Thinking Out Loud: The Inspirational Spider-man

For those who have yet to see it, Spider-man Homecoming is not only the best Spider-man film ever made, it is, perhaps, the most important superhero film in the history of Marvel Studios. The reasons why it's so vital are not obviously apparent, and to examine them, we also need to take a look and another film, The Emoji Movie. The reviews of The Emoji Movie are interestingly split between poles of "good for the kids" and "the end of the film industry as we know it". Now, I've mentioned before that there exists an unfortunate assumption that media for children doesn't actually need to be of quality to serve its purpose, so why does the quality of The Emoji Movie matter in any broad sense? Well, most of my readership is older than I, so you may or may not be aware the the generation[s] currently undertaking their schooling have never known a world without social media and internet telephony. The way children and adolescents socialise is almost entirely mediated through devices and social media, marking a huge generational divide, culturally. Sure, pretty much every adult in the Western world uses social media of some form, but it is not the primary manner in which we communicate with our friendship groups, for the most part. 

So what does all this have to do with Spider-man Homecoming? Peter Parker, as presented in this film, is very much one of the youths discussed above; one of the youths who filters all of his social interaction through his devices, the kind of person for whom The Emoji Movie was made. The difference, and perhaps most important factor, that differentiates Spider-man Homecoming from films like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Emoji Movie? The younger millennials presented in Spider-man Homecoming are smart, heroic and driven by purpose; everything mass media says that they're not. Make no mistake, this film is to the younger millennials what Ferris Bueller's Day Off was to the gen-Xs or Scott Pilgrim Vs The World was to me (sat uncatalogued on the border between X and Y). Those in high school who have seen this film and truly identified with the characters in it are the same who are now considering film school and who will bring us indy gems in about a decade and blockbusters in 20 years. The next Edgar Wright, Taika Waititi and Darren Aronofsky watched this film in 2017 and the echos will be with us for years. 

Call it hyperbole if you like, but I truly believe that the next generation of Auteur filmmakers are going to list Spider-man Homecoming among their influences when they're interviewed on whatever replaces The Director's Chair once commercial television dies in the next five years. So sorry if you're sick of Marvel Studios setting the tone for the summer blockbuster for the past decade, they're now part of the film-making zeitgeist. So charge your smartphone, strap on your web-shooters, crank up The Ramones and get ready for this version of everyone's favourite friendly, neighborhood Spider-man to be here to stay. I don't care if you really identified with Tobey Maguire's interpretation of the character because you were also a single loser struggling with university when you saw it, this is better. Homecoming is really that good, really that influential, really that historic. Is you spidey-sense tingling, true believers? Mine is. 

P.S. I wrote this before Black Panther came out, I still stand by it, but maybe not the "the most important superhero film in the history of Marvel Studios" part. Who knew?