Spider-Man: Homecoming Review - 9 Ups & 3 Downs

3. Robert Downey Jr Is Actually A Little Pointless

Considering how big a presence Tony Stark seemed to have in the marketing, he's actually not in Homecoming all that much, and while he plays an important spiritual role in Peter's development - representing what he wants to become, he's not actually all that necessary.

In actual fact, the film could have functioned exactly the same without him in it at all. If anything, it might have actually been improved by approaching Stark the same way Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix portrayed Dumbledore - removing him from the story entirely until the very end.

By arguably under-using Tony Stark, all Marvel have done is cost themselves a lot of money (or Sony, it's hard to keep track fully) and actually making him seem like the crutch cynics have accused him of being. There's nothing he does that can't be achieved with Happy Hogan in a slightly expanded role, and having Peter covet an Avengers position without direct interaction with Tony would be a better approach.