117.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
9.5/10
Hell yes, the Marvel film I've been waiting a long time for. Dr Strange wasn't really on my radar and the group films don't count. I wanted to see what was going to happen when Tom Holland's time came to don the web slinging gear now that marvel had control of Spider-Man again. I enjoyed Garfield's first, a little less the second but a lot more than Toby's effort, which may not go down well but screw it, that's me. I'm not here to discuss those two though, it's time for a fresh start. Will we see another Uncle Ben put through a death, how many scenes linked to the other films and comics? It's time to swing into action for one of the most anticipated Marvel films for a long time.
The film starts in a battered New York City not long after the battle seen at the end of the first Avengers movie and teams are cleaning up the mess including the dead aliens and their ships. The worker in charge of the site we are looking in on is Adrian Toomes, played by Michael Keaton, who wins my applause for being a great Batman. Winner. Going into the movie I already knew that this guy is going to be the main villain so it's just a matter of finding out how. Soon a van from the Department of Damage Control, owned by Tony Stark, arrives and takes over the site to which the crew are saddened with being out of a job and not receiving any payment. After throwing a punch at one of the new workers Toomes must hand over all technology salvaged, he reluctantly gives up his work. Knowing that it's not fair, Toomes takes his three best men and decides to carry on collecting stuff because it will sell and they can recoup their payment. Jackson Brice, Herman Schultz and Phineas Mason all have they plus points for his new gang. Eight years later the lads are still at it but now have a whole warehouse full of tech, made into guns and Toomes flies in through the roof in his Vulture suit, pretty damn cool.
It's our turn to meet Peter Parker who is making a video diary on his phone as he travels with Happy Hogan, Jon Favreau, for what we know is Stark recruiting him to be part of his team during the Civil War scene when he steals Cap's shield and we see this because he is filming the meeting on the runway before he leaps into action and then carries on filming when back at the hotel, letting us know how it went. Excited and erratic through it all, showing his youth compared to the other movies we've seen. Once back home, he gets dropped off by Tony and they have a great back and fore where he thinks Tony will hug him but he's just opening the door but Parker is too excited to care and wants to know when he is needed next. Me too mate, me too. Stark has giving him a briefcase and inside is his new Spider-Man outfit to wear and keep. Two months pass, leaving Happy some answer phone messages, texts about what he has done to help the community and still asking when he is going to be needed next. He goes back to school as a normal student and we meet his best mate Ned who wants him to help him with a Lego build of the Death Star. Some lovely product placement thanks to Disney owning both. He has a crush on a senior names Liz and is constantly picked on by Flash, who because they whole case is younger, is a lot smaller than the bully that took swings at Toby's Spider-Man. Whenever he is not free, he tells his friends and members of the decathlon team that he has a Stark Internship, which hardly anyone believes. In one of his lessons, probably Chemistry, we see Peter making some web fluid for his shooters. So, this is the way we are taking, same as Garfield, with the shooters rather than coming out of his mutated wrists. Cool. So far, he has pretty much been a neighbourhood spider as he stops bike thieves, gives directions to a lost old lady and other little jobs but it's time for his first bigger job, a bank robbery. He catches four crooks in Avengers masks cutting through an ATM machine with a bright blue laser gun. Standing there, trying to find the correct pose and adding a bit of humour he then tackles the men but is matched with their high tech weapons. But missing the gun blows up the Italian shop opposite which Peter frequents and he runs over to save the owner before finding out that in doing this, the men have escaped.
Peter returns to his flat through his bedroom window as not to show Aunt May where he has been. Dropping from the ceiling the camera follows him and we see Ned sitting on his bed and Peter only turns around once the Lego Death Star hits the floor and smashes. Obviously being shocked and excited at the same time, Peter makes him keep this a secret. We finally see a side to Aunt May when her a Peter go out for dinner as she tried to get answers as to why he is so quiet. Putting it down to the internship, she states she doesn't like Stark and sees the robbery on TV, warning him not to go anywhere near that kind of stuff. The next day at school is full of humour for the viewers as Ned asks all kinds of questions about what Peter can actually do. He reveals his part in the Civil War movie and after Ned hears Liz, the senior that Peter's crush is based around, talking about Spider-Man so blurts out that Peter knows him. She invites them both to here party, hoping that the webbed hero may come too. Once they arrive, Ned wants Peter to change straight away and after a small argument and Flash making fun of them both, he disappears to a roof to change but sees an explosion in the distance which is bright blue. Swinging off to investigate he finds Brice and Schultz selling the alien weapons so a man called Aaron Davie, played by Donald Glover. Once watching, Peter's mobile goes off with Ned ringing him and this makes the two sellers think that they have been set up by Davis so before they shoot him, Spidey swings in to stop and they turn their attention to him so Davis escapes. Following the van and getting shot at the two men drop a gun in a garden whilst Peter chases the two until the Vulture swoops from nowhere and grabs him. Flying high, he drops him straight into a river and Peter deploys a parachute which acts as a hindrance when he hits the water. From nowhere we see Iron Man fly into the water to save Peter and set him aside to have a word of warning. There was a tracker in his suit but he wants Peter to leave this alone because Tony has is covered. After arguing he opens the Iron Man head to reveal he isn't actually there and is calling him from another country. The party is a no go too as now Flash has turned the whole party against Peter. He instead remembers the dropped weapon, so goes to investigate it.
Back at the lair of the Vulture, Blair reveals that he dropped one of the weapons as he was using the gauntlets that were made and calling himself Shocker. Knowing Shocker from the original cartoon show, he seemed a yellow all over in a suit which had diamonds cut into it with red seams. A very imposing character, but this version simply had a yellow armed hoodie with the diamond pattern which was a disappointment for me. Toomes cuts the guy from the team but when he threatens him, Toomes grabs a gun and disintegrates him. Schultz now picks up the gauntlets and becomes the Shocker. With Ned's skills, Peter cracks open the weapon he found to reveal an alien power core which he hides inside his bag and he finds Schultz once again so places a tracker on him and finds out that he is going to Maryland which isn't too far from where the decathlon team is competing. He's dropped out of the team but quickly gets back on. Once at their hotel, Liz asks Peter to come swimming with the team but he already has plans to stop the villains so heads off as Spider-Man to a little bit more humour. Ned and Peter have hacked his suit to take off the tracker and also unlock its full potential. He now has a woman AI inside talking to him along with new web capabilities and fighting routines. Struggling with the changes, there is a great comedy scene of him getting used to it until he finds out the villains are waiting for a damage control truck to pass which they plan on hijacking. As he tries to foil it, The Vulture swoops in and uses tech to pass inside the truck through a portal only for Peter to follow him and stop him. He's trapped inside though and knocks himself unconscious and wakes up in a warehouse, trapped until at least the morning. Inside he practises everything new in his suit and names the AI Karen, who is the voice of Jennifer Connelly. She teaches him that the power cores are pretty much explosives after time which scares him when he realises that Ned is in possession of his one at the competition. Hacking the doors, he escapes and Karen helps him find his way back to D.C. In this time, we see some quick cut scenes showing the team answers questions and winning the competition without Peter's help because Flash has stepped in. But the real winner is the reserved character of Michelle. We've seen her a few times already with her dry humour and she turns up to detention to sketch people who are sad. I think she has a soft spot for Peter but doesn't reveal anything. The team head over to climb the Washington Monument and when in the lift the alien power core starts to kick off, shooting lasers and cut parts of the elevator cable, putting the team in danger. Again, more humour as we flit back and fore from inside the lift to inside the Spider suit where the elevator staff says, 'the backup cables will work for us,' as Karen says, 'the backup cables have nearly failed,' and so on. Climbing the outside, he finds a window but can't get through it without great force. The police turn up in a chopper and tell him to get done but instead he leaps over them, slingshots himself from the underneath and through the window, just in time to grab the lift as its falling down and he pulls it back up. Each one clambers out with only Liz left, obviously and he grabs her by the hand as the lift falls. He hangs upside down inside the shaft with her looking lovingly towards him and this is a throwback to the original movie with the kiss upside down but before that can happen, his web gives way and he falls down the shaft instead.
Finally, back to the safety of his room, he's wearing the mask and Karen shows him that everything he is done is recorded so he wants to find out about these dangerous men. Instead the only person with a record is Donald Glover's character so she tracks him down and he's off to ask his questions. Putting on his investigative mode in a great scene, he sounds like a harsh Batman instead as Davis has no idea how to act. Spider-Man has no idea what to act so instead begs for answers and Davis hands over the info, knowing he doesn't want those type of weapons in his neighbour because he has a little nephew growing up in the area. Turns out his nephew may have a big role with it leading to being Mile Morales who becomes Spider-Man one day. Because Spider-Man saved his life early, the full info was mentioned about the next sale. A Staten Island ferry is the location and off Peter goes so track down the men in a scene of web slinging, web grenades and as the fighting continues, Toomes enters and jumps into a van to don the Vulture suit. Using one of the weapons to try and end the Spider's life, he's soon grabbed by webs, along with the weapon but as the weapon hits the deck it begins to fire rapidly. Although he tries to cover it in web to stop the act, it back fires and soon the ship is cut in half but a giant shot from the laser. He tries to hold the ferry together with all his web at different points in another scene from old, linked to Toby with stopping the train in Spider-Man 2 or Garfield with the electrical wires in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Just as the ship looks like it's getting back, it's splitting again because one structure was missed but the day is saved by Iron Man and his drones pushing to back and sealing the metal when he welds it at the cracks. Sitting on a rooftop, going over the events, Iron Man flies up to ask him what the hell he was thinking. Peter tries to blame Tony for not taking him seriously about the Vulture. Turns out there was FBI on the ferry to stop it all after Tony being the only one who was listening. Peter tries again, saying this time that he isn't even there and it's just a phone call, only for Tony to step out of the suit. He said that is someone died, it would be on Peter and he wanted him to be better than himself. After more exchanges he wants the suit back instead because he feels the trust is gone. Getting home he gets grilled by May for his actions of sneaking out at night, in D.C. and missing detention, obviously not knowing the truth but Peter tells her that he was fired from the internship.
Peter resumes his life as a normal student instead, dejected, he sees Liz and admits to liking her, as things surely can't worse. She already knows so he takes the next step and asks her to the homecoming dance. It's a yes, good on you lad. On the night, he goes to pick her up and knocks on the door, only for her dad to answer. Her father is TOOMES! Well bugger me, I didn't see that coming. I didn't know if the fact that the skin colour of each character threw it off on purpose as Liz is of darker origin but her mom is an African American. What a turn out. Peter is straight away on edge, and the parents put it down to nerves. Toomes recognises the voice but can't put his finger on it. Finally, after the questions, he realises who Peter actually is and asks his daughter to enter the dance while he has a word with the young lad. He warns him, with a hidden gun that only we can see, that because he saved Liz's life in the lift, he will let him live but he must not interfere again. Inside the dance he isn't himself and leaves instantly through the back door where Shocker is waiting for him. After a fight which Spidey seems to be losing, Shocker is stuck to the side of the school bus when Ned shoots him with the web after it's fallen off Peter's wrist. Toomes is going to steal a shipment off a plane that is taking off from Stark tower and when he steals Flash's car to follow Toomes, Ned is in the PC room in school trying to help him and get in touch with Happy to warn him. Confronting Toomes he is narrowly avoiding the Vulture suit flying around, smashing into pillars, not realising that Toomes isn't trying to hit him up but instead bring the building down on top of him. As he lays there, he remembers Tony's having a go at him and musters all his strength to escape and get to the plane. Clinging onto the Vulture without him realising, he gets flown onto the plane as it disguises itself in the clouds. Inside the plane, Toomes is finding Cap shields, Iron Man heads and reactors, a lot to make him some money for the family. He sees Spider-Man on the cameras and gets out of the plane and a fight ensues on top which causes the engines to get damaged and explode, bringing the plane down onto a beach near Coney Island. He is able to pulls the wings to move the plane away from crowds and when is crashes, The Vulture tries to fly away a crate but an injured and persistent Peter grips him with his webs, knowing that the damaged wings of his enemy's suit won't have the strength to fly away. He is trying to tell him that the cores in his suit will explode and kill him but it's too late. Running into the fire, he pulls Toomes free from the suit and danger, laying him down onto the sand, exhausted, collapsing next to him. Happy has seen the plane come crashing down and when he arrives at the scene with the police, a note is next to a tied up Toomes explaining who foiled the escape.
In the aftermath, we see that Liz is leaving school and moving away with her mother because Adrian Toomes doesn't want them there for the trial. She's unhappy because he left her at the dance too but obviously he can't explain it, no matter how much he and myself, wanted him to. Peter is back on the team and Michelle is now the captain and quickly mentions her nickname is MJ. A link to Mary Jane? Maybe, but we are left with one more link to the old movies when Peter needs to leave and she utters the words, 'What are you hiding Peter?', which is something that Mary Jane said in the first set of Spider-Man movies too. Happy is in the lad's toilets and tells him that Tony wants to see him. He's taking to the new Avengers HQ where he is thanked by Tony for once and is presented with a new suit, the Iron-Spider suit in fact and told that he needs to talk to the press to be part of the team now. He refuses and says that he wants to be the neighbourhood spider for a while so goes back to normal. As he walks away, he asks whether it was all a test with the new suit and press conference to which Tony nods. Once left, Pepper walks through a door where we can see the press waiting, asking where he has gone. Happy gives Tony a ring to propose instead so that there is a story to be had. When Peter gets home he climbs through the window once more, taking off the suit only for May to be standing there, discovering his identity and shout, 'WHAT THE F...!', as the screen cuts to black. The Mid credits show Toomes in jail talking to the guy who wanted to buy weapons on the ferry. He asks Toomes if he knows the true identity of the Spider but he rebuffs him. On his neck, we see a scorpion tattoo, giving us a clue of who this guy will become in the future. The after credits were a waste of time with Cap simply making fun of the audience for waiting around for nothing. Wanker.
Safe to say I enjoyed and being a DC fan more than marvel, I'm glad I got to. Holland done a great job as a younger Spider-man from the rest of the films but the true winner in this was Michael Keaton, seeing him as my favourite superhero and characters like Beetlejuice, this guy has a range of talent and it shows. The story was great and the reveal of the link between Parker and Toomes through the girl was a great shock. The use of music when leaping from roof to roof added enjoyment with the humour created from characters we've come to know and new ones in tow. At the other side of the spectrum there were some down points. I didn't enjoy the fact that he needed the suit to help him like some other heroes. I've always come to know him as his own guy. Although I was worried from the trailer that there would be too much Stark, that wasn't the case but it had the feeling that Stark feels responsible for the full creation of the Spider-Man. I liked the father figure he does become at times for Peter, whether through the good or bad times. But back to Peter himself, there is no other show of his spider abilities or senses which was disappointing, just as disappointing as the Shocker and Flash for that matter. This guy didn't seem like the school jock, or bully enough for me to be someone who could become Venom in the comics. Overall though and back to the good points, this film was a great watch and I could easily enjoy it more than once. This was a great comic book movie that had a lot of pressure on it with the rights changing hands back to Marvel. Although it starts with what could be called The Incapable Spider-Man, he soon comes of age and the film is a breath of fresh air.
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