The new Spiderman movie is out, the second reboot of the franchise. The whole thing has been mired in a web of litigation until finally Marvel was able to get control of our friendly neighborhood guy once more. Is your spidey sense tingling yet? Stan Lee is so relieved, he was prepared to play a tenement dweller in Queens on a hot day, for his cameo in this one. The early box office showings suggest this will be the biggest hit of the summer, and with some reason. First of all, Tom Holland playing an uber-young Spiderman (14-15) is quite good, and he gets the awkwardness and geekiness right. He’s a little weak on the warm front, but good on the youth enthusiasm for adventure, danger, challenges, just not so much girl challenges. Marisa Tomei is o.k. but much too young to play Aunt May, but then, why would Peter have an aunt that was like 90 when he was 18? I’m just saying. So maybe this is o.k. Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man the mentor is excellent, but the real show stealer is Michael Keaton as ‘Vulture’. He fills up every scene he is in, and when cast against Holland, the difference is dramatic. It would have been interesting if there had been some tete a tetes with Iron Man, but maybe next time.
The plot is interesting. Vulture is a collector of space junk, well more like space accessories, weapons, bombs etc. left behind from intergalactic mayhem. He’s an arms dealer who retools and resells the stuff to bad guys. He needs to be stopped, and sophomoric Spiderman thinks he can pull it off. There are some failures and successes along the way as Spidey tries to prove to Mr. Stark he is ready to be a part of the Avengers. We’ll leave the surprises as surprises, as their are several good ones along the way. As usual, there is the usually Marvel whimsy and humor, the sight gags, the goofy side kick for Spidey and the like. The movie breezes right by even at two hours, and of course there is a preview of the coming sequel. All in all, this is very well done, and a lot of fun. You can’t ask for much more from a summer blockbuster popcorn movie. We saw it in 3D which was quite interesting this time. For a while you felt like you were in a home movie starring Spiderman, and you were in the room. Well done. Special kudos to Michael Keaton— he is such an excellent villain.
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