Like many other comic-book and film fans, Spider-Man is among my favorite superhero characters of all time. So when the character is represented on the silver screen we all deeply care about how the character is rendered for films. It’s no surprise as to why the wall crawler has such a passionate base, he’s easily the most relatable character among the pantheon of capes and tights. We are Spider-Man after all. So when word came of a surprise merger of major film studios to work together creatively to bring us a new Spider-Man, many wondered what the final product would look like. Would we recognize this version of Peter Parker slinging through a vastly more populated version of New York City? Would the story be bogged down with the franchise building woes of an ever increasing Marvel Studios Cinematic Universe? However, most importantly, would the story be any good?

Rest assured true believers for the “House of Ideas” has a sure hit on their hands with “Spider-Man Homecoming”. Wisely foregoing the well known origin story Marvel effectively meshes this Spider-Man neatly into the folds of their ever expanding world. With the heavy marketing of Iron Man as a presence in this film even I wondered if this would be too much for the initial Spider-Man movie going forward, but Iron Man is never over utilized here and the film truly benefits from him being there. In fact Tony Stark’s presence along with the common knowledge that the Avengers exist outside of Spider-Man’s periphery help to guide his motivations throughout the film. What we do get of Iron Man is never a tongue-in-cheek cameo, he exists here to move the plot forward and is pertinent to the story at hand, especially when it comes to the motivations of the villain of the film, Adrian Toomes aka the Vulture played with brilliant menace by Michael Keaton.

Lately Marvel Studios has been handling their villains with far more care than the phases of the past. Adrian Toomes was the perfect character to rise up from the ashes of the battle of New York and remind us that these superhero antics have consequences. It seems to be the common theme of Marvel’s phase three films so far, and it’s a gold mine of character development possibilities. They literally utilize the character much like a vulture would behave, scavenging the remains from these climactic events for his own gains. That’s another aspect I loved about this film, it wasn’t a story about world ending threats, it was a contained story about a kid from Queens with superpowers.

Speaking of that kid, he’s really great as Peter Parker, and even better as Spider-Man. Tom Holland has become another perfect casting decision from Marvel Studios. This kid has clearly worked hard and done his homework because this is probably the funniest Spider-Man film to date, and it really is genuinely superb. Holland sets his Spider-Man apart from past performances by his sheer enthusiasm at the thought of being a superhero. Garfield’s Parker was mired in self doubt and emotional darkness in attempts to make the character seem almost grislier like that of Nolan’s Batman while Maguire’s Parker was more of a direct adaption from the 1960’s comics and that was just fine, but even he struggled to straddle the weight of the hero’s conflicted nature. Homecoming has strands of those elements in play but they’re likely to weigh more on this version of Parker in later films once our hero has grown into the role. This film also handled the supporting cast incredibly well. Peter’s friend Ned was an earnest and funny addition that helped Peter have someone to bounce dialogue off of, he quickly earned his place in the story. In this version, Flash Thompson is a bully of a different kind, but he fits into the world effectively as more of a millennial agitator than the traditional sports jock bully. The high-school scenes are light and fun- feeling very much as the story was pitched, like a John Hughes flick-but with super-heroics.

Written by Jonathan M. Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers and directed by Jon Watts, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” was a joy to watch and a confirmation that studios can work together to produce a truly great movie, if they just put their minds to it. I had a smile on my face from the opening scene to the post-credits button at the end, and I bet you will too!

Final Score: ASM #240