Spider-Man: Homecoming
By: Karlique Caesar
Film is a truly beautiful medium. Film allows the watcher to escape reality for a couple of hours and delve into the world of fantasy. I remember when I fell in love with the medium. May 5, 2007 my uncle picked me up and took me to see Spider-Man 3 on opening weekend. From that day forth I had been hooked. So Spider-Man holds a very special place in my heart. Roughly a year later, my uncle would continue the tradition of taking me out to see every superhero flick that was released on May 4, 2008. It was in the words, “Mr. Stark you’ve become a part of a much bigger universe. You just don’t know it yet.” that I found myself engulfed in the new world pioneered by an Iron Man. At that moment I wanted nothing more but for the two characters to meet. Marvel had long since hand my attention on the TV screen but it was the big screen that set my imagination ablaze. Cut to 2016 and Captain America: Civil War did the impossible. Sony and Marvel cut a deal and a brand new Spider-Man shared the big screen with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The casting was perfect. Tom Holland is by far my favorite live action Spider-Man. Tom does an excellent job of capturing both the fun of Spider-Man’s charismatic snark and the awkwardness of Peter Parker, a trait that I feel was inconsistent in both of the previous works. I was excited and desperately wanted more and I was most certainly not disappointed.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (Homecoming for short) is within my top 5 favorite movies of all time. I extract so much joy everytime I watch the film. Peter is presented as an eager young hero who has been respected by his seniors and now has a bit more confidence in his ability. In typical Tony Stark fashion, his need for Peter’s assistance in Civil War has lead to a hypercharged Peter who wants to prove himself to his mentor throwing himself into high risk situations and endangering those around him. The scenes that sell me on the movie are his arrival to prom and his Spider-Man moment. The golden rule of a good Spider-Man story is that Peter’s villains are personal. Fate is cruel to Spider-Man. Funnily enough Spider-Man is the only big hero in the MCU that hides his identity, so the fact that so many of his villains are friends to Peter is ironic. The good kind of irony. The kind of irony that sits in when you have decided to let the powers at play handle the bad guys and to focus on being a high schooler and having fun, going to prom, just to find out that the same villain you have been tailing is your prom date’s father. Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes elevates this scene with the level of intensity he delivers. It’s scary enough being questioned by your prom date’s dad but when those questions are coming from a known murderer and they’re breaking down your voice and realizing you’re Spider-Man it becomes unbearable. But of course, a Spider-Man movie is not complete without a Spider-Man moment. The Spider-Man moment is what makes the character so endearing. Spider-Man is not Superman. He isn’t invulnerable. He is stronger than the average person but not so strong that he cannot die. When we see Spider-Man struggle it reminds us why his character is so special. So when Spider-Man is trapped under rubble we get to see this young Spider-Man have his first Spider-Man moment. With his mask half ripped off of his face, Peter cries out for help, hitting deaf ears. As he cries, He sees his face in the puddle. Half-Spider-Man. He is reminded that in this mask he is the hero. Not a victim. And he pushes through in the way that only Spider-Man could. Reminding us why we root for our hero.