Tom Holland stars as Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures' SPIDER-MAN™: HOMECOMING.
Courtney Howard // Film Critic
Let’s rip this band-aid off quickly, shall we?
Much like letter writing, movie poster art seems to be a, well, lost art. That’s not to say all studios are guilty of this as they aren’t. WONDER WOMAN, THE BEGUILED, and BABY DRIVER‘s posters are currently amongst my favorites. However, there are a few sore thumbs out there right now – specifically VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS and now SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING.
On one hand, this does appear to take cues from the IRON MAN 2, ROGUE ONE and STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS posters where everyone’s face is on the final one sheet. That’s not what makes it look bad though. Layering is key here and that’s poorly executed. The edges of everyone’s images are too harsh, making this appear like bad photoshop. The way everyone is lit, with a sort of light effused halo at the tops of their heads, it’s clear they were looking for a Drew Struzan aesthetic. Instead, they got a poor imitation.
Can we go back to this teaser poster instead?
To balance out this blight, at least we got a fantastic new trailer.
Here’s the official synopsis:
A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who made his sensational debut in Captain America: Civil War, begins to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging super hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine – distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man – but when the Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened.
Listen, I’m positive the poster isn’t any indicator of the overall film’s quality. This new iteration of our beloved hero seems like it’s going to be the perfect blend of the Sam Raimi years and the Marc Webb ones. There’s even a chance that this will surpass those. We’ll see.
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING opens on July 7.
