Spider-Man: Homecoming
Still a part of Sony Pictures, but they collaborated to bring Spider-Man into the MCU. Tom Holland [approved by Stan Lee] is the newest actor to take on the lead role. Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan makes an appearance, as does Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. Zendaya (Greatest Showman) is Michelle, or more commonly called, MJ. Michael Keaton (Batman in the 1989 film [and it looks like he is reprising that role in the upcoming Flash film]) is Adrian Toomes, AKA the Vulture. Donald Glover (who we saw as a young Lando Calrissian in the Solo movie), makes an appearance as Aaron Davis. And if the principal looks familiar, that is Kenneth Choi, who played Jim Morita, one of the Howling Commandos in First Avenger; now he’s Principal Morita, a descendant of Jim. (Fun side note, Jennifer Connelly voices the Karen A.I in the spider-suit; she is married to Paul Bettany, whom we know in the MCU as JARVIS, in the first few Iron Man suits. It is also noted that “Homecoming” has many connotations as a title; obviously it is the dance that occurs in the film, then there’s coming home from Berlin, and finally, a homecoming for the Spider-Man character to the MCU.)
We throwback a little to the end of the first Avengers film and a crew is cleaning up the aftermath of the invasion. They are interrupted by a government agency, the Department of Damage Control, in conjunction with Tony Stark, so Toomes looses the contract and is thus out a fair bit of money. He and his crew decide to keep the last load of exotic materials they forgot to turn over. They create gadgets out of them and prepare to change their worlds. This continues for eight years to bring us to the present day; Toomes now flies around picking up scrap from the Damage Control as the Vulture, with a flying suit.
In Spider-Man’s case, we start with his appearance in Civil War; he makes a behind the scenes video for himself and receives a new suit from Tony. Then Tony is dropping Peter back off at home, counting this as an internship as an alibi, and tells Peter to keep the suit. No, there are no missions planned for Peter anytime soon, but keep doing the little stuff and keep in contact with Happy, Tony tells him. And in a very Tony Stark fashion, also tells the teen “Just don’t do anything I would do. And definitely don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” And so, Peter blows up Happy’s phone, checking in for two months, asking about any new missions and reporting on stopping bike thieves and little old ladies.
We also meet Peter Parker’s friends; Ned, who he builds Lego Death Stars with; there’s MJ, who watches them; Peter also has a crush on Liz. Sadly, Flash is a bully and doesn’t believe that Peter actually has an internship with Tony Stark. Peter is also part of the academic decathlon at Midtown Science and Technology school (which showcases Howard Stark, Abraham Erskine, and Bruce Banner in the background), but he’s trying to drop out of nationals since he feels he needs availability in case Tony calls. MJ points out he’s dropped out of band and robotics club already (she’s just observant, she swears).
Then, Peter comes upon bank robbers with high-tech gear. He’s got the banter down, but one of the ray guns slices through the bank and across the street, to the bodega that Peter visits during the day. He rushes over to save the owner and his cat, but now Spider-Man is going to be on the lookout for those weapons. Peter sneaks home, still in his suit because the garbage bin his bookbag was webbed to was taken away. He crawls up the wall and through the window, and only discovers Ned when he turns around. He makes his friend swear not to tell anyone; he doesn’t want to worry his Aunt May. So now Ned wants to help Peter as Spider-Man, be his “guy in the chair.”
When the boys find out that Liz has a crush on Spider-Man (in gym class, where they show Captain America videos mandated by the state), Ned blurts out that Peter knows Spider-Man through the Stark Internship. This gains them an invitation to Liz’s party (and we find out she’s a senior, compared to their sophomore status), with Flash cracking that Peter should bring Spider-Man. Peter’s not comfortable using Spider-Man like that and when he suits up, he discovers lights coming from a weapons deal. He breaks it up, then tries to follow the bad guys…and we discover that Spider-Man is not meant for the suburbs; there aren’t a lot of tall buildings for his webs to latch on to and for him to swing around. So he gets dragged around by the van, until the Vulture swoops down and grabs him. Then he drops him in a lake. Luckily, the suit has a parachute, but Peter still struggles in the water. Another suit dives in and pulls him out; it’s Iron Man. Well, his suit; Tony’s somewhere more exotic. He does lecture Peter (while showing off there’s a heater in Spider’s suit) and breaks out the classic “because I said so!” line. Peter should leave the weapons and guys in suits alone; there are other people to handle that (but not the Avengers). Peter should stay closer to the ground, help the little guy, and be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Peter points out that Tony thought he was ready for the big leagues by taking him up against Captain America. To which Tony retorts, that if Cap had wanted to really hurt Peter, he would have [so Tony was counting on Steve not wanting to hurt his friends; at that point, Steve wouldn’t go for the kill…Tony still gets called out for his decision in the fandom]. His parting words to Peter are, if Peter comes across these weapons again, call Happy (who is also busy packing up the Avengers tower and moving everything to the new facility upstate).
On his way home, Peter finds part of the weapon that was shot at him and takes it with him. Then beats on it with a hammer during shop class, trying to get the power source out. Ned happily helps with that part. Meanwhile, Toomes intended for his merchandise to be moved under the radar and not draw the attention of the cops or the Avengers, but now they’re being shot out in the open by an idiot. Who accidently ends up dead. There’s talk of a big job, but Toomes wants to hold off yet. He sends some guys out to track down the missing weapon piece, so Peter spots them at the school. He puts a tracker on them and finds them heading to Maryland. It just so happens that Nationals for the academic decathlon are held in Washington D.C. He gets back on the trip and in his hotel room, has Ned help him pull the tracker out of his suit so Happy and Tony don’t know what he’s doing. He also has Ned turn off the “Training Wheel Protocol,” giving him more access to the suit. Including its own A.I. voice, whom he names Karen. Ned doesn’t think this is all a good idea, but Peter convinces him, then sneaks out to follow the crooks (there’s a deleted scene that shows the school bus passing the Triskelion mess that is still being cleaned up, and MJ comments on the situation; the Avengers are creating a lot of messes that Damage Control is cleaning up and so the crooks have a steady supply of parts they can steal).
Peter does interrupt the Vulture grabbing a load, but gets stuck in the truck, which is then parked in a secure warehouse. It does allow him time to run a refresher course on his new web capabilities, but he gets bored soon and works on breaking out of the warehouse; especially when he finds out the core of the weapon he found, that he passed along to Ned for safekeeping, is explosive. Peter misses the decathlon, yet Midtown wins thanks to MJ. The team heads to the Washington Monument to celebrate and the scanners activate the core, which goes off in the elevator. Spider-Man races to the scene and scales the building, having to crash through a window near the top, then web the elevator. It still falls, but he manages to stop it. He has to grab Liz at the last second, but once she’s safe, he drops.
Meanwhile, the Vulture and his crew are not happy with Spider-Man appearing and breaking up their business. So, Toomes plans to kill Spider-Man (though he has to be grateful that Spider-Man saved his daughter in DC).
In typical teenage fashion, Peter is riding the high from his rescue and plans to skip out on school so he can continue to be Spider-Man and join the Avengers, but he’s caught by the principal and is in trouble for missing Nationals. They show another cheesy Captain America video during detention, but Peter leaves when Steve poses “what would Captain America do?” He gathers web fluid from under the lockers and works on hunting down the crooks. He tries interrogating the guy he saved from the deal, who turns out to be helpful, but also comments that Peter has to get better at that part of the job; he sounds young and not intimidating. Peter heads to the Staten Island Ferry to break up the next deal and hangs up on Tony when Stark calls to acknowledge a job well down in DC. Then the FBI shows up to break up the operation, but Peter still goes after the Vulture. Webbing one of the guns ends up cutting the ferry in two. (Vulture has a point when he says Spider-Man is messing with things he doesn’t understand.) Peter tries to web it back together, even holding the two pieces himself. Luckily, Iron Man shows up and pushes it together and seals it back up. It is actually Tony in the suit and he is furious. When Peter protests that the adults need to listen to him, Tony points out he did; that’s why the FBI was there. Peter just wanted to be like Tony; and Tony wanted him to be better. Tony doesn’t want anything to happen to Peter and for that to be on his conscience; so he takes the suit. Peter protests he’s nothing without the suit. Then he shouldn’t have it, Tony tells him.
When Peter returns home, May is worried sick. She knows he’s been cutting class and school and the decathlon. She knows he’s sneaking out and begs him to talk to her. She then comforts him when he quietly tells her he lost the Stark Internship. At school, the principal gives him another chance; Peter’s a good kid. And he’s on his best behavior now. He hangs out with Ned and they complete the Lego Death Star. He apologizes to Liz about decathlon and manages to ask her to homecoming. May eagerly helps him prepare.
When Peter arrives to pick Liz up for the dance, he sees Toomes and recognizes him. He’s distracted as they drive to the dance, and the chatting leads Toomes to realizing that Peter is Spider-Man. He has a conversation with the boy (with a gun in his hand) in front of the school. In return for Spider-Man saving Liz, Toomes is offering Peter the chance to walk away from taking down Vulture and his crew. But if Peter persists, Toomes will go after Peter’s family. Peter makes his decision as he walks into the dance. He apologizes to Liz, then dashes down the hall. He pulls out his old suit from under the lockers, but is met by one of the crew outside. Ned comes along and helpfully subdues the guy, saving Spider-Man. Peter has Ned call Happy, who is busy with the last steps of moving stuff out of the Avengers Tower (including Cap’s new shield and a magic belt for Thor). Happy hangs up on Ned. Peter steals Flash’s car to follow Toomes to a warehouse (he stashed his phone in the car for Ned to track; Ned is thrilled to be Peter’s “guy in the chair”…until he gets caught, then claims he was watching porn). Toomes attempts talking to Peter again, claiming that guys like Tony Stark don’t understand what it’s like for guys like Toomes and Peter. In reality, it’s a distraction, waiting for his wings to arrive. They cut through support columns, which brings the warehouse crashing down onto Peter.
Peter freaks out [and all you want to do is wrap him in a hug] and calls out for help. He sees his reflection mixed with the mask and recalls Tony’s words, that if he’s nothing without the suit, then he doesn’t deserve the suit. His resolve strengthens and he lifts the rubble off him [one of my favorite parts]. He gets out in time to catch a ride with the Vulture, who has decided to do the big job, involving a high-altitude seal. He attaches to the plane, which is autopiloted, and opens a doorway. Toomes is thrilled with the hull, but Spider-Man breaks the seal. And Vulture goes after Spider-Man. The plane looses two engines in their fight, and then Peter has to steer the plane from crashing into a tower. They crash onto a beach and Vulture goes after Spider-Man again. Until he spots arc reactors and tries to take off with them. Peter notices that his wings are sparking and tries to warn Toomes. When a fire erupts, Peter gets up and drags Toomes out [another favorite part]. He webs Toomes to the gear and leaves another note for Happy, who saw the explosion.
Peter apologizes to Liz again, as she’s leaving school; she just hopes he works out what’s going on. Happy picks Peter up from decathlon and takes him upstate to meet with Tony. Tony commends Peter again for his actions and offers him an official place with the Avengers. Peter considers it for a minute, then turns it down; he’d rather stay a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man for now. Tony’s impressed, but then Pepper comes out, wanting to know what their announcement is going to be. Happy has been carrying around a diamond ring since 2008 and throws it to Tony. Pepper’s not too mad. At home, Tony left the suit for Peter again and he eagerly puts it back on. Except May is standing in the background now. In the credits, we see Toomes approached by another criminal, who wants to know Spider-Man’s identity. Toomes claims that if he knew who was under the mask, they’d be dead already. [Yet we shouldn’t commend Toomes too much because he did knowingly attempt to kill a fifteen-year-old, who also happens to be a classmate of his daughter’s.] And at the very end, is another Captain America video on patience, that sometimes we wait so long for something that ends up being disappointing…no, there is not clue as to the next video and Cap just wants to know how many more PSA’s he has to make.
To be fair, several characters can take part of the blame for actions in the film. Tony recruited Peter to help fight against several superheroes, but didn’t lay ground rules for Peter after. Peter himself tries to handle big problems on his own in an effort to prove himself to Tony. Happy is dismissive of Peter’s calls, but then, Peter did send him a lot of messages, but adults didn’t listen to the teenager when he really had something important to say. At the end of the day, we still root for Peter because he has honest, good intentions; he desperately wants to help. He’s just fifteen. He does show maturity throughout the film; he’s willing to apologize when he can, he’s not keen on being Spider-Man at a party, remarking to Ned that Spider-Man is not there for party tricks.
This movie got me interested in the MCU again, because after the last couple, my interest was waning. But Tom Holland and thus Spider-Man is adorable, in that way that you want to hug someone and protect them [admittedly, I am not very familiar with the other Spider-Man movies, though I’ve watched the Tobey Maguire ones once; but they seem more serious, while Tom’s is that dorky kid that I relate to.] I also appreciate Tom’s background in dance (he was Billy Elliot on the West End) and the fact that he can do all those flips on his own; he did most of the stuntwork where possible as well.
This is a well-developed story, showing consequences for actions and gives the villain a motive; though again, he did try to kill a fifteen-year-old, well aware of who he was. Property was damaged, but only one person died and they were a bad guy and Spider-Man was not the one to kill him. A low-level criminal even respects Spider-Man for blindly offering to get shot instead of him. Teenagers are played by teenagers and act like teenager, with appropriate embarrassment.
And at the end, we just want to watch Tony mentor Peter and Peter eventually join the Avengers and become part of a family. There are several fanfiction stories I found after watching this movie, but I am saving my recommendations for a big Marvel round-up post after the last movie.
Up Next: Some more fun with Thor: Ragnarök
Dreamer in the Mirror 