A Truly Amazing Spider-Man

Grab your seats, class is in session.

Evenin’ Boss family. I’m checking back in for the first time in a little while, but with good reason. The movie I was very much waiting for was finally released and I’ve had a chance to see it twice this weekend, so I think I can give you a fairly good assessment. We’re talking about my favorite Marvel superhero and his latest movie:

I know what most people have been thinking when they hear that another Spider-Man movie is coming: “this again?” Believe me, I get it. This is technically the 6th Spider-Man movie that has been created, with previously having three Tobey Maguire movies and two Andrew Garfield movies. While the first two Maguire movies weren’t bad, the other three movies overall left a lot to be desired and left a bad taste in a lot of mouths. Here’s the important difference though: those five movies? Those are Sony movies, through and through. This? This movie has the extremely important tag that fans waited a very long time to see. The Marvel Studios tag. While yes, the character rights still belong to Sony right now, they did the wise thing, they worked out a deal with Marvel/Disney to work together. And I’m here to tell you it was 100% the right move. Right up front I will tell you this is a damn good movie. I actually liked it more after the second viewing than I did with the first, and I think it was because I went in with a different mindset than the first viewing. Allow me to explain.

With the first viewing of the movie, I went in hoping to see the ultimate Spider-Man superhero movie. When I walked out, I did not feel like I had. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but there was a small amount of disappointment in what I had just watched. I had liked it a lot, but it just wasn’t what I wanted to see. Then I sat and thought about it. Took me a little bit, but I figured out what it was. When this movie was announced, it wasn’t announced as a strictly superhero movie. It was announced as an homage to John Hughes films. It was written to tell a very specific type of story that was not just a superhero movie. It was written to show the story of a 15-year-old kid who gained his super powers just over 8 months ago and is still learning not only how to use them, but the responsibility (or maybe, great responsibility) that comes along with it. It’s written to show how a 15-year-old kid is struggling to not only come to terms with being a superhero, but also with being just 15. He has the weight of the super-powered world on his shoulders while dealing with the weight of having a crush on the pretty girl at school. This is a whole new angle that we haven’t seen before. All the previous MCU movies are adult heroes, people who have been through growing up, been through the growing pains of just being a kid without the extra pressure of being a superhero. Sure, Tony Stark was known for his brilliance as a kid, but he wasn’t known as Iron Man, because he wasn’t Iron Man yet. He got to be a kid. What we have here is Peter Parker, a 15-year-old kid who is being forced to grow up and grow up fast. If you go in to the movie realizing its a coming of age, learning about yourself movie, it’s not only a whole different movie but it’s so much better. For the most part, we all remember being teenagers. We all remember the pressures of high school and of just being a teenager. Now imagine on top of all of that, you have powers that can help save the world. This is what Peter has to deal with and it’s done beautifully.

There is a lot to like about this movie. A lot. It’s hard for me to get into all of it so I’ll give my favorite highlights. Where to start is easy: Tom Holland. When I first saw his Spider-Man/Peter Parker in Civil War, I loved it. I thought he was fantastic and could not wait to see him as the star of the film. He does not, in any way, disappoint. Look, Tobey Maguire was a good Peter Parker, but not a great Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield was a good Spider-man, but not a great Peter Parker. (By the way, if you listen to the podcast we just produced, you’ll hear me say that vice versa. That was a mistake, I meant to say it this way.) Tom Holland was great as both. Very great. What I’m sure helped is the guy is only 20 or 21 years old. He remembers better than most what it was like being in High School and you can tell. He is absolutely that awkward sophomore who is crushing hard on the pretty girl and trying to make both of his worlds work without letting anyone know his secret. And when he’s in the costume? Quite literally, amazing. He nails the quips that Spidey has always been known for. He looks the part. He can actually physically do a lot of the flips and twists, so it just comes across beautifully. He also shows that he doesn’t quite understand himself and his abilities just yet. There are several scenes where things go awry. His lands short while swinging from his web. He gets stuck actually running, very awkwardly, on the ground because he finds himself in a wide open field, unable to swing from anything. He makes mistakes as the hero. He is young, he’s still learning, and it’s done so incredibly well. For me, he is the absolute quintessential Spider-Man. Next best? Potentially the top best, honestly. Michael Keaton. Michael Keaton is easily my favorite villain from any Marvel movie to date. He is so, so good. What was so interesting to me was they did not do a Spider-Man origin story, but they DID do a villain origin story and that isn’t done all that often. The movie opens explaining who Keaton is and how he ends up as the Vulture. You understand why he does what he does and you actually find yourself feeling sympathetic towards his cause. It just makes sense. And he is absolute magic in the role. The greatest portion of the movie takes place between Parker (Holland) and Toomes (Keaton), and neither one of them is in their costume, that’s how good they are together. It’s a scene that should go down as one of the more incredibly acted scenes, not in just a comic book movie, but maybe in any movie. I can’t say more about it because it has major spoilers, but it’s so amazingly well written, and even more amazingly acted. It’s cements the movie as a great movie.

As with just about every movie I see, yes, there are some things I didn’t like. It’s pretty few and far between though. There are a few things that happen that force you to suspend disbelief, which is fine, as they are nit-picky type things anyway. For example, at one point while actually in class, Peter is working on a new web-fluid formula. He wasn’t entirely hiding it. Someone would have noticed. Or a scene where he is investigating something out in the open in the school workshop, again during class. Again, he’s not entirely hiding what he was tinkering with. Someone would have seen it. But also again, no big deal. My biggest issue with the movie is somewhat controversial and it’s just my feeling on the movie. It won’t be a popular complaint, but it’s my complaint, so I own it. I felt the movie got a little too PC with choices for some of the characters. Several characters, both big name and minor, had their nationality or race changed. While I normally have no issue with this, at least one character is an iconic character that really should have been left alone. I understand the want for diversity in movies, and I honestly have no issue with it, but there are some occasions where I just think it’s unnecessary. Flame away if you will, it’s my opinion and I’m entitled to it.

So the final word? Go see it. It’s very good. Well worth the night out to see a movie. If you go in with the understanding of what they were trying to accomplish, you will absolutely enjoy it. If you do in expecting Iron Man or Captain America, you may be disappointed unfortunately. Worth going to see in the theater as well. I wouldn’t wait on this one, it’s just too good.

Until next time…

Class dismissed.