#what does though is the theoretical significance of that casting choice for the mcu

[jeonstellate]

my first exposure to doctor doom is through a spider-man comic, so y’all already know where my brain immediately went

[theantisocialcritic]

The AntiSocial Critic Reviews… Spiderman: Homecoming

Comparisons to the two terrible Amazing Spiderman films are largely going to define the conversation with this third iteration of Spiderman. This is understandable given how badly those two films wounded fans of superhero movies and of Spiderman in particular. This is one of the most popular superheroes of all time and is widely accepted as the most popular Marvel superhero ever. He received two critically acclaimed blockbusters directed by the god of genre films Sam Raimi before his franchise began sputtering and fell victim to Sony’s greed and lust for cultural relevance. If one thing alone can be thanked for this film it’s the grace of having been able to (mostly) avoid the horrors of Sony’s planned Spiderman Cinematic Universe and the horrors of at least two more Amazing Spiderman movies. 

With all that understandable zeitgeist out of the way I feel it’s important to approach this film on it’s own terms. I can imagine some people want to avoid comparisons to Sam Raimi’s films (which at this point are surprisingly rejected by a huge number of modern superhero fans). To that end I will only refer to them as such in terms of approach to storytelling as opposed to the portrayal of the characters or the tone. 

On it’s own terms, Spiderman: Homecoming is unfortunately one of the weakest films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s not a bad film however it has a terrible script and suffers tremendously from huge storytelling problems that should have been revised significantly early in the screenwriting process. To that end this isn’t a critique about the choices for the story/setting/casting or about any of the performances. By all means, Tom Holland is a great Spiderman and has been incredibly gracious and humble about everything that has transpired. He shows incredible humility and obviously works his butt off for this role to prove himself. The same goes for the entire star studded cast with tons of great actors working their butt. Unfortunately the script doesn’t give Michael Keaton, Donald Glover, Robert Downey Jr, Zendaya and Marissa Tomei almost anything to work with. Given that the film has 6 screenwriters (collective experience including Horrible Bosses, the Vacation reboot and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone) it’s not hard to imagine why this script is terrible. 

The story proper follows the exploits of young Peter Parker in the immediate aftermath of Captain Amercia: Civil War. While he is attending school and trying to impress Tony Stark with his superhero antics he finds himself getting shot down by him and told to tone down his superhero work. When an under the radar weapons smuggling ring appears before Peter he finds himself the only one capable of stopping a series of robberies by their leader The Vulture. 

Given that the film is popular already and is widely being considered one of the strongest Spiderman films ever I can already anticipate some blowback from my assessment. This film is getting unreal praise from fans and professional critics and I can’t for the life of me see why. From a tonal level it’s a cute little film with some good humor and a few well conceived action beats. There are several scenes I quiet enjoyed individually. Unfortunately there isn’t a consistent through-line in the script to hold things together. 

To put this more clearly, Spiderman Homecoming is a film that is fundamentally about teaching Peter Parker to be responsible with his powers. Nothing about the choices he makes in the film from his pursing the Vulture, his relationship with his love interest Liz Allen, his relationships with his aunt or his surrogate father figure Tony Stark or his friendship with Ned affects his decisions in a way that leads him to grow over the course of the story. The story mainly consists of a series of road blocks to overcome. It’s the storytelling equivalent of a running a triatholon. 

The film doesn’t have a central dramatic thrust to keep the story engaging so the action scenes are weightless and not engaging. The film is usually smart enough to create momentary dramatic surges in specific scenes. The majority of these are brought about through dialog involving Parker’s best friend Ned who discovers Parker’s secret and does a terrible job keeping his mouth shut, nearly exposing Parker on several occasions. These scenes work but they’re few in number and don’t keep the film working in the grand scheme of things. 

The weirdest decision to me was the utter exclusion of references to the death of Uncle Ben. In Civil War it’s heavily implied that the death of Uncle Ben had led him to be far more cautious with his powers as (one can assume) he was in some way responsible for his Uncle’s death much like the other films and the comics. Just a few months after Civil War however it appears none of this is on his (or his Aunt’s) conscience and he is blindly running around Queens tormenting theoretical bike thieves and weapons trafficking conspiracies. 

Has fighting alongside the Avengers gotten to his head and led him to make foolish decisions? 

It’s possible but the film doesn’t express this idea in a proper way. Without exploring it this just drains the film of a great deal of the motivation/ethics of what defines every iteration of spiderman in every medium. Good Spiderman stories understand that Spiderman as a character is driven by guilt and understands the utter importance of doing the right thing with his powers. The original two Spiderman movies were all about this internal struggle and expressed it on thoroughly visceral terms. There were direct consequences for all of Peter Parker’s actions good and bad. 

I should offer the point that I’m not tearing into this film out of any sort of intense hatred of it. I’m merely not seeing the valid criticisms i’ve placed above in the film’s wide range of reviews and want to express them. I hold Spiderman Homecoming in much the same level as Thor: The Dark World or Age of Ultron as things I can enjoy in spite of their flaws. 

There are a lot of choices and risks that the film takes that I appreciate. 

I like that they ultimately went with The Vulture as the villain given how he’s been a rumored choice for the bad guy role since Spiderman 3. 

I like the majority of the casting. Even the controversial Zendya as M.J. who I find a bit of a cringey character and gets no screen time, I can still appreciate trying to fill in the holes of a character that’s struggled to work in every adaption of spiderman (including the comics). 

I like the idea of Tony Stark bonding with Peter Parker.

I like that we get to see the majority of Iron Man’s cast come back. 

I like a lot of the individual scenes. 

I like that we have a MCU movie that is grounded and more secluded from the epic Avengers stories (sort of). 

More than anything I like Tom Holland. As I said he is working his butt off here trying to create a new vision for this character. He has created something unique and it’s wonderful. 

My criticism is only for director Jon Watts and the writing team who will be reuniting for the next Spiderman movie to be shot next year. I fear that Marvel movies with larger and larger story flaws are starting to pour out the gates more regularly. Age of Ultron, Civil War, Doctor Strange and to a lessor degree Guardians Vol. 2 all had significant story problems that impacted the stories. 

Back in the day people would criticize older Marvel films like Thor and Captain America for sub-par production design and pacing. Those films still had good scripts though with drama and logical character arcs that made most of the criticisms fundamentally issues with the surface of the film. They still worked as stories. Iron Man 2 on the other hand was a much more visually clean movie than either of those two other films but it’s script is horrendous. It was a widely reviled movie that has become a widely forgotten movie. 

If Marvel doesn’t fix these story problems in their movies quickly it will find that it’s future films will become forgotten, despite how much people love them in the heat of the moment. Spiderman: Homecoming isn’t a bad film but it’s a bad sign from a studio that can do better that it may not want to. 

Thank you all for reading! if you would like to see more reviews, articles and podcasts lemme know by tweeting me at @AntiSocialCriti or commenting below. Also be sure to check out my review show The Fox Valley Film Critics! Live long and prosper!