Spider-Man: Homecoming - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
I honestly can’t remember a time that I have been this conflicted about a Spider-Man movie. Full disclosure here. I’m a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE Spider-Man fan, and have been ever since I was a little boy. I grew up collecting 80s Spidey comics from my local bookstore ever since I was an 8 year old boy, and continued collecting long into my adult years. Much to my wife’s chagrin, I still maintain a very large collection of bankers boxes FULL of comics ranging from the 60s all to the way till about 2005. I’ve read, re-read, and lovingly taken care of my collection for many a year, and have indulged myself in every Spider-Man iteration to come to the big screen. I grew up watching Disney’s famous animated series (I’m still super sore that they haven’t released that on home video in the United States), and eagerly ate up Sam Raimi’s trilogy of films as well as Andrew Garfield’s duo of films a couple of years ago. While Raimi’s trilogy has worn badly (sorry, even Spider-Man II, I know that’s heresy), I really enjoyed the Andrew Garfield films (despite Jamie Foxx’s horrendous dialog in The Amazing Spider-Man 2), and I was super excited to find out a few years back that Sony had decided to hand the reins over to Marvel and co-produce a new reboot. Tom Holland’s introduction in Captain America: Civil War was a cute cameo, but only served to intrigue me further. Especially since it looked that Marvel and Sony has decided to go back to the roots of the character and bring good old Peter Parker (Tom Holland) back to the good old high school days instead of starting him as some 30 year old wannabe. With all this hype I was incredibly stoked to see Spider-Man: Homecoming, and while I enjoyed many aspects of the film, for every good point that the movie brought, it counterbalanced itself with a negative point. This creating a situation where I honestly don’t know whether to love or hate the film.

The film picks up immediately after the events of Captain America: Civil War with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) getting back into the swing of things (har har) as your average high school student with super powers. Parker is trying to get back into school, but his desires to be a superhero are outweighing the costs, and the young man flits around the city of New York catching low lives and doing his best to just blend in with society. The problem is, he’s not that good at laying low. Before long he’s investigating into a series of illegal arms dealings that reveals that there are bigger things afoot than your average guy lifting a purse. One Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) is running an illegal weapons operation after stealing technology from the alien invasion during the first Avengers film. Toomes has created the perfect ring of criminals, but has somehow managed to stay under the radar of all the big guys. That is until Peter catches wind of his little operation and tries to take him out.

The only thing is, Peter is still a kid, and Tony doesn’t seem to have any faith in him. Warning him off, Mr. Stark gives the young boy a chance to be what he really is, a young kid. However, Peter is not about to be dissuaded by his mention, and uses the super spider suit that he was given in Captain America: Civil War to wage a one man way against Adrian Toomes and his flying “vulture” suit (*snicker) in order to rid his neighborhood of the weapons dealer and his ilk. Naturally things go awry, Peter ropes in his friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon, who most likely will NOT become The Hobgoblin) to help him out, and he has to prove himself worth of the technology that has been given to him by Mr. Stark.

Oh boy. This is really a tough one. I’ve been agonizing over this ever since I saw Spider-Man: Homecoming in theaters. How do I rate this one? While there is a lot of things going for the new iteration of Spidey, there is also a LOT of things that Marvel messed up on. It’s one of those situations where I sitting here with a list of pros in one hand, and a list of cons in the other. Sure, the Raimi films weren’t perfect, and Andrew Garfield’s films made some mistakes, but I have never been this conflicted about a Spider-Man film before. Lets start from the top.

Right off the bat we can tell that this is going to be a film that ties DIRECTLY into the Avengers films. That’s not even a question at this point. Robert Downey Jr. infects himself into the movie as if it was your average Marvel film, and he proves to me that Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr. has become the uncool version of Wolverine in the X-men films (The X-Men films were always a team effort, but they became “Wolverine and his buddies in a movie together” more often than not. The same thing applies here, with Tony Stark injecting himself into every Marvel film that he can, but the problem is that Tony Stark has become so much of a jerk that you hate seeing him anymore, unlike Wolverine). Even the suit that Spidey wears is nothing but an Iron Man suit in spandex, leaving only the web slingers and some fancy juking to make the webbed superhero his own character. The same thing can be said for the marvel humor. Too many times you feel like the humor is forced and inorganic, trying TOO hard to be another Avengners film, just without the title. Then there’s the annoying twist of having Michelle (Zendaya) being the PG version of the college age, edgy social justice convert with comments about the Washington monument, and trying to be the “bad girl”. Kevin Feige has made mention that she is going to play an important role in Peter’s life, but it won’t be the traditional role that we know of, especially with the giant bombshell that she drops in the last scene of the movie (I won’t spoil it).

Now on to the good points. Adrian Toomes. Holy Cow. Michael Keaton made the Vulture into a fnatstic character, and I was HUGELY critical of him being another giant mecha suited character from the trailer (we all saw how badly The Rhino turned out in The Amazing Spider-Man 2). I grew up with the 80s and 90s version of Toomes being an old man who could fly and drain life from characters, but Michael Keaton really shone here and created one of the best Marvel subvillains that I have seen. One of Marvel studios biggest problems is creating a villain that is fleshed out and gives you enough to care about, but the Vulture is done so well that you feel like he’s almost a main hero at times. Keaton makes him both sympathetic and loathsome at the same time. There’s also a huge hour and twenty minute twist in the film that really was well done. I won’t spoil it for you, but lets just say that I really felt it was the high light of the movie, even above the awesome final fight scene between Spidey and Vulture.

While I’m very divided about the film itself, the casting was superb. Marissa Tomei is stunning as aunt May (probably the hottest Aunt May we’ve ever seen, as Marissa Tomei could make a 90 year old gorgeous), and Tom Holland really makes himself accessible as a youthful Peter Parker. I’m still not sold about Zendaya as Michelle (hint hint at that first letter in her name) but Michael Keaton and Bokeem Woodbine s the twin villains made for an incredibly thrilling ride (I loved them sneaking in The Shocker).




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, some language and brief suggestive comments




Video:

Sony’s 2.39:1 Blu-ray looks stunning on home video, and meshes very well into the Marvel universe of movies. The color grading and detail levels are on par with your average Avengers and Captain America films, with a few slight tweaks that gives Sony a world of their own while still existing inside the share MCU cinematic universe. The digital film is glossy and bright, with stunning blues and reds of the Spider-Man outfit, combined with the grey stone look of New York City. The film employs a few more dark shots than I was expecting, and this gives us a dimly lit battle arena for our hero and Vulture to make a few nasty encounters. Color saturation is stunning, and the mild softness that comes into play during the school instances, as well as at night are never obtrusive. Instead it gives the film a very grim and dark feeling that fits well into the New York City arena of the webbed wall crawler. Blacks are deep and inky, and the only artifacts that I could see were some mid movie banding that pops up during the weapons deal and during the end battle between the wall crawler and Vulture.





Audio:

Once again Sony gives the Blu-ray a 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio mix, while relegating the Atmos track to the 4K UHD disc. While the Blu-ray audio is not bad, it isn’t as stunning and devestating as I was expecting. Dialog is always crisp and cleanly located in the center of the sound stage, and the surrounds are awash with a variety of background noise. Spidey swishing through the air allows for the sound stage to have a nicely immersive feel, and the encompassing battle sounds of Vulture and his machinery puts you right into he heart of the action. LFE is very good, but I was a bit surprised on how muted it was compared to other super hero films. Adrian Toomes’ vulture wings have an appropriate roar to them, and gunshots ring out with authority, but the lack of intense weight to the track has me feeling like the movie could have been a BIT More intense (something the Atmos track fixes in the UHD disc)








Extras:

• The Spidey Study Guide
• 10 Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel
• Seven Featurettes
- "A Tangled Web"
- "Searching For Spider-Man"
- "Spidey Stunts"
- "Aftermath"
- "The Vulture Takes Flight"
- "Jon Watts: Head of the Class"
- "Pros And Cons of Spider-Man"
• Rappin' with Cap: Captain America PSAs
• Photo Gallery

Final Score: ​

This is the first time that I truly feel like the father in Fiddler on the Roof… “on one hand...on the other hand” runs through my mind as I digest the film. There’s so many fun aspects about the movie to enjoy, with a fresh take on Spider-Man’s introduction, but there is also a lot of flops and Marvel faux pas along the way that make me hesitant to recommend or dissuade the viewer from watching the movie. Was it fun? Oh yeah, I had a good time. But was it good? Ehhhhhhhhhh, I’m still torn about that. The audio and video are what you would expect from a modern day action film, and the extras are rather good. Sony’s Blu-ray disc is another testament to their dedication to day and date releases and makes for an engaging watch. Check it out is my recommendation.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr.
Directed by: Jon Watts
Written by: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English DTS HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Studio: Sony
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 133 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: Obtober 17th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Check it Out

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will check it out.

 

[Jack]

Hmmm, I think I am torn also, but I will bring it on home

 

[Jack]

Movie: Agreed, More or Less
Video: Heartily Agreed
Audio: Spot On

Thoughts, I will wait until this evening when I watch second time.