyone and their nan has seen the origins of Spidey by this point so it was nice to see has as an already introduced character striving to become a fully fledged member of the Avengers – like Golden Age Spiderman always was. He was the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman at his best.
I LOVED the story of Homecoming as well, again it was so refreshing for Marvel to go with a classic villain who wasn’t the Green Goblin or someone else we have seen again and again and again. I feel that Marvel Studios handled the franchise’s storied history really well giving us the perfect Spiderman story we have been craving after for so many years.
Other Feelings
Ned get’s on your nerves the way a best friend should.
Josef: Alright I just wanna start with a well deserved shout out to Tom Holland. He captures exactly what it means to be spiderman, and he feels like an exact copy of Peter Parker. He bumbles around and awkwardly tries to be nice and it’s perfect to see on screen. The supporting cast is also surprisingly great. Ned (peter’s best friend) is a funny character and he’ll make you laugh every time he’s on screen. Robert Downy Jr also brings back his signature Stark personality and he’s still a ton of fun to see around. The rest of the cast all generally fill their roles and fit in with the universe.
Michael Giacchino delivers an excellent soundtrack, that kicks off almost immediately with the special rendition of the TV theme song from the 60’s. The rest of the soundtrack is just as exciting and the songs used externally also fit the tone of the movie. Giacchino proves once again that he can deliver on the sound. I also have to quickly mention my disappointment in the lack of spider-sense. One of the characters core abilities seems to be missing in this version, either that or it is not focused on at all. I would have hoped for some form of mention or feeling from Peter to clarify where it is or what’s going on. I do wonder if Sony have a copyright on the name personally. But for now it’s something that’s going to bother me.
Luke: Tom Holland is the best Spiderman we have ever had, I liked Tobey Maguire and I loved Andrew Garfield but both actors just pale in comparison to Tom Holland’s version of the web swinger.
Spiderman Homecoming fulfilled every fanboy-ish desire I ever had for a Spiderman movie – from a classical rendition of the 80’s cartoon theme song right up to seeing Spidey take down the villain with just his powers I was giggling like a kid all the way through.
The only thing that didn’t sit right with me was the lack of the Spider-Sense throughout the whole film – though I am hoping this is simply a coming of age thing for the MCU version of the character.
Conclusions
Just hanging around, as a spider does.
Josef: This is one of the most refreshing Marvel films in a long time, and does the job at bringing the perfect version of Peter to the big screen. It gets me back into the spiderman vibes I used to feel as a 12 year old, and makes me want more. I’ll be looking forward to Tom Holland in the Avengers movies, and then later on in a sequel to homecoming. They’ve left a lot to be explored in this movie that will most likely be explored in the near future. They’ve even begun to develop some villains to keep on the watch list until next time. Homecoming is the most fun a Spiderman fan can have in 2 hours. If only it was 4 hours long then I would have gotten all I desired.
I’m giving Spiderman Homecoming, an 8.5/10.
Luke: My biggest worry when going into Homecoming was the level of hype I had built myself up to have since the announcement, this level of hype was increased ten fold by the fact that Spidey is and always will be my favourite comic out there (even in it’s weakest moments) but Spiderman Homecoming delivered on every account as far as I was concerned – Now I’m just sad it’s over and I have to wait until at least 2019 for the next installment.
This Fanboy is giving Spiderman Homecoming 9.5/10