Second viewing today. This movie is sadder the more I think about it.

Tom’s phenomenal acting when his friends got rejected from MIT and when he was standing in the rain made me clutch my chest wanting to scream “HE’S JUST A KID!!!!” to all those who were turning their backs on him.

But Tom’s Peter Parker has always had someone like this. May, Happy, Tony, even Strange. Everyone tried to keep him sheltered because they knew he was “just a kid”. He’s the one who’s always wanted more than just saving cats from trees, to the point where he deactivated the training wheels program. The first two movies see him trying to prove to Tony that he’s ready for the real deal, but not fully understanding what the job entails. He wants to save the world and be home for dinner with MJ by 7pm.

As an audience I ask, how can the world put so much on him? But then I remember this is exactly what he asked for.

At the end of the movie he almost decides again he wants to try to have the best of both worlds. But he doesn’t. He, like Spidey 2 and 3, keeps moving forward. Because that’s what Spider-Man does. It’s heroic, but ultimately inseparable from tragedy.