Say hello to the friendliest neighborhood Spider-Man yet!
Superhero fans have been approaching the latest Spidey reboot with reasonable caution — we mean, it was only a few years ago when Andrew Garfield played the masked superhero.
But we’re happy to report that critics are falling in love with Spider-Man: Homecoming — now officially tied in with the Marvel Cinematic Universe — as this time around, old cobwebs have been replaced with fresh, amazing new additions. (Financed by Tony Stark, of course.)
Photo: Zendaya Dazzles At Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s Premiere!
Critics were mostly impressed by the merging of action with all the teen drama and youthful sass straight out of a John Hughes movie, and Tom Holland holds the adolescent thread together with his wide-eyed, aw-shucks take on the beloved web-slinger.
Eat your heart out, Tobey Maguire!
Ch-ch-check out our review roundup (below) and catch Spider-Man: Homecoming in theaters July 7!
Owen Gleiberman, Variety: “The film’s novelty is that Spider-Man, though he’s been enshrined by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as an Avengers apprentice, barely has a handle on how to harness his powers, or what to do with them. To a degree, the film’s novelty works, though with a qualifier: This Peter is such a normal, awkward dude that he’s a touch innocuous ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ the closest the Marvel Universe has come to giving us a superhero who wouldn’t look out of place on the Disney Channel.” Robert Abele, TheWrap: “Marvel’s made a literal Homecoming in that one of their prized characters is no longer in a single-parent (Sony) household. The result is a Spider-Man that feels a little more punchy, laugh-filled, and exciting than one might expect from a property that’s already been given plenty of chances to succeed.”
Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly: “One of the movie’s best updates comes from its casting: classic supporting players and new additions ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ from Marisa Tomei‘s boho-cool Aunt May to Zendaya‘s wry classmate Michelle (who like most movie nerds, is still improbably gorgeous beneath her smudgy make under) ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ feel fresh without being unduly, laboriously reworked.”
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: “The movie is as high school as a John Hughes comedy ├óΓé¼ΓÇ£ think The Breakfast Club or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off├óΓé¼ΓÇ£ in which teens talk like teens instead of old-school Hollywood cynics aching to sound young. Six writers are credited with the script and I’m guessing it was a bloodbath, but what’s onscreen pops with the jumpy, unpolished energy of adolescents on the march through puberty.”
John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter: “Where Garfield’s Peter Parker displayed a believable 21st-century angst, we return largely to the character’s wide-eyed roots with Tom Holland, whose performance is thoroughly winning even when the script isn’t helping him. (With no fewer than six writers credited on the screenplay, could we not have had more of the wisecracks for which the teen crimefighter is famous?)”
David Ehrlich, IndieWire: “Homecoming works by allowing itself to become an actual genre film, the first of its ilk to recognize that superhero movies might be more interesting if they were also something else. It’s the first of its kind to appreciate that today’s assembly-line blockbusters are neutered by their need to fit a unique brands into a one-size-fits-all action template.”
Matt Singer, ScreenCrush: “There’s no Uncle Ben in Spider-Man: Homecoming. There’s no wacky wrestling match, no mugger Spider-Man lets get away. There’s no Green Goblin; there are no Osborns at all. There’s no Mary Jane or Gwen Stacy or J. Jonah Jameson. No one says ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’ And yet without any of those elements that seem essential to the idea of Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming feels like it gets to the core of its title character in ways none of the previous movies did.”
Mike Ryan, UPROXX: “The antics of Peter in high school… are really the backbone of this film. (And, thankfully, there’s no origin story.) His interactions with Ned (Jacob Batalon), Liz (Laura Harrier), and Michelle (Zendaya) are just as important as his interactions with Tony Stark and Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton). This really is the story of a high school kid who just happens to have super powers. If you were 15 and had Spider-Man’s powers, wouldn’t you go out and have some fun?”
[Image via Marvel/Sony Pictures.]
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