Have you seen Spider-Man: Homecoming? With $400 million + in 3 days of release, Spider-Man is still as much of a box office draw as ever. Generally speaking, superhero (hereinafter referred to as “superhero”) movies are basically two things: the special effects are awesome and the plot is weak. This version of Spider-Man: Return of the Hero seems to be finding ways to make up for these shortcomings. For example, more ink will be put into Spider-Man’s persona. In almost every mainstream American Marvel Super Hero chart, Spider-Man is in the number one and number two spot.
With so many Marvel superheroes out there, why do audiences have a preference for Spider-Man? We have to mention Peter Parker (hereinafter referred to as PP) as the hero next door. PP starts out as a 14 or 15 year old high school student, a shy, highly intelligent, constantly bullied, orphaned high school student who lives with his aunt and uncle. Like most losers, he has a crush on a goddess but is never afraid to say so. Such a persona is the everyday you and me, so ordinary that it’s not even noticeable. Compared to Superman, who is born with superpowers, Batman, who is morally superior, and Iron Man, who is rich and handsome, Spider-Man is too grassroots.
That’s why the audience has a greater sense of empathy for Spider-Man. He gains his powers by accident (being bitten by a spider), but he doesn’t save the world like other super-heroes. He wanders around the neighbourhood after school with nothing better to do than to help a grandmother with directions, catch a thief and, if he’s lucky, help out with a robbery. And of course, there’s a big showdown with an evil boss at the end. It’s a heroic dream for us ordinary people, and we all love the idea of a hero’s comeback. But even though Spider-Man is a hero, he still has a trivial life. It’s the usual formula for the Spider-Man franchise. So it’s a bit hard to break out of the formula, to be honest.
The new version of Spider-Man starts with PP himself, who becomes more of a dick. What’s the most obvious piece of dickishness? PP is skinny, weak and not at all handsome. I can only stare at the goddess with my fat friend every day and say secretly – “Look at the goddess’ dress today, is it new? No, this dress she wore before, not with this. It’s too much like the way we used to look when we were in high school when we were YA male seniors. Not only does he chatter with his best friend every day, PP has full marks for his mouth-breathing skills about everything. He ends up talking while holding something on video for a short time, maybe ten minutes without stopping. I could feel Iron Man Poop’s helplessness as he said it before the fight, said it during the fight and was still saying it after the fight. Getting a new outfit and still talking to his outfit sister. The point is, this version of Spider-Man and Goodfellas are like two living, breathing middle-aged air. After finding out that PP is Spider-Man, Goodfriend can’t contain the flood of curiosity in his body and asks a lot of middle-aged questions – “Does it hurt when a spider bites you?”
“Do you lay eggs?” “Can you summon a large group of spiders?” “How far can you shoot?” PP also poses first when he sees a bank robber, and sleeps and swings on a spider web like Little Dragon, so how do you like this Spider-Man? The whole movie is a bit of a ‘high school music’ kind of thing. It’s also a return to the setting of the comic itself. A fifteen year old high school student is going to need time to grow up slowly. So without the bitterness of the first two versions, without the adulthood of the first two versions, this version of PP is more youthful and compelling.
Tom Hollander, Dutchy as PP is in three words, juvenile. Not only that, but even Aunt May is young and beautiful. The two of them interact with each other in a totally sister and brother way. The interaction between Spider-Man and Iron Man is like father and son. Iron Man takes Spider-Man into the reunion, lets his assistant manage him at all times, saves him in an emergency, and helps him clean up his mess.
Spider-Man, on the other hand, is so intent on getting Iron Man’s approval that he’s always trying to get something done. It’s all about the “bitter old father teaching the troubled son” rhythm. Iron Man himself even laughs at how I’m becoming more like my dad. It’s a light-hearted film with a small format. The final set-up was supposed to be the fight of the century with the villainous big boss, but it turns out the villain isn’t so bad, and is still the goddess’ father, the future husband.
Both the positive and negative characters are no longer black or white personas, showing that Marvel is also thinking of stepping out of the box and building characters with care. The story ends with the young spider saving his future father-in-law. Of course, the goddess’ poop is in jail and the goddess has moved away, signalling the end of Spider’s first love. That’s the price of growing up, I guess.
