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This review was originally published last month.
We are republishing the piece as the film hits theaters this weekend.
Quentin Beck, who hails from somewhere in the multiverse is a hollow stand-in forRobert Downey Jr.s Tony Stark.
As boredom settled in, I began to wonder whether Marvel had made a rare mistake.
I forgot, though: Marvel doesnt make mistakes.
(Aye, it has one.)
Iron Man, the Widow, the Cap: terminated.
Thor: off losing weight (or something).
A young 16, Peter doesnt want to fight planet-killers.
He wants to be your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, catching thieves just like flies, look out.
He wants a girlfriend.
What Peter has to learn is that he cant entirely leave the field.
The world needs him.
Sony and Disney stockholders need him.
Theres a good reason for that its all CGI!
He will always be Peter playing Spider-Man, with a bit of Pirandellian self-consciousness in every gesture and inflection.
(Where does Peter end and Spidey begin?
How weird is the point where they blur?)
And you cant resent Peter for tying himself in knots over M.J. Zendaya is an original.
Jacob Batalons Ned is high-octane camp, and so obviously the comic relief that he lowers the stakes.
(As his improbable girlfriend, the delightful Angourie Rice ofThe Nice GuysandThe Beguiled gets by by underplaying.)
But Jon Favreau as Stark Industries caretaker Happy Hogan isnt so confident.
But as a performer, hes rusty he no longer seems at home in front of the camera.
Let Happy date Aunt May in some other part of the multiverse!
One more thing: You really need to stay for the two post-credit sequences.
