Third time is a charm! Well, I did like the Sam Raimi trilogy, even when Peter Parker went all Emo, allegedly. I thought the shift in his behavior thanks to the symbiote was effective.
Anyway, right off his brief appearance in Captain America: Civil War, the new, integrated with the larger MCU Spider-Man sets off to carve out his niche in New York City. To save time, all the origin elements were skipped because (rightfully) the audience knows the whole spiel (the spider that bit Peter, Uncle Ben, discovering his powers, etc).
We pick up a few months after Civil yet the story really begins eight years earlier with the cleanup work after the invasion in The Avengers. (Hmm, I thought it would be five due to the first team-up flick being out in 2012.) Adrian Toomes’ company has been handling the rubble removal in the battle’s aftermath until a government agency (not SHIELD) takes over for security reasons; there’s alien tech amongst the junk. Toomes isn’t compensated by the government so he converts his construction business into a black-market weapons manufacturing operation; his employees managed to steal some of the alien power sources. If you also recognize the name, Toomes has his crew build him a cool set of mechanical wings/weapons, thus we have our new villain, the Vulture. Way better than Amazing‘s lame-ass Electro and the Lizard.
Back in the present, Peter does his patrols, fights crime around his neighborhood and pester’s Stark’s helper Happy Hogan about being ready for another mission. Things get more interesting when Spider-Man tries to thwart an ATM robbery by four criminals armed with alien firepower supplied by the Vulture, setting the larger story in motion of Spider-Man versus the Vulture.
Other subplots: interactions with Aunt May (girl advice, keeping the secret), containing his friend Ned’s enthusiasm, having a crush on an upperclassman named Liz and all the high school stuff.
It’s safe to say, cinematic Spider-Man is back on track even though he probably won’t interact with the four, grittier Defenders on Netflix. The acting is solid. The jokes work. As expected, you will be rewarded with the end credits. Does it give a hint on what to expect in Thor: Ragnarok? You’ll have to go see.
Alamo Extras: We arrived too late for it to matter, this was my fault. What I did see wasn’t too different from what they showed at Amazing Spider-Man 2.