【Nikki Nova Archives】

Spider-Man is Nikki Nova Archivesback and he's keeping things fresh as hell. The MCU's latest installment in the classic superhero franchise, Spider-Man: Homecoming, departs from the traditional narrative in an unexpected way, brilliantly distinguishing itself from the crowd.

Mashable's own Angie Han said that from the film's start, it "reframes that familiar narrative so we're seeing it through fresh eyes," and "is littered with details reminding us that these are ordinary people existing in a world where the freakin' Avengers exist."

Take a look at what some other critics are saying about the unique portrayal of Parker's life.

Praise be to Tom Holland

Jim Vejvoda, IGN:

If you weren’t already sold on him after Civil War, his turn in Homecomingproves that Tom Holland is the definitive big screen Spider-Man. His exuberance, intelligence, and good-natured manner perfectly captures Peter Parker’s youthfulness, earnestness and moral center. Peter screws up a lot, but he’s a good kid who knows when he has to set things right and Holland sells all of that. He owns every scene he’s in, never getting blown off the screen by his co-stars, which include such formidable personalities as Robert Downey Jr. and Michael Keaton.

John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter:

Where Garfield's Peter Parker displayed a believable 21st-century angst, we return largely to the character's wide-eyed roots with Tom Holland, whose performance is thoroughly winning even when the script isn't helping him.

Susana Polo, Polygon:

Many reviews of Captain America: Civil Warhighlighted Tom Holland’s debut turn as the webslinger among the movie’s bright points. Here, he is given the chance to deepen and broaden the character — among Peter’s friends, family and on his home turf — and he does not disappoint.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone:

News Flash: Tom Holland isthe best movie Spider-Man ever. He finds the kid inside the famous red onesie and brings out the kid in even the most hardened filmgoer.

The rest of the cast

Jim Vejvoda, IGN:

In Homecoming, Peter, still consumed by the excitement of his adventure with the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War, wants nothing more than to win Tony Stark’s approval and become a full-fledged Avenger. But Peter is still just a kid and he will have to realize that he can’t let Spider-Man define who he is; as Tony admonishes him at one point, if he’s nothing without the suit then Peter doesn’t deserve to have it.

Owen Gleiberman, Variety:

The villain, played by Michael Keaton, is very much an adult. His name is Adrian Toomes, and he’s a disgruntled city contractor who, in the film’s 90 token seconds of “topicality,” decides to act out his rage against the elite members of a stacked-deck system by hawking a stolen cache of alien weapons on the black market.

John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter:

Holland's Peter enters the film with superpowers intact (get your origin-story kicks elsewhere, kids), shooting an "I can't believe this is happening" video diary of the events we saw in Captain America: Civil War. After strutting his stuff in that battle, Peter rightly expects to be joining the Avengers. Instead, he's given something like the brush-off by Robert Downey Jr.'s Stark: The industrialist gives him a multimillion-dollar outfit full of electronics, makes his flunky Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) Peter's "point guy," and essentially says, "Don't call us, we'll call you."

Matt Singer, Screencrush:

If Spider-Man: Homecomingcommits one major sin it’s overcrowding: I just spent two long paragraphs describing the plot and didn’t even mention Peter’s Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) or his school bully Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori) or his quirky decathlon coach (Martin Starr) or Michelle, a particularly droll and disinterested member of the school’s decathlon team played with dry wit and impressive comic timing by Zendaya. The problem isn’t that any of these characters are bad; the problem is most of them are terrific and Homecoming, which runs a brisk 133 minutes, doesn’t have enough room for all of them.

Finding a fun edge in yet another reboot

Owen Gleiberman, Variety:

The film’s novelty is that Spider-Man, though he’s been enshrined by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as an Avengers apprentice, barely has a handle on how to harness his powers, or what to do with them. To a degree, the film’s novelty works, though with a qualifier: This Peter is such a normal, awkward dude that he’s a touch innocuous — the closest the Marvel Universe has come to giving us a superhero who wouldn’t look out of place on the Disney Channel.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone:

Spider-Man: Homecomingfeels fresh off the drawing board, as if he was a character with the dew still on him. The movie is as high school as a John Hughes comedy – think The Breakfast Clubor Ferris Bueller's Day Off– in which teens talk like teens instead of old-school Hollywood cynics aching to sound young. Six writers are credited with the script and I'm guessing it was a bloodbath, but what's onscreen pops with the jumpy, unpolished energy of adolescents on the march through puberty. Homecominggives his character and his teen trauma genuine context.

Susana Polo, Polygon:

"A superhero by way of John Hughes” is the feeling that Homecomingwears on its sleeve, proudly including a television playing Ferris Bueller’s Day Offin one shot. And while that might sound like it would serve the John Hughes side of the film much better than the superhero side, Spider-Man: Homecomingis smart, incredibly funny and surprisingly clever. It is an entirely unexpected — perhaps even vanishingly implausible — fresh start for the third Spider-Man franchise of the past fifteen years.

Matt Singer, Screencrush:

After two mopey, miserable slogs, Spider-Man: Homecoming is a return to form, featuring an incredibly likable cast, a compelling and complicated villain, and a irrepressibly charming Spider-Man. Welcome home, Peter.