“Spider-Man: Homecoming” is one of the best superhero movies since Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” proving that when it comes to the friendly, neighborhood wall crawler, the third time is the charm.
By rebooting Peter Parker’s story while our protagonist is still in high school, the new “Spider-Man” revels in the innocent fun of being a hero, a welcome antidote to a host of comic book films that have become overly dour and self-serious.
Call it the Nolan effect. Ever since his “The Dark Knight” series dug for parallels with the Iraq War and other global tragedies, comic book movies have followed suit. In the process they’ve killed the joy — and the humor — that used to be part of suiting up in spandex.It didn’t used to be this way. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s and even ’90s, comic book films usually didn’t rely so heavily on mass destruction. There was another kind of movie for that: depicted in disaster films (which all paid an homage to “The Towering Inferno”) such as 1998’s “Volcano” or 1997’s “Deep Impact,” starring Morgan Freeman as the first African-American president, warning citizens of the United States of their impending doom. But along the way, comic book movies stole from that genre. Or became a subset of it.
“The Dark Knight Rises” portrayed the total destruction of Gotham City in a way that echoed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” made Metropolis history, wiping out what looked like its entire population. “Captain America: Civil War” choreographed the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians moments after the opening credits rolled. And of course, there was “X-Men: Apocalypse.
” That title said it all.
But that’s not the modus operandi behind “Homecoming.” As portrayed by Tom Holland, this Spider-Man is a teenager with grounded problems (like finding a prom date) who seems to get a genuine high out of swinging through New York City. No need to bring audiences down by getting all moralistic about vigilantism. And his crime-fighting is also a throwback to the days where superheroes weren’t necessarily required to the save the planet from terrorism in every installment.
The right-sizing of the stakes applies to the villains in “Homecoming.” This time, Spider-Man’s adversary, the Vulture (played with eyebrow-arching zest by Michael Keaton), isn’t hellbent on world domination. He’s interested in making a…
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