Having made a worldwide total of $861 million, Spider-Man: Homecoming is hardly an outsider when it comes to successful Marvel movies. Many Spider-man fans including myself were excited to see how this second reboot of the franchise was going to turn out. How does Homecoming stack up to the other 5 Spider-man movies of the last decade and a half?

Actor Tom Holland reprises his role as Peter Parker from Captain America: Civil War and expands on the Spider-man story introduced in the previous Marvel film. He definitely is no slouch as his acting range and competence shine as the lead. Despite being 21 years old in real life, Holland’s shy and immature manner allow the viewer to believe the character is 15. From excitement, to boredom, to panic attacks and heartbreak, all of his scenes show real emotion. Watching Peter improve his superheroics through the eyes of Tom Holland is really compelling, although I would have prefered he be a little less naive and immature (and have a real suit too instead a CGI mess).

With Michael Keaton playing the Vulture, Tom Holland isn’t the only one showing his acting chops. Keaton gives a menacing performance while still remaining sympathetic. However, he may have been too sympathetic especially after the plot twist near the climax as I found myself rooting for him instead of the the titular hero. Adrian Toomes, aka the Vulture was originally in charge of cleaning up New York City after devastation from the events of the first Avengers movie, but after being kicked off the maintenance team started stealing and selling the alien materials from the clean-up site as well as making his own flying suit. I felt that the character really had been cheated and with his final heist set up at the end of the movie, I was angry at Spider-man for trying to stop him.

The coming-of-age Spider-man story makes for a good, entertaining film, but there’s several things that keep me from calling Spider-man: Homecoming great. First of all, while the cast and premise may be solid elements, I found Peter Parker to be an ultimately unlikeable character. He makes a myriad of screw ups in the film and really shows no proof he really deserves his superpowers or does anything but destroy innocent people’s property and catch one not-very-bad bad guy. When the ending hit and *spoiler* Tony Stark offers Peter a new suit, claiming he’s ready to be an Avenger *end spoiler* it felt hamfisted and lazy, like he never even earned the right to his powers in the first place.

Spider-man: Homecoming is a promising start to the newest franchise joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The CGI while excessive was pretty seamless, the cast performed extremely well, and Tom Holland carried every scene he was in. However, while the actor may have been phenomenal the protagonist came off as more annoying than endearing and even less likable than the villain. The film could have been Amazing like its predecessor, but failed to create a Spider-man experience that was unique in a good way. Overall, I give Homecoming a 6/10. Where was the web swinging??

Image from: Wikimedia