Spider-Man Homecoming was a blast!

I finally saw Spider-Man Homecoming on Monday after a long day, and it was a blast! Despite some issues, this movie is brilliant. For starters, Peter Parker is a kid who is growing up. He doesn’t know much and grows as the film progresses. This is the Spidey I imagined from the comics. Sorry for the previous movies, but this one nailed it.

We begin with the original song of the first series on TV about Spider-Man. That show was crappy at best, but technology at that time didn’t allow for a better web slinger. And then, we met Peter, a kid who is super excited to meet his heroes.

[SPOILERS: this review contains lots of spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I recommend you to stop reading this post.]

Peter is a little bit annoying. But, he’s a teen, and teens are annoying. (I was annoying, so I cannot really complain.) But, being a Superhero, it can be somewhat counterproductive. Iron Man isn’t exactly the best mentor out there either. Despite all this, we know something for certain: Peter’s heart is pure. He wants to help from the bottom of his heart. But he’s also a teen and needs to learn a lot.

He starts being the Superhero next door. But he is ambitious, and when trouble goes up with the Vulture, he doesn’t think it twice: he goes after the villain. To be fair, having Michael Keaton become a villain was delightful. He was my favorite Batman ever in the movies, so, it’s just fair he’s my favorite Vulture now!

So, the problem here is double edge: on the one hand, Peter is annoying; on the other, grownups don’t listen to him, and he ends up doing whatever he thinks its best. And because of it, he puts in danger the life of his friends. But, he also happens to save the day.

So, here’s one of the main topics throughout the film: communication between teens and adults. Tony’s problem is that he leaves Peter on his own without explaining to him that he’s actually under training. The other problem is that delegates the nanny task to someone else who will not listen to him. Granted, Peter is annoying, but if you take the responsibility to mentor someone, then you have to take time to explain things to them. Not only that: you have to listen to them too, and if you tell them not to do something, you have to explain that too.

As for teens: there’s always a right time for everything. Peter ends up learning that by himself, and in the process, he gives Tony a lesson of adulting without realizing it. Seriously, don’t try to rush time nor being upset just because you can’t do stuff adults do. Once you’re their age, you’ll hate adulting and will love to go back to have no responsibilities!

Overall: this was the Spider-Man I was waiting for! Plus, it came with a surprise! He’s first crash isn’t a blonde. He’s best friend is Asian, and he has a crush on a gorgeous girl (and the door is open for a cool crush in the future with another one). This diversity on screen is what we are all waiting for. Why? Because it depicts reality!

However, this movie isn’t perfect. As I already discussed here, Tony’s words are a poor service for bloggers. It might have been a joke, but this move isn’t fun. But, I don’t want to repeat the same words here. I want to stress another tiny problem: women in the movie.

Surprisingly, this movie doesn’t pass the Bechdel test! Despite all diversity and the correct way in which the film portrays female characters, there’s still this slight problem: they seem only to navigate the male characters! So, what’s the problem?

1. The movie has more than two female characters. Checked with honors. Plus they’re all depicted in a right way. So, double check.
2. They have to talk to each other. As far as I remember I haven’t seen any of them talk to each other. Only some words but while men were around them. So, this is a fail!
3. And they have to talk about something besides a man. And here’s the problem, since none had a real conversation with each other, we don’t know what they talked about! So, this is another fail.

You might be thinking that I’m picky. Isn’t this a movie about Spider-Man? Yes, but Marvel could have at least inserted two small lines of dialog, and the movie would have rocked completely. (No, I’m not sorry for demanding the best.)

Wrapping things up: despite two failures, this movie is what Spider-Man should have always been on the big screen. (I’ll forgive the guys of the TV show from the 70s because of technology problems.) If I was a Spidey fan before, now I’m even more so. That’s how you nail comics on the big screen!

You can go with the whole family to see the movie. And yup: there are some perks. There’s a great delight when one of your teen heroes (Michael Keaton) lives long enough to become a rad villain.