A kind of homecoming

Forget The Dark Knight trilogy, the best superhero movies for me were always Sam Raimis’ Spider-Man flicks, which just seemed to nail the all-too-delicate balance
between seriousness and camp that the modern day Marvel Cinematic Universe, with its nodding, wink-wink irony and starting-to-get-a-bit-tiresome world-building, has left behind in favour of a more vanilla, yet undoubtedly addictive, product.

 

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

Director: Jon Watts
Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jun, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow
Rating: (M)
Three and a half stars (out of five)


My Spidey sense told me going into Spider-Man: Homecoming that it couldn’t possibly surpass Raimis’ classics (!), but I pretty soon realised it was pointless to
even compare. This is the MCU were talking about ... the spandex budget alone could feed a few thousand homeless, and besides do audiences really want to see The Avengers wrestling with their souls at the expense of yet another bordering-on-psychedelic 3-D effects extravaganza?

We were introduced once more to Spider-Man in last year’s not-too-bad Captain America: Civil War, and this instalment picks up immediately after that film’s
megafight-on-an-airport-tarmac bit. It turns out Peter Parker is an amateur vlogger (something the comics sadly never touched upon), and was filming the whole
thing with an, er, webcam.

Actually, the first hours a bit of a slog, but things pick up in the second act, and I’m pleased to say this movie becomes a pure joy. I’ll leave the plot spoilers to the
ether, but suffice it to say that if you’ve any disposition towards web-slinging antics on the big screen, it’s a total must-see. ’

Nuff said, pussywillow!

- Jeremy Quinn

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