coming late to the party...

[deird1]

In the best traditions of fandom, I made up my mind about Spider-Man: Homecoming long before watching it. Through cunning use of YouTube reviews, written reviews, and random comments on Reddit, I figured out the plot and what everyone else thought, and I decided that it definitely sucked (but not as much as the Amazing Spider-Man movies… which I also haven't seen).

Point 1: it's in the MCU, which I have many issues with.
Point 2: it has Tony Stark supplying Peter with super-advanced suits, which is kind of missing the point of Spiderman.

I have now, belatedly, seen the actual movie. And I agree with my totally biased opinions! But I have a few more thoughts.

You see, the problem with this movie is that it should star Miles Morales. In other words, they're aiming for Into The Spider-Verse and missing.



The thing about Peter Parker is, he is forever affected by Uncle Ben's death. His superheroing is a direct result of Uncle Ben's death; his entire philosophy of life is "with great power…".

If I encountered Peter Parker entirely through the MCU movies, I wouldn't know that Uncle Ben existed. And I wouldn't know that Peter thought powerful people had a responsibility to help the powerless – because it literally never comes up at all.

Also, MCU Peter Parker is not very competent at Spidermanning. He's naive, and not good at fighting yet, and kind of caught up in the idea of being a superhero more than grappling with the reality.

And then there's the issue of Tony Stark. Who:
- jumps into Peter's life and gives him a supersuit
- ignores his phonecalls
- leaves Peter thinking that no-one cares about the arms dealers and he'll have to deal with it himself
- yells at Peter for not innately knowing that Tony was actually dealing with the arms dealers despite blowing Peter off
- yells at Peter some more for "sneaking around behind my back" (which – ????? – he's not???? – he's just literally living a life that has nothing to do with Tony, because they're not all that connected????)
- ignores Peter some more
- informs Peter he's now an Avenger, and by the way, there's a press conference in the next room

He SUCKS, is what I'm saying. And he shouldn't be in the movie.


However…

If you removed Peter Parker and Tony Stark from this movie, and put Miles Morales and grown-up Peter Parker in their place, the movie would be a thousand times better.

Miles doesn't have Peter's guilt issues. And starts being a superhero while he's still figuring out his powers.

Peter Parker rightfully feels some ownership over the concept of Spiderman, and would be a reasonable person for Miles to have as a mentor.

Peter Parker would also, I reckon, kinda suck as a mentor – thus leading to much of the plot shenanigans that they tried to do with Tony Stark.



Seriously, the rest of the movie (as in – everything other than the plot) is fine. And if they'd made it a Miles Morales movie instead, I think it could have been truly outstanding.



Questions? Comments?

Comments

[schneefink]

I have also not seen the movie, and just based on what I heard about it I'm pretty sure you're correct on all counts.

[deird1]

Indeed. It was a fun movie, but also precisely what I expected based on people's reviews.

[hnpcc]

There was a meme going around saying that the new movie trend should be remaking bad movies that had potential but for whatever reason were screwed up. I would watch your version.

[deird1]

the new movie trend should be remaking bad movies that had potential but for whatever reason were screwed up

IT SO SHOULD BE. Why aren't people doing that?

[hnpcc]

Dunno, but it'd beat remaking actually good movies.

[tielan]

MILES MORALES.

Okay, I didn't see Homecoming because I was bitter that it wasn't about Miles (also: that Maria Hill wasn't in Civil War because that happened around then and I'm good at grudges whodathunkit?) but I was more about "an opportunity to center a non-white character in the narrative in modern america YES PLEASE" and then the realisation that they were going for Peter Parker again was just deflating. :(

[deird1]

I will say that, while Miles Morales should have starred in this movie, I am SO GLAD that the Miles Morales movie we got was Spider-Verse (aka the most perfect superhero movie that ever lived). He deserves awesome movies that are good.