We all know it’s been a pretty shitty year, and it was an extra shitty one if you like fun and exciting popcorn movies. From the insipid (Independence Day: Resurgence) to the tepid (Jason Bourne) to the downright incomprehensible (Hardcore Henry), this year found every possible way to disappoint. There was one great exception to this rule: the absolute joy that was Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, lying at the heart of Captain America: Civil War. So we already know 2017 might be a little better, because the Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer debuted last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and, oh boy, is it something special. Well, aside from the MGMT soundtrack.
Spoiler alert: Nerdy speculation follows.
Off the top — there’s so much cool shit to see in this trailer. Holland’s interactions with the bank robbers at the beginning wearing Avengers masks are straight up classic Spidey, and we can’t get over how good Holland’s costume looks (the lenses on the mask are perhaps the best thing to happen to the Spider-Man films in general- meaning Holland might not have to take his mask off as much as fucking Tobey Maguire did in the Sam Raimi-directed films). It was an incredibly wise decision to continue to build Tony Stark’s (duh) and Peter’s relationship up from Civil War, and we’re looking forward to some more swell banter and awkward humor aside from the awkward not-hug they share in the trailer. It’s nice to see Peter being a little less of a loser than in previous iterations, but without making him an overt asshole like The Amazing Spider-Man films did a few years ago. Pete’s interactions with his friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) look like fun, but if that’s a Lego Death Star set that he drops when he sees Pete, we’d be so pissed at him we’d probably go out and become a supervillain.
We do get glimpses of fun action setpieces, including one at the Washington Monument, where Spidey delivers a glimpse of his suit’s new Stark tech by gliding over a helicopter full of armed soldiers, which is easily the best shot in the trailer. We get some flashes of the new villain, the Vulture, who looks massively less dorky than he does in the comics. In addition, we also see him outside of the costume (Michael Keaton, probably glad to be getting dat $$ in exchange for having to endure all the coming Birdman puns) and he threatens Peter’s friends and family! Oh my!
After a glimpse of some probably important third act stuff that we’ll be mad that they gave up in the trailer when the movie comes out, the whole shebang ends with a fun shot of Spidey having to hold together a large boat as it collapses in half. This’ll draw up some dumb comparisons to Spider-Man 2, but hey, that’s the joy of the internet and comment sections: we’re all critics!
And maybe you should wait to judge until it hits theaters in 2D, 3D, IMAX, and IMAX 3D on July 7! We all know we’re not going to, though.
One parting thought: whoever made Zendaya look as plain as she does in this trailer deserves that make-up Oscar. It took us like five minutes to find her.