The friendly neighbourhood web slinger leaps onto the big screen all by himself once more hoping to charm dollars off movie-going crowds in yet another reboot - this happening a mere 3 years after Andrew Garfield's not so amazing outing (under Marc Webb's troubled direction) which abruptly ended his spidey aspirations no thanks to lukewarm reviews and disappointing box office earnings for The Amazing Spiderman 2 of 2014.
Tom Holland, a fully developed male specimen at 21 years old plays an underaged Peter Parker still fumbling around in every area of his life-school, friendship, romance and of course crime-fighting. While Homecoming is somewhat still a narration of his origins, thankfully we are way past the regurgitation of how he got bitten by a radioactive arachnid and came to be in possession of his superhuman acrobatic abilities. Uncle Ben has presumably passed on, while Aunt May (played by the unbelievably over-gorgeous Marissa Tomei) acts as sole guardian to the precocious Parker. Robert Downey Jr periodically inserts himself as the arrogant but amusingly thoughtful Tony Stark aka Iron Man-throwing Parker fanciful toys and suits his way, doing the Yoda thing or literally saving his arse from drowning (twice). A visibly greying and much older Michael Keaton (who featured as the title character in Tim Burton's Batman movies decades back ) suits up once more, this time batting for the dark side as master thief Adrian Toomes alias Vulture.
Homecoming is loud, free-spirited and boiling with ambition as evidenced from its overachieving action set-pieces infused with unabashed slapstick humor, then again it never loses sight of its core mission to tell the story coherently and in a properly entertaining fashion. Peter Parker knows he isn't an ordinary youngster by any measure, and on occasion is bursting at the seams wanting to let specific characters (especially the present crush of his life) in on his true identity. The adorably chubby pal to his loner self gets comically entangled in the most unfortunate of revelations, and subsequently begs to play bumbling sidekick to Parker's Spiderman. Stark sees Parker potentially becoming a member of the Avengers team, but handles him with giant kid gloves, frustrating the boy himself immensely. And horrors of horrors, what happens when you discover you are dating the devil's daughter?
Much credit goes to Holland for brilliantly portraying Spidey as a genuine do-gooder still finding his way around and not getting everything quite so very right, where his sincerest of intentions to intervene at times can instead bring forth disastrous consequences. It is this articulation of imperfection amidst an urgent desire to grow up quickly that makes him so endearing, to make folks empathize with both his triumphs and misfortunes. More likely than not, this new profound affection for the webbed hero will persist as he matures and participates more significantly in the upcoming larger Marvel universe. Stop that bragging about "I stole Cap America's shield" though, its getting a tad annoying and might just earn you a punch in the face.
Without a doubt Spiderman: Homecoming makes for an exhilarating 2.5 hr ride. Perhaps a tad more fun if aunt May strutted around in panties like she did in The Wrestler. *Winks*
Rating By Blue Blooded Specimen: 8.2/10