Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming

October 23, 2017

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Spider-Man: Homecoming

It was a terrible summer at the box office, but Spider-Man: Homecoming was one of the few bright spots. It was one of three films to cross $300 million domestically and has a slim shot at finishing in the top five for the year. Does it deserve this success? Or did it thrive just because it’s part of the MCU?

The Movie

The film begins with two prologues. I guess the MCU was tired of people making fun of it for having too many scenes in the credits. The first one takes place in Grand Central Station just after the events of The Avengers with Adrian Toomes leading a crew of men, Phineas Mason, Herman Schultz, Jackson Brice, and others. They work for a salvage company and this job is a huge deal for them. However, they barely get started when a government representative from the Department of Damage Control shows up and shuts them down and demands they hand over all of the alien tech they have collected so far. They comply and have given up nearly all of the tech when Phineas is able to use the tech as a power source. It’s then Toomes realizes they could combine this alien tech with Earth tech and sell the results. They only have a little left from their job, but they know where to get more. Flash forward eight years and business is booming.

Prologue number two takes place during Civil War and it’s the home movies Peter Parker made while going to the fight. It has much less to do with the plot than the first prologue, but it is fun to watch.

When the actual plot begins, it’s two months after Civil War and Peter Parker is having a bit of trouble dealing with the mundanity of high school. He has trouble paying attention at school, he’s dropped out of most of his after-school activities, and even is passing on going to D.C. with the academic decathlon. His excuse is his internship at Stark Industries, which is the alibi Tony Stark used in Civil War. It’s not like he’s become an anti-social recluse. He’s still got his best friend, Ned, both of whom have crush on Liz. Both of them hang out with... near Michelle, but calling them friends might not be 100% accurate. Peter spends his class time thinking about how to improve his web fluid, pestering Happy Hogan for his next mission, and generally not wanting to be there.

After school, Peter heads to his favorite sandwich shop, run by Mr. Delmar, before heading off to do his rounds as Spider-man. It’s a boring day and gives his report to Happy Hogan. After this, Peter spots a group of men robbing some ATMs. It’s an easy fight, until the bad guys use weapons, weapons that are surprisingly similar to the ones Toomes and his gang were making in the first prologue. During the fight, one of the weapons goes off and accidentally destroys Mr. Delmar’s sandwich shop and while Peter rescues Mr. Delmar, the bad guys get away. This time when he calls Happy, Happy actually answers. Peter doesn’t get far in explaining what happened, as Happy explains the Avengers are moving out of Stark Tower. To make matters worse, when he calls it a night, his backpack was stolen, which means his street clothes were stolen. He has to sneak into his room without Aunt May seeing him, because if she knows he’s Spider-man, she won’t let him be Spider-man anymore.

Fortunately, Peter’s able to get in through his bedroom window, crawl across the ceiling, and close the door without alerting Aunt May. Unfortunately, Ned was waiting for Peter in his bedroom and saw the whole thing. I’m not going to say Ned was cool with it, not after all of the strange questions he asks Peter, but at least Peter can trust Ned with keeping the secret. Keeping that secret becomes a lot harder when the pair learn Liz has a thing for Spider-man. To Ned’s credit, he doesn’t say Peter is Spider-man, he merely says Peter knows Spider-man. This gets a reaction and while Flash Thompson mocks Peter saying he should invite Spider-man to Liz’s party. Liz instead invites Peter and Ned to her party.

The plan is for Peter and Ned to go to the party, have Peter change into his Spider-man suit and make an appearance. Things don’t go as planned. Peter Parker puts on his Spider-man suit and is about to go to the party, but he hears a loud noise and sees a blue glow. As much as he wants to go to that party, he knows Spider-man is needed. When he gets there, he sees Herman Schultz and Jackson Brice trying to sell weapons to another man.

There’s a chase that doesn’t go as well as Peter had planned, especially after Toomes gets involved. In fact, he would have died, had Tony Stark not been able to rescue him with a remote piloted Iron Man suit. Tony tells Peter that he’s out of his depth and needs to back off on the bigger threats. However, that just pushes Peter more, because he really wants to prove he’s worthy of being a real Avenger.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is the third super hero movie of the summer that I’ve gotten to review and I think it is the weakest of the three. The heart and pathos in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 makes it the best of the three, despite what most other critics think. Meanwhile, Homecoming and Wonder Woman are in a dead heat for second place. That is a compliment for Homecoming, because I really liked Wonder Woman.

There’s a lot to recommend. Tom Holland shows his short performance in Civil War wasn’t a fluke and he can carry a movie like this. His performance and the script create a realistic character, one that really wants to be treated like an adult, but who still hasn’t matured as much as he thinks he has. This is important in creating the character and setting him apart from the other theatrical versions of Spider-man. This is important, because if they didn’t set them apart, the reboot would have been without purpose.

Tom Holland showed he could carry a movie, he didn’t have to. The young cast is great and they have a lot of chemistry together. Jacob Batalon is great as Peter’s best friend. Additionally, Michael Keaton helps make Toomes one of the better villains in the MCU, as he’s got more of a backstory and character arc. One of the main complaints leveled against the MCU are the villains, which are often times little more than an obstacle for the hero to overcome and have no personality or character arcs of their own. Granted, I prefer it when the hero has a character arc rather than just the villain, which has happened in a few super hero movies praised for a great villain, but this film has both.

I think the only real downside for the film is the predictability. It’s a big-budget action film, so being predictable is, well, predictable. There are a couple of surprises here and there, but for the most part, if you’ve seen more than a few super hero movies, you will be able to predict the larger story beats. That said, a familiar story that is well-told and loaded with fun characters is more than enough to be worth checking out.

The Extras

Extras begin with a short Blu-ray intro by Tom Holland. The Spidey Study Guide is a pop-up track for the movie that looks at the comic book references found throughout the movie, like Easter eggs, character names, what comic certain characters first appeared in etc. If you are into the continuity, then it is certainly worth checking out. There are two minutes of outtakes as well. Most of the running time is for the director’s cut of the film Peter Parker makes that we see in the second prologue and extended and cringe-inducing clips from the schools news report. My favorite are the two dealing with the after effect of getting hit with Spidey’s web shooter. A Tangled Web is a 6-minute look at how Spider-man came to be part of the MCU. Searching for Spider-man is an eight-minute featurette on Spider-man, how he is different than the other heroes in the MCU, and how Tom Holland became Spider-man. Spidey Stunts is a six-minute look at the stunts in the movie. Tom Holland is trained in gymnastics, which made it a lot easier to make the stunts look impressive. Aftermath is a five-minute look at what happens when the super heroes fight and who cleans up. The Vulture Takes Flight is a six-minute look at how they adapted The Vulture and what changes needed to be made to the comic book source material. Jon Watts: Head of the Class is a five-minute look at the director. Pros and Cons of Spider-man is a three-minute featurette with Tom Holland and Jacob Batalon talking about what would be great and terrible about being Spider-man. Rappin’ with the Cap are additional Captain America PSAs that we see throughout the movie.

The Verdict

Spider-Man: Homecoming isn’t the most original super hero movie I’ve seen and at the moment it is only the third best super hero movie of the year. That said, it is entertaining enough that I’ve watched it three times already and will be watching it again in the future. The Blu-ray Combo Pack has more than enough extras to be worth picking up and was previously awarded the Pick of the Week.

Filed under: Video Review, Wonder Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tyne Daly, Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Jon Favreau, Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Bokeem Woodbine, Donald Glover, Hemky Madera, Logan Marshall-Green, Tom Holland, Michael Chernus, Jon Watts, Tony Revolori, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier