As previously established, I tend to be the last in class to see the latest new movie, further evidence of this being I only finally saw Spider-Man: Homecoming last Saturday. Full disclosure: I wasn’t in the best of moods to begin with and maybe it's that "superhero movie fatigue" I keep hearing tell about, but that day I certainly wasn’t in the mood to see another Spider-Man movie. I had passed on the previous two and in spite of all the good reviews the latest one had generated, I felt no overwhelming need to go out of my way to see this one either.
But I'm glad I did because Spider-Man: Homecoming isn’t just a good superhero movie, or a good Spider-Man movie, it’s just flat out a good movie. And while being of a certain age, I realize I'm incapable of giving expert testimony on this, but in my opinion it was also a good teen movie. Although following in the grand Hollywood tradition of casting actors-in-their-20s Tom Holland (21), Zendaya (20) and Laura Harrier (27) as teens, on the screen they all looked amazingly close to the ages they were playing.
Back in 2016, I wrote how some fans online reacted to the news Zendaya had been cast as Mary Jane with "one part nerdy slavish devotion to continuity, one part ‘I’m not a racist’ racism" (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--When The Tentpole Franchise You Love Doesn’t Love You Back"). Maybe it’s because there wasn’t the same overreaction when it was announced other previously Caucasian Spider-Man characters were going to be played by actors of different skin colors and ethnicities. Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but I went to the theater completely unprepared for just how diverse the movie’s cast was.
It didn’t seem in any way "forced" as much as just a realistic depiction of a modern multi-ethnic city. Or as the headline of a L.A.Times article puts it, "Diversity isn’t a plot point in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming.’ It’s just normal for millennial New Yorkers like Peter Parker." For the record, biracial actress Laura Harrier plays Liz Allen (though in the credits the character is listed as just "Liz") and while Filipino-American actor Jacob Batalon plays someone named Ned Leeds (a white, adult reporter on The Daily Bugle), he looks and sounds suspiciously like Ganke Lee, best friend of Miles Morales from Ultimate Spider-Man.
But it’s Flash Thompson’s character who has undergone so many changes he’s essentially unrecognizable. For starters, instead of a bullying athlete, he's Peter's academic rival, a verbally abusive conceited rich kid. Basically, Reggie Mantle. Plus, he's played by Latino actor Tony Revolori and in the movie his ethnicity is never specified (like Liz, in the movie's credits his character hasn't been given a surname, so there’s no clue to it there). Me, I automatically assumed his version was supposed to be Indian, which I later learned wasn’t the most unreasonable assumption as Revolori has played roles which were Middle Eastern and Indian.
But the effort to be inclusive that impressed me most had nothing to do with race or ethnicity. And it wasn’t even that funny fat sidekick Ned was at no time openly mocked or humiliated. No, it had to do with height. In Pop Entertainment as in real life, there’s what is known on the TV Tropes site as the "One Head Taller" rule. It states "it's practically codified that every couple will have the man One Head Taller than the woman." According to the Internet, Laura Harrier is 5’ 9" and Tom Holland 5’ 8", and while a single inch isn’t a huge difference, in their scenes together, she’s clearly shown to be at least half a head taller than him. It’s so obvious I have to assume it was an intentional creative choice on the producers' part, so, among everything else, Spider-Man: Homecoming is a big Hollywood superhero movie where the hero’s love interest is taller than he is. Way to shatter a stereotype.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
