Keaton as villain is at center of best scenes of latest ‘Spider-Man’
an analogy. You ever walk through a museum of medieval or Renaissance art? You go in one room, and there’s a Crucifixion, a Nativity, an Ascension, an Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and then you go into another room, and then another, and it’s all the same scenes, over and over? And then you make a turn, and there’s a Michelangelo, or a Cimabue, and you’re stopped in your tracks. Same scenes as the other artists, but suddenly you can feel it.
Let’s not even deal with the larger question as to how Spider-Man movies now have that kind of currency within our culture. Let’s just face the fact that “Spider-Man” has reached such a stage of pervasiveness that a reasonably respectable entry just can’t have the kind of impact it might have had 15 or even 10 years ago. “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is not the masterpiece that makes a case for the form or the outstanding delight that will attract new fans to the Marvel franchise. It’s strictly for people who love this sort of thing already, who love it generically.
Within those limits, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” makes a modest case for itself. Peter Parker (Holland) is a sophomore in high school, an earnest young fellow with a homemade costume. In possession of certain gifts — he can project sticky webs from his wrists, swing from buildings and move very quickly — he goes out every night looking to aid people in distress. But because he is still a clumsy kid, he sometimes does as much harm as good.
One day, making his rounds in his native New York, he encounters criminals wielding weapons that no one has ever seen, that can throw a force field of energy. These are the creation of Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), who is running an underground munitions business, selling weapons made from extraterrestrial components. Though Holland’s Spider-Man is the focus here, Keaton is at the center of all the movie’s best scenes. A blue-collar entrepreneur, Toomes is just trying to run a business. Keaton makes him a complicated and sympathetic villain, just as, a generation ago in “Batman” (1989), he made Bruce Wayne a dark and peculiar hero.
“Spider-Man: Homecoming” is all about Peter’s internship as a potential member of the Avengers. Under the guidance of billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Peter is given an elaborate new SpiderMan suit and a program of training. But because he is the only one to recognize the threat posed by Toomes, he keeps putting himself into the midst of battles, even though he’s too green to be effective.
Much of the appeal of Spider-Man has always been entwined with his being a teenager and experiencing all the attendant pressures and indignities of those years. “Spider-Man: Homecoming” tries to capitalize on that. Peter has social anxieties. He likes a girl (Laura Harrier) in school. But these are more like gestures in the direction of something, not the thing itself. “Spider-Man 2,” with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, was genuinely about the human side of being a superhero. “SpiderMan: Homecoming,” despite its title, is not really interested in that. It’s written by six screenwriters, and it feels like it.
The real focus is on the action. Jon Watts is a second-time director making his first attempt at a blockbuster, and if his ambition was to make a blockbuster that actually looked like one, that would be understandable. But the movie breaks no new ground, and action sequences that were intended to be thrilling — such as an epic battle on the Staten Island Ferry — just sit there on the screen, incapable of stirring a single pulse, but content in their competence.
Still, when it comes to superhero movies, there are people who will love every painting in the museum. This movie is for them.