Spider-Man: Homecoming

Marvel’s latest reboot of this troubled franchise offers some new-toy fun for fans dead-set on a good time. The Web-Slinger (Tom Holland) is 15 now (Spider-“Man”?), and he has to thwart an arms dealer trading in illicit alien technology (Michael Keaton)—while trying to get invited to a cool party and find a date for the prom. And his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) is a hottie. Peter Parker has now gone from a dork (Tobey Maguire) to a creep (Andrew Garfield) to a pipsqueak screw-up getting bailed out by Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr., the movie’s real star, who similarly bails out Holland). Is Marvel trying to draw new, younger fans or convince longtime fans that they’re not really old? Director John Watts grapples with a script by too many writers to name, and with some lame comedy by Parker’s dimwit sidekick (Jacob Batalon). J.L.