We enjoyed this Spider-Man as much as its predecessors. This prequel/origin features the web-slinger as an insecure, fun-loving teenager with a best buddy and a hot Aunt May (no offense to Sally Field, who had the part in The Amazing Spider-Man 2).
Tom Holland and Marisa Tomei (last blogged for The Impossible and Love Is Strange, respectively) do well as Peter and May, aided by adorable Jacob Batalon (new to me, he's been in one movie before this) as the buddy and a huge cast, of whom I'll name just a few, starting with Michael Keaton (most recently in these pages for The Founder), who's predictably great as the villain; Robert Downey Jr. (last in Avengers: Age of Ultron) predictably snarky as Tony Snark, er, Stark; and Jon Favreau (most recently in here for acting in Chef, which he also directed) predictably harried as Stark's chief of staff Happy Hogan.
New to the series, I think, are Donald Glover (I covered him in The Martian before he created and starred in the wonderful series Atlanta), Tyne Daly (profiled in Hello, My Name Is Doris), Tony Revolori (last in Dope), and comedian Hannibal Buress (best known to me for his 20 episodes of Broad City and two of High Maintenance). Gwyneth Paltrow has a tiny cameo as Pepper Potts, Stark's love interest, and was most recently in these pages for that role in Iron Man 3.
Speaking of cameos, Spider-Man creator Stan Lee on screen as usual, and, for now, the cameo is posted on youtube. Someone has done some research into the various Stan Lee cameos and posted this theory that may contain spoilers.
This is the third movie directed by Jon Watts but the first I've seen. The script is credited to him and the team of Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley (The Incredible Burt Wonderstone), Christopher Ford (Robot & Frank), and the team of Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers (they wrote the LEGO Batman Movie, which we didn't see).
Predictably good music by Michael Giacchino (last blogged for The Book of Henry) can be streamed from youtube for over an hour.
Unpredictably for a movie with so many writers, this is rated 92% from critics and 90 from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Fan-kids don't need urging from us.
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