There have been an awful lot of Spider-Man movies over the past two decades. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was released fifteen years ago, setting in motion the superhero movie invasion and transcribing for the first time the comic book feel on the big screen. Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man came out only four years ago proving you needed more than a cool superhero to make a movie; you need a director with a vision and talent. There were talks of another installment helmed by Webb but due to problems with the studio that idea was scrapped and Marvel struck a deal with Sony to bring the hero back to the screen.
So, were we in dire need of another Spider-Man reboot? Well, from the looks of it we’d go as far as saying yes. Judging by the trailer, it seems like they examined Webb’s films and tried to figure out what went wrong. It’s thankfully not an origin story (an immense relief) as the new Spider-Man was brilliantly introduced in Captain America: Civil War (an overrated film but still a solid outing). Today, as we literally drown in superhero movies, and it would be insulting for directors and studios to make us pay for yet another film showing us something we’ve seen before, so we’re psyched that this new film seems to jump right into the action.
The film picks up right where we left Peter Parker in Civil War, and he’s now back in school after having fought with the Avengers. This is the Spider-Man movie we want to see, focusing on Peter navigating his way through high school (and actually looking like a teenager for once) while trying to save the city from imminent threats. Also, bonus points for the cool “wings” they added to the Spider-Man costume are in order.
Directed by Jon Watts, an indie director known for Cop Car starring Kevin Bacon (a nice little “Spielbergian” indie) , he seems to have a personal take on the character, and it seems he really let his actors shine in this new flick. Our new Spider-Man is British actor Tom Holland (seen in the tsunami film The Impossible) who embodies the awkwardness necessary for the Peter Parker character, and the wits for the Spider-Man one. The villain in the film, having played both Batman and Birdman in the distant and recent past, is Michael Keaton in the role of The Vulture. Donald Glover also plays a role that has so far remained secret and Marisa Tomei plays an uncharacteristically attractive Aunt May.
All in all, this film looks very promising, but let’s just hope Marvel gave Watts some creative liberties and pray it doesn’t play out like every single superhero movie we’ve seen in the last few years. There’s a lot of potential here, we’d be really sad to see it go to waste.
For now, you can watch the Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer here and anxiously await the film’s release on July 7, 2017.
