Spider-Man: Homecoming (Jon Watts US 2017) (review)

Spider-Man Homecoming, directed by John Watts, is the third reboot of Spider-Man this century. The first two franchises were created and released by Sony, who finally made the decision to share the character with Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe juggernaut (and recently renewed the deal for a third standalone Spider-Man film). As a result of this unusual corporate synergy, Spider-Man was written into Captain America: Civil War (Russo siblings US 2016) (a film distributed by Disney), and then Disney created Spider-Man: Homecoming (a movie distributed by Sony). In a refreshing twist, it turns out that cooperation between two enormous corporate enterprises can in fact benefit the consumer: Spider-Man: Homecoming is an exciting relaunch for a beloved character which has the promise of thriving in a stable cinematic enterprise, albeit at the high cost of challenging some of the core elements of the character’s appeal.

It is important to remember that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) began as a fledgling independent studio with an incomplete cast of characters at their disposal; the level of success the MCU has achieved was far beyond the wildest predictions of Marvel at the time. But the Jon Favreau-directed Iron Man (2008) was something of a surprise blockbuster, and it afforded the studio the opportunity to expand into the absolute behemoth it is today, with 22 movies in 12 years. Because of the studio’s early precarious financial position, the impressive way Iron Man outperformed expectations and the subsequent popularity of the character, the first decade of the MCU really latched on to Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) as a way of anchoring all the subsequent movies – with Spider-Man: Homecoming perhaps the most extreme example of this tendency yet.

The Tony Stark footprint is ubiquitous throughout the MCU, appearing in some fashion in every film. Even if Downey does not actually make an appearance in the movie, the audience feels the influence of either Stark, Stark Enterprises or the Stark family. And, with the exception of Captain America: Civil War, the movie in which Tony Stark almost succeeded in making Captain America (Chris Evans) into a villain, he is never a more dominant presence than he is in Spider-Man Homecoming. Indeed, Tony Stark is the raison d’etre for the entire film, creating both the villain, the hero, the crisis, the scene and the material needed for both the climax and the denouement. (Perhaps even more impressive: Tony manages to pull off the same trick again in Spider-Man: Far from Home (Watts US 2019), dominating the film despite the character’s death.)

It is probable that the inclusion of Tony Stark in Homecoming is meant to reassure the fans that this new reboot of Spider-Man will not just be a passing phase like the previous Spider-Man cinematic ventures had been, but rather a stable entry anchored firmly and permanently in the MCU. It is something the film accomplishes well, but it comes at a price. Until the end of the film where Peter (Tom Holland) is able to break away from Stark as his mentor, the entire film is overshadowed by Tony Stark as a capitalist power figure and Stark Enterprises as a powerful corporation. The Vulture, a classic and as-yet cinematically unused Spider-Man villain, only comes to create his suit (in the style of Iron Man, unlike the comics version) after Stark Enterprises, in collusion with the US government under the auspices of the newly created Department of Damage Control, hijacks and disenfranchises local small business owner Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), who has contracted with New York City to salvage the wreckage of the alien invasion depicted in The Avengers. Without regard to contract, the families of those labouring literally under the shadow of Avengers (née Stark) Tower, Stark Enterprises manages to convert an entire team of honest blue-collar workers into a group of villains who have to...