i could knock this for everything that annoyed me about wonder woman: i wasn’t a fan of the lighting, some action sequences felt like they went on for far too long, ugly CGI, and the villain feels grossly underdeveloped.

but whereas wonder woman left me feeling disappointed and frustrated, spider-man made my heart feel like the grinch’s, growing bigger and bigger and bigger.

this film is full of so much goddamn heart. tom holland is endearing from beginning to end; he’s the perfect peter parker for the tone of this reboot. thank god michael keaton’s the vulture: even though i hate how trite and shoehorned his villain is, i love keaton enough to forgive most of the writing’s shortcomings.

homecoming is at its best when it lets itself have fun as a coming-of-age film. it doesn’t do enough to reimagine the superhero formula entirely, but GOD it’s so much fun. i’d choose to rewatch this before any other marvel film, save for maybe TWS, which is my all-time favorite, so… whew. i didn’t think i’d love this so much, but i’m glad RJ & Audrey witnessed it happen

also i was going to give this 4 stars originally but its runtime needed less of those draggy action sequences and more… peter being peter with his friends/aunt to be justified imo. i’m open to (a) more rewatches and (b) upon those rewatches bumping it up tbh. but anyways ratings are fake so oh well long live peter parker and the vulture’s fur-lined jacket