Wednesday 12 July 2017

Film Review: "Spider-Man: Homecoming" (2017).



"Homework can wait. The city can't." This is Spider-Man: Homecoming. This superhero film directed by Jon Watts, written by Watts, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and based on the titular Marvel Comics character, co-produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios. It is the second Spider-Man film reboot and the sixteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man begins to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging superhero.

In February 2015, Marvel Studios and Sony reached a deal to share the character rights of Spider-Man, integrating the character into the established MCU. The following June, Tom Holland was cast as the title character and Jon Watts was hired to direct. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were hired to write the screenplay shortly after. In April 2016, the film's title was revealed, along with the cast rounded out with Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Tyne Daly, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Logan Marshall-Green, Donald Glover, Kenneth Choi, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Angourie Rice, and Robert Downey Jr. For inspiration, the cast and crew had to a John Hughes movie marathon to prepare. These included The Breakfast Club (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Pretty in Pink (1986), and others. Principal photography began in June, locations included Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, and Berlin. In November, it was revealed that Michael Giacchino was brought on to score the film, as well as Sony Pictures Imageworks, Method Studios, Luma Pictures, Digital Domain, Cantina Creative, Iloura, Trixter, and Industrial Light & Magic providing the visual effects for the film.

Holland, Keaton, Favreau, Zendaya, Glover, Daly, Tomei, and Downey Jr. star in the film. The cast all deserve top grades for their spectacular performances, which were worthy of their comic book counterparts and of a John Hughes movie. Director Watts may deserve plaudits as a social worker than a director, but you have to admit he couldn't have gathered together a better cast than this. The young cast members brought more conviction to these parts than they perhaps deserve. Especially Mr. Holland himself who, within seconds, it becomes harder and harder to imagine anyone else in the role. Maguire and Garfield, winning as they were in their own rights, never quite got the chance to bring the different sides of Spidey - the boy, the man, the romantic, and the avenger - together as Holland did.

Spider-Man: Homecoming, unlike its predecessors, is a friskier, sweeter-natured variation of the Spidey mythos. Thanks to the combination of the charms of a well-chosen cast, including star Tom Holland, and the sure-handed direction from director Jon Watts, it provided not only a good dose of web-swinging fun, it also has a heart, and thrills despite revisiting many of the typical plot points and cliches of the genre. For most of the time, it's a slick, entertaining and emotionally involving recombination, memorable in pieces but not as a whole.

Simon says Spider-Man: Homecoming receives:



Also, see my review for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

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