Spider-man: Homecoming

Thursday afternoon I was looking for an escape after receiving semi-bad news. Nothing makes me feel better and forget my worries than the smell of popcorn and a darkened movie theater. There's not a whole lot playing right now that I am interested in seeing (it's the doldrums of late-summer), so I decided to catch up on a mid-summer release that I never saw, Spider-man: Homecoming.

Spider-man is now officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having been let go from his contract with Sony that had relegated him to his own movies (five over twelve years with two actors). He debuted in Captain America: Civil War, and followed it up with his own solo outing this summer.

What Homecoming has going for it is its star, Tom Holland. As much as I liked Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in the role in their respective films (except for Spider-man 3 and The Amazing Spider-man 2), they were both in their late 20s in their first outing. Because of that, they couldn't quite capture the young, high-school aspect of Peter Parker. Holland nails it.

While Holland is a great Spider-man, and I generally liked Michael Keaton as the villain, the film didn't quite come together for me. It felt oddly paced, and the actions sequences weren't all that spectacular (I actually fell asleep for a quick second during the  Staten Island Ferry sequence. The CGI was obvious, especially with Spider-man himself.

The movie was fun, though. Peter Parker is just a high school kid, trying his darndest to convince Tony Stark to let him be a part of The Avengers. His friend Ned was the perfect "sidekick", providing plenty of laughs. His other friends are okay, and his love interest barely registers; no chemistry and no understanding of why they like each other.

Even though I am over superhero movies, Spider-man: Homecoming wasn't a bad way to spend a night. And it (and the popcorn) made me feel a little bit better.