The new Spider-man enriches Marvel universe with fresh lifeblood

Jon Watts direct film with third version of Spider-man, creating a solid genre movie which is both a teenager movie and an action one and which stimulates mature ethical thoughts

It is difficult to create a fresh and valuable work of art belonging to a genre which seems worn down by the repetition of similar techniques and themes.

In fact, the Marvel studios has created, in around 15 years, a universe in which only sometimes has emerged some light of the poetic genius. The pioneering film which started the lucky series of Superhero movies was just Spider-man, by Sam Raimi. In 15 years, we watched 5 Spider-man directed by two different authors.

“Spider-man homecoming” is a new version of one of the most well-known superhero and the experiment seems, in its essence, successfully, for it engage with the tradition and renovate it from inside.

The director Jon Watts tries to wisely consider the by now immense Marvel mythology in creating a fresh character which, in the same time, does not abandon the canons of the superhero tradition.

In primis, this film starts in medias res, since it is not narrated the story of how the protagonist Peter Parker is bitten by the spider and becomes a superhero, on following a schema which was also used by Christofer Nolan in “Batman begins”. At the beginning of the film, Peter Parker has already his powers and the dream of using them to do great and memorable things.

The whole film plays with a dichotomic structure: on the one hand, Peter is a high school brilliant student in love with the beautiful Liz; on the other hand, he is a superhero who wants to give up the valuable experience of life of a teenager to be a sort of saver of the world and being part of the Avengers. He is proud of what he has done in Captain America: Civil war, and knows Tony Stark (alias Iron-Man), who tries to convince him to be a sort of guard of his quarter and to leave the problems of the world to other people. The charismatic figure of Stark is, as usual, magisterially interpreted by Robert Downey Jr., who perfectly fits the character of the ideal “father” of the super of Peter Parker in his super heroic component and of deus ex machina who saves Peter from several problems.

As it is evident, the structure is very simple, but it is just this simplicity that constitutes the victorious formula of the film and that soberly deliver its moral message: to have dreams but to stay with the “feet on the soil”. This means, at a further analysis, that the time of the high school is just one time in life and that everybody (who can identify himself in Peter Parker) has to profit from this experience.

The dream of Peter Parker seems to be to become an Avenger and he waits for the possible call in the team. Thus, he autonomously engages in a war against the bad man of the film (interpreted by Michael Keaton), who is a man (maybe not fairly) put in the low steps of society and who takes his revenge against society while using destructing weapons.

So, formally, this film is a teenager movie (and we can remember the comedies of John Hughes) and it is parallelly an action movie, since it deals with the problem of a teenager, even though he is also a superhero.

However, the best element of the film is the total absence of pedantry and the wise orchestration of the comic times. We can even say that the comic elements, following a new tendency in fantasy movies, prevail on the action ones.

The film sacrifices some spectacular-Hollywoodian elements (even though the special effect are remarkable) and focus its attention on the creation of a third way, corresponding to this third version of Spider-man, that with a syncretism of components (comedy and action, super hero topoi and ethical thoughts) creates a harmonic film in which everything works perfectly.

Among the other most remarkable aspects of the film there is the fact that there Spder-man does not fly among the skyscrapers of New York, but usually in small streets, suggesting a more intimate and less trivial approach to the subject by the director Jon Watts.

In conclusion, while it is true that this film is not a masterpiece, it is also true that it is a very solid and consistent genre-film which can show a new way to approach the superhero movies.