Spider-Man: Homecoming is the battle fought by a teenage boy played by Tom Holland who is stuck between his immaturity and responsibility and how he tries to achieve something that is beyond his age. Narrated in a predominantly comical manner, has this Spider-Man gotten home? Read further.
Tom Holland as Spider-Man, plays a 15 year old kid who is in his high school. The kid has his peers who are out there just to enjoy life. But what has been entrusted to him could be both a boon or a bane and how he handles this forms this plot. Director Jon Watts has handled this thin line very well.
When someone very young has to achieve something really big, it has to be very realistic, funny and believable in order to be enjoyable. This is what director Jon has kept in mind and has brought it out in this Spider-Man: Homecoming film that has been jointly produced by Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios and Pascal Pictures.
The performance of Tom Holland requires praise. He has emoted perfectly as the 15 year old and has acted well by getting into the skin of the character Peter Parker. Michael Keaton as the Vulture is stylish and apt for his role. Apart from the the main characters, the character who plays his friend is also humorous and most of the casting has been on the dart.
From the black comedy genre, the plot evolves into a serious film in small portions but takes the former track in most of it’s scenes and hence serves to be very entertaining even for those who aren’t die hard fans of the Marvel franchise or it’s characters. Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark is at his lovable best in an extended cameo.
All the combination scenes between Robert Downey and Peter Parker are very enjoyable and serve as a boost to the overall picture. The film is set in a high school backdrop and partially covers other locations like the weapon manufacturing base, the waters and even the air. But all said and done, Peter is still in school and that part has also been well established and remembered by the makers to give the audiences an acceptable superhero in this Homecoming movie.
The sensibility factor is also something worth mentioning about. When given a situation to choose between two things, Peter makes the choice that the audiences wouldn’t want him to but there is justification for this as well after every episode or scene of the film.
The technical team that includes cinematography by Salvatore Totino and editing by Dan Lebental and Debbie Berman holds the film together beautifully. Since we are not dealing with a macho superhero, the format for making this film would have been slightly different from the usual superhero films. To make this work in a convincing manner requires some research and spade work by the technical team and this is definitely a commendable effort.
But setting aside all these good things about this film, the screenplay makes it a tad predictable. Even though there are some nice scene by scene twists, the plot as such is quite simple and might not serve as the best product to someone expecting a very smart superhero film. The second half has some really nice twists that take the film forward interestingly but towards the end, we know what to expect. Nevertheless. with this simple story in hand, the department of direction, top notch performances, theme of black humour, superior sound design and an amazing technical team backing this Spider-man movie up, it sure is an enjoyable watching experience for the universal audiences.