8) Spider-Man: Homecoming
The franchise: They might have made a decent amount of cash, but The Amazing Spider-Man series followed on from Spider-Man 3 in being met with decidedly mixed critical reception. So mixed in fact that Sony held their hands up in the air and made a deal with Marvel to re-invigorate the character by inserting him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We first saw Tom Holland’s teen webslinger in Captain America: Civil War, of course, but July’s Spider-Man: Homecoming is the first solo venture of the rebooted franchise.
The movie: Seeing as Holland’s aforementioned debut was a massive success, it seems that the decision to entrust Marvel Studios with the creative direction of Spidey was a good move. They’ve worked their magic with the rest of the Avengers, after all, and Homecoming’s high school setting should give the movie a different flavour from the rest of the MCU and mark it out as a fresh entry into the Spider-Man movie canon.
The cast here is great, too, with Michael Keaton as the Vulture, Donald Glover in an unnamed role, Robert Downey Jr. returning as Iron Man and a talented young supporting roster. Admittedly, there are a couple of warning signs – like the fact that there seems to be two or three major villains – but we’re going to assume Marvel knows what they’re doing.
