SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING Movie Review by Movieguide

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING follows a young Peter Parker in his freshman year at high school. With a brand-new Spider-Man suit gifted to him from Tony Stark, Peter is ordered by Stark to stay low and only focus on stopping smaller criminal activity. Of course, Peter gets in over his head. SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING is full of fun and wit, and is easily the most humorous of the Spider-Man movies, but it’s not without some flaws creatively.

After the events in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, where Tony Stark recruited Spider-Man to help stop Captain America, Peter is sent back to his home in Queens, New York, where he lives with his Aunt May. He tells May he’s doing an internship for Stark Industries, but in reality, everyday after school, he dons the Spider-Man suit and stops petty crimes on the street. He hopes Stark will realize his value and bring him on as an Avenger.

It doesn’t take long for Peter’s best friend, Ned, to accidentally find out Peter is Spider-Man. Ned tries to convince Peter to use his identity as Spider-Man for personal gain, including winning the affection of Liz, the beautiful senior Peter likes from afar.
One day while stopping crime, Peter comes across some criminals with very dangerous weapons created from alien tech. Their boss is a man in mechanical wings, who nearly kills Peter.

Peter tells Tony Stark about this encounter. Stark essentially orders Peter to leave jobs like that to the big boys, but Peter doesn’t listen. He starts investigating with Ned as to who might be selling these dangerous weapons. Peter’s inexperience causes problems, however, and puts people in danger. So, Tony Stark takes away his fancy Spider-Man suit and tells him if he’s not something without the suit, then he doesn’t deserve it.
Can Peter discover what a real hero is and save the day?

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING has a lot going for it. There’s great humor, a terrific Peter Parker portrayed by the excellent Tom Holland, and the support of Marvel’s other great characters, like Tony Stark and Captain America. However, beneath the fanboy hype that firmly believes Marvel can do wrong, is an emotionally tepid, lazily written movie. For example, the interactions between Peter Parker and Aunt May are stale in comparison to the excellently written relationship in the original SPIDER-MAN trilogy starring Tobey Maguire. In fact, the HOMECOMING writers, producers and director rush through important character interactions and development to get to the action. Of the other actors, Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, Michael Keaton as the villain, and Jacob Batalon all shine in their roles, even though Marisa Tomei’s performance suffers because of the bad writing.

The worldview of SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING is moral and redemptive for the most part. Peter learns he needs to be someone of character without the suit, sacrifice is exemplified, and even loving your enemy to a degree is encouraged. Also positively, when Peter Parker tells Tony Stark he wants to be like him, Tony responds that he wants Peter to be better than him. That said, there are several politically correct and leftist statements made by students.

Sadly, SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING is definitely the most inappropriate of all the SPIDER-MAN movies. There’s a flurry of “s” words, and many more lighter obscenities. Also, at one point Ned is helping Peter track a bad guy from the school computer lab. When a teacher walks in on him and asks what he’s doing, Ned lies, “Just watching porn.” This flippant reference to pornography is exactly the problem that interests young children into viewing and becoming addicted to porn, and completely shaping and many times ruining their understanding of sexuality. Would the filmmakers make the same joke about doing heroin? Of course not!

Because of these elements, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for younger teenagers and children.