why do people say the MCU Spider-man is accurate to high school?

[Dboi2001]

I see people say the MCU Spider-man felt the closest like real life high school but i honestly don’t see. Maybe it’s because it’s in NYC and i don’t live in NY or because Peter goes to what looks like a gifted school focusing on science but i don’t feel like it was realistic. Granted i don’t think most hollywood movies ever show high school realistically and Spider Man Homecoming follows some cliches like students spending 20 minutes talking in the hallways or teachers being oblivious. For anyone who has gone to high school in NYC is this accurate at all you your experience?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I see people say the MCU Spider-man felt the closest like real life high school but i honestly don’t see.

The actors are young looking, the cast is diverse, as is the background of Queens. So on that level it does feel closest to a real life high school in the 21st Century compared to Sam Raimi's and Marc Webb's films. In fact the MCU Spider-Man is more accurate to contemporary high school life than even Ditko-Lee and Bendis were in the original Spider-Man run and in USM to early 60s and late 90s teen zeitgeist. Among the actors. Tom Holland was 21 when he played Peter in Homecoming, which makes him younger than Tobey (27 at the time of Spider-Man 1) and Andrew Garfield (29 at the time of TASM-1), and of course he looks even younger than 21.

So MCU Spider-Man does feel closer to "real life high school" in comparison to other depictions you see in previous movies and cartoons. OF course, being closer to real life doesn't mean better, or more accurate to the original comics, and so on. And being accurate to high school life is in the end not the main or sole purpose of Spider-Man the character in either comics or films.

Maybe it’s because it’s in NYC and i don’t live in NY or because Peter goes to what looks like a gifted school focusing on science but i don’t feel like it was realistic. Granted i don’t think most hollywood movies ever show high school realistically and Spider Man Homecoming follows some cliches like students spending 20 minutes talking in the hallways or teachers being oblivious. For anyone who has gone to high school in NYC is this accurate at all you your experience?

At the end of the day, MCU Spider-Man i.e. Homecoming and FFH are movies, and in this case, they are superhero movies. So it's not gonna be a documentary about high school life like say Frederick Wiseman's High School (a documentary made in the 1960s) or the sequel High School II (made in the 1990s). So even with the most attentive film-makers, it's not going to be 1:1. So if you feel that MCU Spider-Man isn't true to high school as you know it, then it's fine and it's fair. Like you know Harry Potter novels is modeled on life in a British style Boarding school based on Victorian England. As someone aware of that system I can tell you that the HP is fairly romanticized and white-washed (for one thing such boarding schools were historically not co-ed) and not accurate to schooling in England or the Commonwealth. But at heart it's about a universal experience of schooling and its a fantastic abstraction.

Even teenage movies in general, i.e. general high school movies as opposed to high school superhero movies, aren't accurate to high school. They are in most cases movies with actors older than teenage roles (owing to rules about minors acting and not being able to work many hours, as well as issues about say romance and other elements film-makers and writers want to feature).

I will say that the movies as per the director and producers are based on John Hughes movies made in the '80s which feature cliches like students talking in hallways and so on. The references as such are dated and past the contemporary era. But at the same time 80s nostalgia is an authentic phenomenon over the 2010s so even then MCU does reflect parts of contemporary teenage life. The fact is also that teenage life changes rapidly and suddenly so stuff dates fast. What might seem authentic in 2017 (when Homecoming came out) could look pretty stale and dated now. Peter Parker being a little too nice and obsequious to authority is one example.

[Mister Mets]

I see people say the MCU Spider-man felt the closest like real life high school but i honestly don’t see. Maybe it’s because it’s in NYC and i don’t live in NY or because Peter goes to what looks like a gifted school focusing on science but i don’t feel like it was realistic. Granted i don’t think most hollywood movies ever show high school realistically and Spider Man Homecoming follows some cliches like students spending 20 minutes talking in the hallways or teachers being oblivious. For anyone who has gone to high school in NYC is this accurate at all you your experience?

What do you feel is unrealistic about the depiction of high school, beyond typical well-reviewed film depictions of high school?

[Dboi2001]

What do you feel is unrealistic about the depiction of high school, beyond typical well-reviewed film depictions of high school?

well for one Peter leaving his spider web serum in his desk when chances are someone will stumble on it. Peter leaving detention for no reason, skipping out on the academic contest in D.C. and screwing around in the workshop and not leading to a suspension for one. Or the fact what i assume is a public school can afford trips to Europe. And if it is a private school how exactly does aunt may afford to send him there? Aren’t the Parkers suppose to be at best struggling middle class? In Spider Man it looks like an average public HS and in TASM the HS looks kinda shitty. I’m not even sure why High School became such a huge part of Spider Man tbh. I see people say the actors look the part but honestly for TASM besides Emma Stone i didn’t feel like anyone was too old looking. Maybe it’s because at my old high school we had a lot of kids who looked older but it never bothered me

Plus i’m fond of the changes to spidey’s supporting cast like nerdy Flash Thompson yet people say he is a more realistic bully. No he is the one who gets bullied

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Or the fact what i assume is a public school can afford trips to Europe.

Yeah that part definitely stuck out and felt really unrealistic. But in any case, the question is about the MCU Spider-Man's high school setting.

I’m not even sure why High School became such a huge part of Spider Man tbh.

It actually started around 2000 (before that Peter wasn't really considered a high school hero in any significant sense) and the reasons were largely marketing/editorial grudges and fans running the asylum.

I really didn’t feel like most of the main characters felt like teens ie Peter, Liz, Ned etc. Flash felt like a caricature.

I get what you are saying, I even agree with you in spirit, but I have to say you are conflating a bunch of stuff. You are conflating presentation and setting with execution and development.

Peter's high school in Homecoming visually and casting-wise does look more like high school today than any previous version ever reflected their contemporary situation. That is quite separate from everything else, i.e. how much time the movie takes in presenting aspects of high school life, how realistic it is to the consequences of being an erratic student.

Your OP asked the question on whether MCU Spider-Man is more accurate to high school than other versions. Everything else you mention, i.e. MCU Spider-Man is overall a bad movie and so on (which I agree with) is quite apart from that. I think what you want is to pivot the question as to "whether it's valuable for Spider-Man to reflect teenage life in any realistic sense" because that is honestly a more interesting question. Ultimately, MCU Spider-Man is a superhero story first and a high school story second. The high school stuff is just background detail and the emotional center of these movies is Peter's relationship with Tony Stark. You can poke a lot of holes into the MCU Spider-Man movies about realism and so on, but that wouldn't alter the fact that visually its presentation of high school setting is more realistic than earlier versions i.e. your OP. Ultimately the flaws of the MCU Spider-Man as movies and as stories does not lie with the setting nor with the casting.

[CrimsonEchidna]

I like Tom Holland's Peter's dynamic with his classmates because they struck a better balance of justifying exactly why he is a bit of a loner. The whole "i'm super smart and a nerd so I get picked on by everyone" trope is a relic. Not that their aren't kids who still bully others in schools, but that specific type of storyline is oldhat. And both Maguire and Garfield's Peter Parkers ran with it full force, and in Garfield's case it was even more awkward because the writers had to overcompensate for him being more conventionally attractive.

With Tom Holland, his Peter is just a giant flake because of his double life.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I like Tom Holland's Peter's dynamic with his classmates because they struck a better balance of justifying exactly why he is a bit of a loner.

To be honest, I don't think they do that. Because Tom Holland's Peter isn't in fact a loner. He's got Ned Leeds as a sidekick and friend and he's reasonably well liked. Sure Flash harasses him but nobody else likes Flash (unlike the original comics where Flash was really popular in school).

The whole "i'm super smart and a nerd so I get picked on by everyone" trope is a relic. Not that their aren't kids who still bully others in schools, but that specific type of storyline is oldhat.

If it's oldhat because it's become a cliche and stale, that's not the same as not being realistic. Loners do exist still today. They will most likely always exist. Not everyone is able to make friends easily. Not everyone is open or comfortable about being so. And the desire to be "cool" exists even among today's more progressive kids.

With Tom Holland, his Peter is just a giant flake because of his double life.

That's how that issue was dealt with in Sam Raimi's movies and in the comics too. In HOMECOMING the effect is reduced because so many people know Peter's identity and can cover for him or have his back rather than him dealing with it all on his own.

[Frontier]

I like Tom Holland's Peter's dynamic with his classmates because they struck a better balance of justifying exactly why he is a bit of a loner. The whole "i'm super smart and a nerd so I get picked on by everyone" trope is a relic. Not that their aren't kids who still bully others in schools, but that specific type of storyline is oldhat. And both Maguire and Garfield's Peter Parkers ran with it full force, and in Garfield's case it was even more awkward because the writers had to overcompensate for him being more conventionally attractive.

With Tom Holland, his Peter is just a giant flake because of his double life.

Well, Holland's Peter is a giant flake who, aside from one detention, seems to get a pass for it more often then he would have in the comics or in real life.

I get that the old school depiction of Peter isn't necessarily as believable as it was back then but I think there's something to be said of what losing that sense of isolation as a character does to Peter. I also just can't buy into the Peter/Flash dynamic in the movies.

[Mister Mets]

well for one Peter leaving his spider web serum in his desk when chances are someone will stumble on it. Peter leaving detention for no reason, skipping out on the academic contest in D.C. and screwing around in the workshop and not leading to a suspension for one. Or the fact what i assume is a public school can afford trips to Europe. And if it is a private school how exactly does aunt may afford to send him there? Aren’t the Parkers suppose to be at best struggling middle class? In Spider Man it looks like an average public HS and in TASM the HS looks kinda shitty. I’m not even sure why High School became such a huge part of Spider Man tbh. I see people say the actors look the part but honestly for TASM besides Emma Stone i didn’t feel like anyone was too old looking. Maybe it’s because at my old high school we had a lot of kids who looked older but it never bothered me

Plus i’m fond of the changes to spidey’s supporting cast like nerdy Flash Thompson yet people say he is a more realistic bully. No he is the one who gets bullied

One messy thing in New York City is that someone as smart as Peter Parker can probably get into a specialized high school, which is a selective public school with amazing resources.

So that seems to be the type of school Peter goes to in the MCU.

[Frontier]

One messy thing in New York City is that someone as smart as Peter Parker can probably get into a specialized high school, which is a selective public school with amazing resources.

So that seems to be the type of school Peter goes to in the MCU.

This is giving me bad Horizon High flashbacks .

[Revolutionary_Jack]

This is giving me bad Horizon High flashbacks .

The cartoons and the MCU give an idea that NYC is some meritocratic utopia of science learning and education. The cartoon had Horizon High, and the movies had Midtown Magnet school. In the case of Horizon High it was an attempt to mash in Slott's run (which had Horizon Labs) on to teenage Peter Parker, so it wasn't going for realism just usual Slott hijinks and Quesada's inane attempts to micro-manage Spider-Man's representation across all media so he's never shown as a grown-up. Also not sure why people think going to a high school for science geniuses is somehow more important than say getting to Cambridge (where Newton, Hawking and other big boys roam), or MIT, or Berkeley, or Harvard. A regular high school is as about as likely to produce a scientific genius as any magnet school. And even then Peter Parker isn't likely to get into such magnet schools for his genius alone. It will in all likelihood come down to lottery as in the case of Miles in Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man. That was about the only time that you had actual social detail and background feature in the story.

Miles in Ultimate Spider-Man and also in ITSV is the poor kid who goes to a magnet school on account of his high grades, lottery, love and support from his parents and everyone on his block. Fundamentally, MCU Spider-Man is an appropriation of Miles. Miles was created to reflect a milennial teenage generation and zeitgeist and that's why Bendis put more effort in researching the background for Miles than he did with Ultimate Peter. Miles in essence, far more than Peter, is an authentic teenager superhero and any attempts to represent Peter as a contemporary teenager in the 21st Century amounts to an appropriation of Miles.

The truth is that Peter Parker was never created to reflect social reality of teenage life, or ever envisioned to remain a teenager. As per Steve Ditko's biographer, Peter's high school was modeled on the one Ditko attended in the 40s back in Philadelphia, down to architectural details. The orignal Spider-Man reflected teenage life men in their 40s (Lee) and mid (30s) and based on memories growing up in the Depression and during the war. When Bendis wrote Ultimate Spider-Man in the late 90s and early 2000s, as he admitted in interviews, his main reference was a Portland High School where his wife taught. So neither Lee-Ditko nor Bendis' USM, the two most prominent stories of teenage Peter, was based on anything tangible and real, just memories/nostalgia and second-hand stuff. Which by the way is probably why Spider-Man became a universal character in the old days because the high school stuff is just a background for adventure stories and not really a central hook.

[Mistah K88]

This is giving me bad Horizon High flashbacks .

I wouldn't say it's THAT bad (where every student is the equivalent of a teenage Tony Stark.)...but the school is still far from a Midtown Manhattan Magnet.

The idea that Peter goes to a specialized school isn't too far fetched. I will say that often teenagers in media are going to be caricatures than actual people.Things like the whole Betty/Ned romance joke are kind of an example of this so I wouldn't take people thinking it's accurate to high school too seriously...while it's been more than a decade since I've went, my niece who is in high school and her friends aren't all THAT different than how we were aside from technological advances.

[Probalus]

I see people say the MCU Spider-man felt the closest like real life high school but i honestly don’t see. Maybe it’s because it’s in NYC and i don’t live in NY or because Peter goes to what looks like a gifted school focusing on science but i don’t feel like it was realistic. Granted i don’t think most hollywood movies ever show high school realistically and Spider Man Homecoming follows some cliches like students spending 20 minutes talking in the hallways or teachers being oblivious. For anyone who has gone to high school in NYC is this accurate at all you your experience?

Didn’t Tom Holland actually sit in at a real NYC high school to feel out the role prior to acting in the first movie?

But yes, I did go to a real specialized science high school in NYC myself, and the depiction definitely is a lot more accurate than the previous two attempts in terms of bringing to life the diversity of those schools, and having kids that feel like the right age.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Didn’t Tom Holland actually sit in at a real NYC high school to feel out the role prior to acting in the first movie?

Apparently he did for a month but that kind of stuff helps just one actor's performance, it has nothing to do with the writing, direction, and production design choices.

[Dboi2001]

Didn’t Tom Holland actually sit in at a real NYC high school to feel out the role prior to acting in the first movie?

But yes, I did go to a real specialized science high school in NYC myself, and the depiction definitely is a lot more accurate than the previous two attempts in terms of bringing to life the diversity of those schools, and having kids that feel like the right age.

Why because it had one Muslim girl? And I personally disagree. I really didn’t feel like most of the main characters felt like teens ie Peter, Liz, Ned etc. Flash felt like a caricature. I guess some of the club members were actual teens but they barely did or say anything.