SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING. (M, 133 MINS) DIRECTED BY JON WATTS

Were you surprised to hear that Marvel had tapped Taika Waititi on the shoulder to take the reins of the latest Thor instalment? Yeah, me too. But after a bit of thought and a typical reviewer’s case of 20/20 hindsight it seemed sensible with a whiff of inevitability about it.

Marvel have a brief but proud and wildly successful tradition now of picking directors based on their ability to establish a credible character out of incredible circumstances, and – maybe even more importantly – to tell a goddamn joke.

And by that criteria, Taika, with and

on his showreel, was a prime candidate for Marvel ascension. Forget about the fact that he’s never made a film not set in New

Zealand before, let alone Asgard. By Marvel’s algorithms, Taika is going to do just fine.

And compared to

helmer Jon Watts, Taika is wildly over-qualified.

Watts has exactly two other feature films on his brief CV. One is called and the other is called

I can’t say I saw anything in

that made me immediately think Watts would be anywhere within shouting distance of the shortlist of directors to be handed the keys of the latest instalment of one of the world’s most money-printing-est extant franchises. Which is what the Marvel slate currently is. Naturally, I was wrong.

Watts and Marvel co-head honcho and creative overlord Kevin Feige have crafted a Spiderman reboot for the ages. And they’ve done it by taking the film back to its comic book origins. It’s set in the present day – and also in Marvel’s present, post and years after and The Battle of New York – but this Spidey is gratifyingly true to the kid-centric world of the comicbook character.

British actor Tom Holland (

is a convincingly adolescent Peter Parker, finding some pleasingly dorky and awkward moments for his still high-school aged hero. We were introduced to Holland’s Spidermen/Peter Parker in and there was maybe an expectation that

would see the kid in the red and blue take his place on the starting team roster.

But no. Parker is told by Robert Downey Jr’s Ironman basically to go back to school and look after his grades and family for a while yet. Which seems like not the worst advice in the world for a kid still too unsure of himself to ask a girl on a date.

The villain of the piece is the Vulture, played, unimprovably, by Michael Keaton. He is perfect as he goes about sketching in the character’s back story as Adrian Toomes, a borderline gangster who just wants to carve himself