The third iteration of Marvel's crime-fighting, web-slinging superhero and the first officially fitting into its Cinematic Universe, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" arrives with one major hurdle to overcome: convincing jerked-around viewers that there is a purpose behind Sony mounting a second reboot of this beloved character within a five-year span. If the original Sam Raimi trilogy (2002's "Spider-Man," 2004's "Spider-Man 2," and 2007's "Spider-Man 3") starring Tobey Maguire was just about perfect as far as comic book adaptations go, blending fun, grandeur and an emotionally weighty throughline, then 2012's "The Amazing Spider-Man" and 2014's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" took time to escape feeling like unnecessary repeats but ultimately proved winning and involving as far as romantically tinged action-adventures go. And then, all because the second picture was considered a marginal underperformer and received some highly unwarranted negative reviews, the plan for an organic continuation of the Andrew Garfield era was abruptly scrapped. As a protagonist, Peter Parker is a somewhat tragic figure with a hopeful disposition, a young man with a huge heart but the weight of the world on his shoulders. Whatever gravitas he had in the previous versions of this tale is but an afterthought in "Spider-Man: Homecoming," by far the most lightweight and thematically inconsequential of any and all past "Spider-Man" features.
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