Over the last several months, I’ve probably shown every
conceivable pre-conception that a person can have for a movie. Whether it’s
down to my own weird tastes or just how surprising this year’s releases have
turned out, I’ve gone into the cinema with some odd ideas about what it’ll be
like. Well, today’s film will likely represent my absolute worst expectations
for a film: I want this film to be
bad. Now, as much as I’ve talked about the therapeutic power of cinema, I don’t
actively like watching bad movies; I rarely if ever want films to be bad, and
it’s even rarer that I would want a film to suck to prove a “point”. Basically,
after the clusterfuck that went down in the wake of The Amazing Spider-Man 2,
which I still maintain is a genuinely good movie despite some definite flaws,
learning that the guys behind what is properly the worst film I’ve ever sat through would be behind the next Spider-Man reboot seriously pissed me off. It
even got to the point where, and I wish I was joking, I made this claim on Reddit last year:
Just so we’re clear, this is how badly I not only didn’t
want to see those numbnuts get rewarded for their lack of effort, but how badly
I wanted some hubris to kick in after the honestly OTT reactions ASM2 got. But
as I’ve already established, I’m a bit of a fanboy for comic book movies and I’m
usually a lot kinder to them than I probably should be; I may not be happy to
be proven wrong in this instance but I definitely get that the possibility of
it happening here is pretty high. Anyway, enough waffle, let’s see where my
cold-hearted cynicism gets me as we look at the latest iteration of the New
York Webslinger.
The plot: Awkward teenager Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom
Holland), after fighting alongside Iron Man during Civil War, is trying to juggle
his life as a superhero and his life as high school student. However, he soon
discovers a plot by salvage worker Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) to grab
left-over debris from the Avengers’ battles, turn them into weapons and sell
them on the black market. As Spider-Man tries to get Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.)
to help him take back the streets, Toomes and his villainous persona The
Vulture are about to spell trouble for both Peter and Spider-Man.
Marvel casting rules apply once again, so strap yourself in
for another lengthy rundown. Holland continues to impress as the young
web-slinger, managing to get across social awkwardness, fanboy geeking-out and
hardened determination all pretty much flawlessly. Keaton’s experience with
superhero fare serves him extremely well here, making the Vulture very
intimidating and also very down-to-earth and human at the same time. It takes
effort to thank someone for saving a life and then threatening to end theirs in
a single conversation without it being complete whiplash, but in case people
haven’t figured this out yet, this is how good Keaton is as an actor. Tomei,
while regrettably saddled with quite a bit of MILF-esque pining, echoes Holland
in establishing herself as a younger version of a character we know all too
well. Comparisons are inevitable, but for the direction they take her in, she’s
really engaging as someone who you could actually see being a fun and caring
aunt.
Downey Jr. essentially serves as the ‘passing the torch’ aspect of the
production, same with Jon Favreau as Happy, and for as sketchy as Stark’s
character has become in recent years, his role as mentor here fits really damn
well. Harrier as Liz works out well, Zendaya is a definite fit for yet another
popular character reinvention, and words cannot describe how much I love Donald
Glover in this thing. Part of it because his scene with Spider-Man is very
funny, and partly because it is insane how much build-up is behind this casting
choice; dude has been deserving of this for a long-ass time.
When I discussed Holland as Spider-Man back with Civil War,
I described him as “perfect” in the role. Impossibly high praise, granted, but
that feeling has only strengthened after seeing this film. The reason why is
that, for as good as the other Spider-Man series are, they both carry a very
deep-set problem: The two halves of the titular character. Tobey Maguire worked
as the meek and unassuming nerd but not quite as the adventurous crime-fighter; that, and his crying face needs to be outlawed if it isn't already.
Andrew Garfield was great as the cocky and wise-cracking neighbourhood hero,
but he was way too confident to be the awkward loner that Peter Parker
inherently is. We tend to forget sometimes but superhero secret identities do
have a purpose and a structure to them, and they provide a hefty backbone for
the character’s actions more times than not.
Here, we get a very clear
depiction of both sides of the spectrum. We see Spider-Man geeking out over
helping Iron Man and clearing up some of the crime on his block and beyond, but
we also see Peter Parker struggle with socializing, dates, school and figuring
out his place in the world; the fantastical meets the mundane in a way that
bolster each other in the process. In fact, given how explosive Marvel films
continue to be, this is surprisingly small in scale and ends up making the
“Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” tagline
ring true like it honestly hasn’t before.
It probably helps that this film well and truly knows how to
have fun, providing easily the most light-hearted addition to the MCU yet.
Coming from a writer’s room full of people known for either sitcoms or just
plain weird ideas (Jon Watts’ past filmography is… interesting, to say the
least), it’s little surprise that this film has the pacing of a traditional
comedy. And honestly, once again, I like this approach better. It doesn’t have
the over-bearing bleakness of some of Spidey’s past exploits and, while still
delivering genuine drama where it’s needed, it highlights the free-spirited
glee of Spider-Man’s abilities and attitude to his work. After Deadpool, it
seems like everyone wanted to jump on some fictional bandwagon concerning more
jovial comic book flicks, except in most cases (e.g. Suicide Squad), it ended
up being an afterthought and a decision made in post. Here? Between the true-to-life awkwardness of Peter’s
civilian life and the weirdness of Spider-Man’s superhero life, the film finds
a nice steady font of comedy that stays consistent for pretty much the entire
film and a very natural one at that.
But what about its place in the bigger picture of the MCU?
Well, I get the feeling that this could be something rather significant in the
grand scheme of things. Between Vulture’s working-class attempts to turn the
post-Avengers fight scene wreckage into something useful and Spider-Man’s own
tech (with his suit even having an A.I. voiced by Jennifer Connelly in yet another strange but surprisingly fitting casting decision), we are
given a story about technology and the ethics behind its use. With this in
mind, Stark’s involvement in the plot starts to make a lot more sense, given
his rather Objectivist views about who should be using his own technology and his run-in with Ultron, an avatar of
his own worries for the world made into a horrifying reality. As a result, his
actions combined with his fatherly role towards Peter seem to indicate that
something has drastically changed since the all-or-nothing resolution of Civil
War.
As for Spider-Man himself, we are given a similar spiel to the classic
“With great power…” speech, only here it’s being done for something a bit
grander than just personal abilities. Aside from ditching the all-too-familiar
wording, the film puts emphasis on the man rather than the suit he’s wearing.
Strip Iron Man of his suit and what do you have left? Just an egotistical
jackass? Possibly. But that would be downplaying the man’s intellectual
brilliance; the brain that made the suit in the first place. Strip Spider-Man
of his suit, and what you find is
still the same genetically-altered kid from the Bronx who has a chance to do some good and
genuinely wants to do so. Relatively simple message about personal conviction
and where a hero’s true power comes from, but considering it ends up applying
to not just Spidey but also Stark and even the Vulture by film's end, it’s an addition to the
canon that has some definite merit.
All in all, this is a very fun and heartfelt superhero flick
that takes a much-appreciated step back from Marvel’s current M.O. involving
heroes fighting heroes, and instead highlights the strength that makes those
heroes in the first place. By tweaking the now-familiar Spider-Man formula in
places (even if the main villain is basically a re-tooled version of Willem
Dafoe’s Green Goblin), while managing to say truer to the source than either
Raimi or Webb’s efforts, Watts and co. have given us the Spider-Man film, far as I’m concerned. It has the best
on-screen version of Spider-Man, the best villain in the form of the Vulture
(seriously, this guy is my new favourite villain in the entire MCU canon) and it
goes back to the drawing board in highlighting heroic qualities, as opposed to
just heroic people. Add to that a very healthy sense of humour and a story that
still compliments the rest of the MCU in spite of how ultimately sunny this all is, I have no shame in admitting that my
early impressions couldn’t have been more wrong.
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