In an all-new story that reintroduces audiences to one of history\u2019s most popular and enduring comic book characters, Spider-Man: Homecoming picks up where the events of Captain America: Civil War left off, and finds Peter Parker returning to the comparatively mundane teenage problems after battling alongside, and against, some of Earth\u2019s mightiest heroes. Spider-Man is forced to contend with the struggles of adolescence alongside the repercussions of his, ahem, extracurricular activities. Desperate to win the approval of his newfound mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Peter tries to live up to the legacy of the heroes he\u2019s grown up watching on TV, only to find that his ambitions outpace his ability to control his powers, even as new foes like The Vulture (Michael Keaton) force him to test their limits.<\/p>\n
Long before being recruited as Iron Man\u2019s ringer, Spider-Man has been a fixture on the silver screen \u2013 since 2002, when Sony Pictures first brought the iconic web-slinging superhero to life. Three films and more than $2.5 billion worldwide later, their work paved the way not only for other filmmakers to tell stories about the world\u2019s favorite wall crawler, but for other superheroes from the Marvel Universe to have bigger and bigger adventures of their own \u2013 and eventually, all together. 15 years later, with a spectacularly successful test run under their belts with Captain America: Civil War, Sony and Marvel have teamed up to bring Spider-Man back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with Spider-Man: Homecoming, an adventure that catapults the character into the midst of a world where he\u2019s one of dozens of super-powered individuals, while re-introducing him as the teenager from the comics whose troubles linger long after he\u2019s taken off his red and blue costume.<\/p>\n
Central to the success of this new interpretation of the character was the actor who could convincingly play young Peter Parker, the brainy kid who became Marvel\u2019s biggest little hero. Former stage actor Tom Holland not only had the right look for the role but the right disposition as he and director Jon Watts (Cop Car) undertook the challenge of introducing the character for a new generation of fans. \u201cMy main thing was to not do something that had been done before,\u201d Holland explained of his approach to the role. \u201cSo I dove into the research about finding new and unique things we hadn\u2019t seen with Spider-Man and especially Peter Parker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Working on Civil War, Holland explained, felt a little bit like a dry run for Homecoming, in that it gave him a clear sense of the tone and attitude of the character before he was thrust into his own story. \u201cA lot of the work for Civil War had been done in the direction they wanted to take Spider-Man. For me, the complicated thing was elaborating on that decision. It was like a dirt track and I tried to make it into a motorway. And I was lucky in a sense that I was given such good guidance and such a good team of people to guide me in the right way through the process. So I was never on my own, which I was very grateful for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holland said that Marvel was a spectacular collaborator with Sony and Watts in helping define what this version of the character would be. \u201cI don\u2019t think Marvel ever thought they\u2019d be given this opportunity. And that\u2019s why I think they really have thrown everything at this movie,\u201d he said. \u201cI think what [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige has done so well is the last three years he\u2019s made Ant-Man, Dr. Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy; all three movies have been huge successes and they\u2019ve all been so different in genre. And it was important for Jon and me to do the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Reimagining Spider-Man successfully would require a close collaboration between the actor who played the title role and the director who shepherded the character to the screen. Holland said that Watts has an incredibly clear, passionate vision for what he wanted this film to be, and the two fell into lockstep right away. \u201cJon was very strong with pushing for what he wanted \u2013 to make a movie about a kid experiencing teenage life as a superhero,\u201d he said. \u201cJon painted a very, very vivid picture of what he wanted and I was lucky enough and he was lucky enough for me to just go that\u2019s what I want, that\u2019s exactly how I thought the character should be!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJon and I had a very collaborative experience working with each other because he\u2019s very open to ideas,\u201d he continued. \u201cHe allows me to improvise and make mistakes, which for an actor is the most valuable thing. If you\u2019re in an environment where you feel free to make mistakes that\u2019s where I think my best work comes from. And Jon was very good at making that environment for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watts, who screened dozens of comedies and movies for his cast to help them prepare for Homecoming, was similarly effusive about his young star, who he said reminded him of many of the breakout stars of yesteryear. \u201cTom has that Marty McFly spirit in a way that\u2019s amazing, or like Tom Cruise in Risky Business \u2013 just that twinkle in his eye,\u201d Watts said. \u201cBut he\u2019s still a kid and he\u2019s ready for bigger and better things but he still has to get to his chemistry class on time. So we had a lot of fun with that and found a lot of humor in those moments and that\u2019s something that we would work on together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holland admits he took a lot of inspiration from those movies, Back to the Future in particular. \u201cMarty McFly, that\u2019s my Spider-Man,\u201d he said. \u201cHe is so full of life, so innocent, so goofy, so cool in the most uncool way possible. That was exactly what I wanted to bring to the screen,\u201d he continued. \u201cI watched that movie 10-15 times over the course of shooting Spider-Man. So he was definitely my main influence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watts, who with Homecoming graduated from the independent world to the spectacle of studio filmmaking, said that Holland\u2019s talent and consummate professionalism made that a smooth and easy transition. \u201cHe\u2019s so amazing and charming and talented but he\u2019s also such a precise technical actor, and you don\u2019t ever encounter a 20-year-old kid like that,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s training, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s just natural, but it was amazing. He could hit his marks perfectly. He could just do slight tweaks to his performance to dial it up and dial it down. And it was amazing. I love complicated camera moves and long tracking shots and things like that, so to be able to do that with an actor who can hit all those marks is like a dream come true. It makes it so much easier for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 20, Holland is the youngest actor to play Spider-Man on screen \u2013 he was an actual teen when he was playing the high school age character. More than merely being able to identify with the character, Holland said he feels like the choice to age down Parker makes is easier for audiences to identify with what the character is going through \u2013 when he\u2019s not in costume, anyway. \u201cMaking him younger, I think, was a very smart decision on Marvel\u2019s behalf because it just makes it more relatable. Not only to an older generation, but to a younger generation, because it\u2019s nice to be able to go and see a movie and see someone as incredible as Spider-Man go through the same things that they\u2019re going through. But then it also appeals to an older audience because everyone went to school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holland said that Watts insisted on adding that element into the script. \u201cIt was very important to Jon when he found out about that to make it apparent that while he\u2019s Spider-Man, his main priority is to make sure that he\u2019s doing well at school,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s one moment in the movie where he gets a little cocky and he\u2019s like oh, I don\u2019t need school anymore. But he\u2019s then very quickly reminded that high school is probably the most important years of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far back as the comic books, Peter has always been a bit of a social outcast because of his intelligence and nerdy interests. But as one of hundreds of academically gifted kids at a school designed to nurture those interests, Peter\u2019s social status once again had to be a little different than audiences had seen in the past. \u201cIt\u2019s a very interesting dynamic and it\u2019s something that is different to any of the movies we\u2019ve seen before because he\u2019s definitely not an uncool kid but he\u2019s not the cool kid either,\u201d Holland said. \u201cHe has a good group of friends and they\u2019re all very quirky and very different in their own unique ways which is so great. And it\u2019s a fun side to Peter Parker because you see him enjoying himself rather than being bullied and miserable all the time. Yeah, Flash picks on him and stuff, but he beats Flash in the classroom \u2013 and that\u2019s why Flash picks on him, because Flash is jealous of him. So it\u2019s a very interesting way of seeing a character.\u201d<\/p>\n
As universal as the character\u2019s struggles may be, cinematically speaking, few can relate to the awkwardness of being an outsider in a seemingly ordinary world better than Spider-Man himself, not the least of which because, until last year, he spun his web in a separate galaxy than any of the other superheroes who thrilled audiences with their exploits. But Holland said that returning Spider-Man to the Marvel fold not only puts him in great company with Iron Man and many other heroes, but creates an opportunity to explore the character in a way that fans haven\u2019t experienced before on film.<\/p>\n
Holland notes that it\u2019s a movie less about a superhero but more about the struggles of being a teenager, which fans can relate to. \u201cI think that\u2019s something that superhero movies haven\u2019t necessarily touched on where his life outside of the suit is more important than his life in the suit. And I think it\u2019s just an interesting dynamic to this genre that we\u2019ve seen so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of the suit, Peter got some delightful upgrades in his suit in Civil War thanks to Tony Stark, the eccentric billionaire inventor who regularly saves the world as Iron Man. Those encounters paved the way for Stark to become an unlikely mentor for the budding superhero, who is decidedly more secretive about who he is underneath the mask. Holland indicated that an interesting relationship develops between Peter, Tony, and Tony\u2019s long-suffering valet Happy Hogan as young Spider-Man yearns for guidance he can\u2019t get anywhere else about how to handle being a superhero. \u201cThroughout the movie, Peter is constantly trying to get in touch with Tony and is always having to settle for Happy, and Happy doesn\u2019t have time for Peter because he\u2019s also trying to always get in touch with Tony. So it\u2019s like two brothers battling for attention from the big guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very funny because you see this 40-year-old man jealous of this little kid and this little kid jealous of this 40-year-old man,\u201d he observed. \u201cTony is more of a father figure to Peter because he is the person Peter goes to for advice \u2013 though sometimes Tony Stark isn\u2019t necessarily the best person to get advice from. But most of the time it\u2019s pretty sound, and it\u2019s a relationship I really hope we get to explore more in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holland says that Peter\u2019s need for that advice forms a unique crux for the film, because he is, at the same time, just a kid, and a kid with enormous, still developing superpowers. \u201cI think what\u2019s funny is Tony giving Peter advice which is really good advice, and Peter not taking it but also prevailing – but in doing that, he made a lot of mistakes along the way,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s really a massive learning curve he experiences in this movie. And by the end of the movie Peter Parker definitely is not the finished article and still has a lot to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Marvel\u2019s superheroes have welcomed Spider-Man back into their world with open arms, that doesn\u2019t mean, however, that Homecoming is trying to capitalize on the ongoing latticework of mythology created in their films. Holland said that their priority is telling Peter\u2019s story, reflected in that larger world, rather than the other way around. \u201cIt\u2019s as much of a movie for Spider-Man as it is for Peter Parker. It\u2019s a homecoming for the character,\u201d he said. He\u2019s now where he belongs. He always should have been in the MCU. Peter Parker grows up a lot in this movie and he makes a decision at the very end of the movie which might make him the most mature superhero we\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur movie is definitely solely a Spider-Man movie which is just betwixt in this crazy universe which other superheroes existed,\u201d Holland said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t know where he fits in in the world because the beginning of the movie he\u2019s fighting petty crimes after fighting Ant-Man in Berlin. The whole movie is about him figuring out his place in New York and his place in the universe and hopefully his place in the Avengers. So I genuinely don\u2019t know what the future holds for Spider-Man, but I do hope it\u2019s as exciting as this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Writer: Todd Gilchrist<\/pre>\nRead the SAMDB review of Spider-Man: Homecoming<\/a>.<\/p>\n