Spider-Man has always been my favorite superhero. I'm not that into comic books and superheroes, as you all know, but Peter Parker was always just a high school no one. Not a billionaire with dead parents. Not an alien from another planet. Not a billionaire with a drinking problem - just a straight up kid... with dead parents.
That said, even I never saw, or wanted to see, those awful-looking Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies. The Raimi-Maguire-Dunst movies were damn near perfect - okay, the third one wasn't great, but it was still at least good, dammit - and why spend time and money legitimizing something so clearly inferior, so obviously made for all the wrong reasons - a naked cash grab that let Sony retain the rights to a franchise it had no idea what to do with. Hollywood at its worst, I tell you.
But when news came that Spider-Man would finally be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I figured, hey, sure, what the hell, why not? They know what they're doing. They'll make a fine movie. I'll enjoy the Tom Holland Spider-Man era. And after seeing this movie, yeah, sure, I;ll confirm that all these suspicions were true and correct.
It's good! It's also different than all the other Marvel movies, sort of, in that it takes place largely in a high school. Which is great! It's also identical to all the other Marvel movies, sort of, in that it never even pretends to attempt to be anything other than a new chapter in the gigantic, sprawling story of Marvel and the Avengers. And that's kind of too bad! I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Robert Downey's Tony Stark character just fine, but his presence in this movie just sort of served as an unwavering reminder that Peter Parker is a child, and that Spider-Man is a B-team hero, and that even the villains in this movie are, you know, beneath the Avengers.
It's... different. It's not bad. There's a lot there, sort of, in the idea that Peter's a kid who thinks he's invincible and just wants to impress Stark and company. And maybe even, in turn, Stark sees Peter as more than a prodigy, but as a son of sorts. He's got this line at one point - I think it's in the trailers, even, so no spoilers - about how he wants Peter to be better than he was. This is a powerful sentiment for sure, given all the fucking up we've seen from Iron Man, but it's also a sentiment entirely unrelated to, you know, Peter Parker the fucking high school student just trying to do his own damn thing in his own damn movie. But I get it, I do - everything's connected. Nothing stands alone. And that's fine! It's just... different. I miss the Tobey Maguire Peter Parker who had to police his own behavior, not because he was afraid he'd get grounded or lose his suit, but because he saw firsthand that his actions have consequences. I miss geriatric Aunt May, not just because casting Marisa Tomei as Aunt May is this blatant, terrible example of ageism in Hollywood, but because having a frail widow as a beloved guardian was always part of what infused the Sam Raimi Peter Parker with an unwavering "common man" decency.
But this is good! I don't want to poo-poo this too hard here, as there are plenty of Marvel movies and DC movies and superhero movies in general that I just have not given one fuck about. This is good. It's probably the best blockbuster high school movie I've seen since, like, Superbad. And yes, it is a high school movie. Or at least, it's at its best when it's being a high school movie, and at its worst when Spider-Man has to fight Michael Keaton. Which sucks, because Keaton is good here! His character just sucks. You know what, just see it. We'll talk later.
I think you made the right connection that Raimi's Peter Parker was much more the common man thrown into being hero and having to learn the ropes himself, whereas this new version is a bright-eyed kid desperately wanting to be hero in a world already saturated with heroes.
ReplyDeleteI really, really liked this film. Mostly because it explored Spider-Man and the MCU in ways I've always been curious about. It gives you a glimpse of how the citizens on NY recovered after the attack by the Chitauri. It satisfied my curiosity on what happens when you pull Spider-Man from the big city (how does he handle the suburbs when there's no colossal buildings to swing from?). It also showed how an innocent kid would handle doing incredibly adult things -- spoilers; not that well.
In whole, I think different was an excellent direction to go in. And huuuuge praise for not showing any origin stories in this film (he was bitten by a radioactive spider... we get it). Spider-Man 2 is scheduled to be the first MCU to be released after we conclude the current phase of the MCU with Infinity Wars. I'm curious how and what will be addressed. I know you mentioned that you thought there was too much Iron Man in this film, but what if, maybe, Stark were to be killed off in Infinity Wars... what does the mean for Peter? What does that mean to lose you main mentor and closest thing you had to a father figure? I have high hopes for this rebooted franchise and am especially interested in what the stand-alone Venom movie will look like (please bring in Carnage!).
You did some great work here Sony. Now, don't fuck it up!