I’ve said it on the podcast, much like RDT’s favorite Superhero is The Flash, mine’s Spider-Man. Ever since I was a little kid Spider-Man is what got me into comics as a whole. He’s that guy that most people reading comics at the time felt was totally relatable (you know except for the incredible super powers thing). But Peter Parker had the same problems that you did, plus added threats of the The Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, or The Vulture. He was easily the most accessible superhero.
Over the years Spider-Man movies have ranged in their quality. We got two pretty great stories in the first two movies, though a lackluster Peter Parker in Tobey Maguire. Then we got a terrible hodge-podge of a Spider-Man/Venom/Sandman/Green Goblin story that reeked of studio interference in the abysmal Spider-Man 3. Sony rebooted the franchise just 5 years later with The Amazing Spider-Man. In that we got another origin story, a too cool for school Peter Parker, an incredible Gwen Stacy from Emma Stone, and (I had to look this up because I couldn’t actually remember who it was) the Lizard as the villain. Followed by and even more lazy sequel with another Green Goblin (sort of) and Electro as the villains.
This brings us to Marvel Studios deal with Sony to re-acquire the use of Spider-Man. Long story short years ago Marvel was going bankrupt and sold off the film rights to a lot of their characters. Spider-Man went to Sony, The X-Men and Fantastic Four went to Fox, Hulk went to Universal etc. Some of those properties reverted to Marvel after they weren’t used (Daredevil). Some have been churning out whatever they can to keep the property (Fantastic Four) but Sony realized that they were losing money on the Spider-Man franchise and couldn’t get the right version of the character out there. Marvel had wanted to use Peter Parker/Spider-Man (and presumably, many of their other characters) so they struck a deal adding a new Spider-Man to the already existing MCU. Still basically owned by Sony, this Spider-Man could show up and interact with MCU heroes like Iron Man and Captain America. Cue Captain America: Civil War where we got our first glimpse of this Spider-Man and the rest is history. Now Marvel, in co-production with Sony is releasing the first stand alone movie featuring Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. But enough history, let’s talk about the first Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer:
- The trailer opens with some shots of Queens, New York.
- A sci-fi laser is being used to break into a bank. The robbers are regular Roach and Bodhi‘s wearing Avengers halloween masks to hide their faces.
- Spider-Man leans against the door of the bank and surprises the robbers.
- Using his unofficial super power of sarcasm Spider-Man guesses (correctly) that they are not the real Avengers because Hulk gives it away.
- Peter uses his webs, strength, ability to climb walls, and Spidey-Sense™ to dispatch the bank robbers and to give us an idea what he can do.
- Peter says to himself after they are all taken out that “That was awesome.” He’s not wrong.
- MGMT’s Time To Pretend plays to let us know that this movie is about the youth of america as seen by 60 year old studio executives.
- We see Peter and his friend Ned Leeds (who looks a hell of a lot like a different Spider-Man’s best friend Ganke but that’s a whooooole other story) kinda creepily staring at a girl across the lunchroom.
- They are rightly called out about this by another girl sitting next to them. She calls them losers and it shows us maybe the first “realistic” Peter Parker we’ve ever got on screen.
- The high school scenes give off the John Hughes movie vibe that Marvel has said they wanted for this movie very well. I’m super interested to see how this plays out.
- We jump to Peter in the back of a limo with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). The two have a relationship from Civil War. Tony made the Spider-Man suit for Peter and also hits on Aunt May (Marisa Tomei).
- Peter asks how to become an Avenger but Tony gives him the runaround. He wants Peter to be safe but isn’t really into the idea of him being on the team.
- This leads to a very funny scene where Tony leans over Peter to let him out of the limo, which Peter mistakes as a hug. It’s very true to both characters.
- We get a small montage of Peter in school not enjoying life. He’s distracted by a youtube video of himself taking down Giant Man in Civil War. He wants to be out there as Spider-Man.
- In voice over Tony tells Peter that he understands that he wants to be out there saving the world, but he’s not ready yet.
- We see Peter climbing the ceiling in his apartment with Ned Leeds in the room. Ned Leeds is startled and drops his LEGO Death Star into a thousand pieces. Hooray for corporate synergy!
- Ned Leeds calls Peter out for being the Spider-Man as Peter denies it while removing his costume. That sounds more salacious than it is.
- Spider-Man climbs the Washington Monument? as we see our first full look at the Vulture.
- The trailer takes a hard turn (as it should) and we get to the action elements of the movie.
- Tony tells Peter to forget about the angry flying guy and that there are people that handle things like that. Peter hates always being treated like a kid by Tony. Ned Leeds points out that Peter is a kid. Touché Ned Leeds, touché.
- Spider-Man jumps over a helicopter off the obelisk I’m still assuming is the Washington Monument.
- Intercut with action beats Peter tells Michelle (Zendaya) that he’s sorry he keeps bailing on her, he’s been so busy.
- We see Michael Keaton‘s Adrian Toomes tell Peter not to mess with him, because he will kill him and everyone he loves intercut over shots of said loved ones.
- The Vulture then flies through and blows up a Staten Island Ferry and we get a glimpse of Spider-Man’s strength as he holds the two halves of the ship together with his webs.
- Title card and Spider-Man swinging through New York with Iron Man flying next to him. It’s actually really awesome.
BONUS INTERNATIONAL TRAILER MUSINGS!!!
There’s also an international trailer (below) that has a few different scenes in it:
- Peter asks Tony if he gets to keep the suit, Tony says of course, it doesn’t fit him, but he has to be careful.
- Tony also makes sure that Peter knows keeping the suit does not make him an Avenger which leads into the awkward hug beat.
- We see a very quick shot of what looks to be The Shocker as Adrian Toomes tells his crew that the world’s changing and they need to change with it.
- The trailer plays out mostly the same but without the fun high school stuff and with darker music.
The trailer is pretty good but not amazing (see what I did there?). That might be a good thing. I will say that the more I’ve watched it the more I’ve enjoyed it. The Spider-Man stuff was some of the best out of Civil War and the fact that if nothing else this movie isn’t another origin story is a big plus. Look, I’m in for this movie on day one no matter what, but I have a feeling that it’s going to be pretty great.
Spider-Man: Homecoming opens everywhere July 7th, 2017
From Hollywood,
-Loren