Despite being the second major reboot of the character in the last decade, plus having recently shown up in the highest grossing films of 2018 and 2019, Tom Holland’s Spiderman still is a delightful presence to have on screen. Yes, we should probably all have gotten over superheroes by now and have moved onto something far more culturally enriching, but there’s an obvious appeal to your typical awkward teenager given great power and equally great responsibilities, particularly in the wake of the events of “Endgame” where even more responsibility seems to fall on him, just as he’s got a school trip to Europe planned where he might finally be able to ask out MJ, that girl at school who’s been capturing his attention. But inevitably Nick Fury shows up to interrupt with a new challenge, and a new ally. Can Peter manage his normal life AND his superheroic life without both imploding?
The combo of high-school drama and superheroics could be a disaster, but somehow these manage to work in wonderful concert. No, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense that a mid-range public school is able to send its students off on a fancy European vacation to whichever countries happen to have the best tax-relief for location shooting (apart from the chance to refresh the visuals so we aren’t just blowing up New York again), but there’s a light breeziness to this, with just enough roots in genuine angst and personal drama to mean this doesn’t entirely drift off into the ridiculous. The longer-established actors, Samuel L Jackson and Jake Gyllenhaal, get to play various ranges of mentor to Spidey, there’s a couple of nice visual surprises, and both Holland and Zendaya get to play actual human beings in the middle of all the usual world-defending action. This is a case where everything fires on all cylinders, from the big action stuff to the small personal stuff, and it’s delightful.
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