Spider-Man is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe now. Even if the licence is still owned by Sony, it’s incredible that their mismanagement reached this point. This will be the sixth Spider-Man movie since 2002 and the third new continuity. Sam Raimi brought a corny comic book charm to the first big screen version of the franchise and while he had was working on developing Spider-Man 4, Sony pulled the plug and decided to opt for a cheaper alternative. That was a shame because it meant the director wasn’t able to make amends for the generally poorly received third film.
That led to a new take on the story with a cheaper cast and director with the producers having more of an input – the hilariously named. The decision to film the origin story again was absolute madness as everything played like a bad cover version with the new team scared of playing any of the same notes. Really, there aren’t any better ways of saying “With great power, comes great responsibility”. While the first film is basically fine, the second is an absolute stinking mess of a film, which has far too many plots and attempts to set up future spin-off films. There had been hints that Sony wanted to incorporate elements of the MCU but by the Marvel Studios people would have been mad to agree to have their carefully constructed universe associated with the putrid stench of The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
So now we’re here, with Sony handing creative control over to Marvel but keeping their rights. The new Peter Parker, Tom Holland, is actually young enough to play a high school student and it seems that they’re going to keep him there. Marvel introduced this version of the web-slinger in Captain America: Civil War to much acclaim so there’s already an audience investment in the character. Add to that, it seems that MCU Godfather Robert Downey Jr. will have a significant role to play as Tony Stark in this film acting as mentor and father figure to the young hero, and keeping him out of the epic battles of The Avengers.
A sequel has already been announced for 2019 and Spider-Man also looks set to appear in Avengers: Infinity War in 2018. That means Holland will be the dominant screen Spider-Man beating Tobey Maguire’s three appearances and Andrew Garfield’s two.
Marisa Tomei, Zendaya and Michael Keaton also star in a film directed by Jon Watts.
Spider-Man: Homecoming arrives in cinemas 7 July 2017
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