Spider-Man Homecoming

   Because Sony would like to actually make money they brokered a deal to finally get Spider-Man into the MCU. After his much anticipated cameo in Captain America: Civil War last year he got his own standalone film this summer. Young Peter Parker (Tom Holland) has had a taste of doing bigger things, has a fancy new costume supplied by Tony Stark, and really wants to prove that he can be an Avenger too. Tony reminds him to take it slow and be a "friendly neighborhood spider-man" and to leave the heavy hitting to others for now but Peter really wants something more and ends up stumbling upon some powerful new weapons that are making their way to the streets; weapons made by the Vulture (Michael Keaton).

   So far this year this has been my favorite of the comic book films. This one really felt like a small comic run. We weren't bogged down by yet another origin story, and we pick up the story right after Civil War. Keaton is great as the Vulture, we don't spend a ton of time fleshing out his backstory but the things we are shown, added to Keaton's great performance, are enough to understand the character. Robert Downey Jr. as Ironman didn't overshadow the movie and came around just enough to offer his advice and Marisa Tomei made for a decent and concerned Aunt May. I wasn't as impressed by the school friends but the movie didn't focus a lot on school, even with many scenes in and around it, so it was something easily ignored. I look forward to the next installment, I hope it doesn't suffer from the same things a lot of the MCU sequels suffer from: a less than stellar follow-up.