‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ is tour de force for web-slinging hero

   Spider-Man has now been on the big screen seven times: six stand-alone movies and in “Captain America: Civil War.” I will admit, I was a Sam Raimi purist heading into this movie and hadn’t seen the Andrew Garfield reboot or sequel (even though I was an extra in it). Tobey Maguire was my Spider-Man, and even though “Spider-Man 3” was garbage (even Raimi admits it; he didn’t want to make it), I still entered the theater ready to dismiss “Homecoming” as yet another reboot/sequel made purely to put cash in Marvel’s pockets. And I was wrong!
    “Homecoming” picks up two months after the events of “CA: CW,” and Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man (Tom Holland), is champing at the bit to see more action. However Tony Stark, aka Ironman (Robert Downey, Jr.), has put him under the watchful eye of his body man, Happy (Jon Favreau, “Ironman,” “Swingers”), who really wants Peter to stop calling him. After tangling with some bank robbers armed with some seriously scary guns, Peter tries to convince Stark something big is happening, but he is dismissed.
    The source of the big bad guns is Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton, “Batman,” “Birdman”) who eight years prior, after the events of “The Avengers,” was snubbed on his salvage contract to clean up Manhattan by a government agency, which is later called the Department of Damage Control. In his anger about losing the job (and massive revenue stream), he and his crew take to stealing government-collected alien technology and repurposing it into the aforementioned big scary guns. He himself has a new toy too: giant wings with hover capabilities and jet thrusters. He has also adopted the moniker “the Vulture.”
    While attending a party in the suburbs of Queens, Peter witnesses an arms deal between Toomes’ guys and a petty thief (Donald Glover, “Community,” “Atlanta”). A chase ensues and the bad guys get away, but not without losing one of their weapons in the process. Peter takes the weapon back to his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon), and they work together to figure out what it is and where it came from.

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