Cert 12A 133mins Stars 4

Marvel’s most popular superhero swings to ever greater heights in this wildly entertaining reboot.

Despite being the sixth Spider-Man film since 2002 and featuring yet another actor under the mask, this exuberant blast of summer fun is the best ever Spider-Man film.

Winningly confident, exciting and funny, it’s a web of wisecracks, stunts, and special effects, and is strung together by the gleeful performance of Brit actor, Tom Holland. 

Having developed super powers by being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker is a high school nerd by day and Spider-Man at night. He fearlessly confronts criminals yet is intimidated by the father of his date to the Homecoming prom.

Meanwhile Michael Keaton has a lot of fun as a super villain called The Vulture, much more than the actor ever did as Tim Burton’s Batman, back in – gulp – 1989.

The bad guy flies a set of mechanical wings created from the remnants of the alien attack on Earth seen in Marvel’s Avenger’s Assemble, back in 2012.

The script is faithful to the spirit of the comic but never slavish in attention to detail and gives a contemporary take on the character. It’s all the better for being happy to introduce key characters late on, or dispense with them entirely.

The tone owes a huge amount to the giddy vitality of the 1980’s teen films of John Hughes, most notably Ferris Bueller’s Day Off which is clearly referenced.

Sony have long owned the Spider-Man film rights but not the rights to other heroes in the Marvel universe. This co-production with Marvel Studios is a ‘Homecoming’ for Spider-Man as it allows him to become integrated into the adventures of other Marvel heroes such as Captain America and Iron Man.

This gives the web slinger a much needed fresh set of legs, and that of course is a whole lot of legs.