REVIEW: Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming is...a Spider-Man movie. What more needs to be said? Fans of the marvel Cinematic Universe have been begging for him to cook be over from Sony, and after a strong introduction in Captain America: Civil War, he's finally got a proper film of his own in the cinematic universe that is Marvel. And... it's fun. What now so I need to say? It's probably one of the most comic- friendly adaptations of the superhero that I've yet seen. And it's getting a lot of praise... maybe a little too much praise. Maybe that's my conservative mindset talking, but I'm not too sure I wanna flat out call this the best Spider-Man ever. Because despite it getting a lot right, there are a few things that bug me on this one (No pun intended).

Before I get into anything critical, let's highlight what I thought worked in the film. Spider-Man. I can't deny, the comic spirit of this young, witty Spider-Man is indeed present in the film. As much as I enjoy Tobey Maguire in the older films, he's not exactly the biggest... smart-ass that Spider-Man is. And since I have yet to see any of the films with Andrew Garfield, I'm not entirely sure if the spirit was captured there. And from what I can tell, the fans are pretty split with that reboot that got shut down. And you can definitely tell that Tom Holland is having a lot of fun with this role. I daresay that Spider-Man may have finally found its near perfect portrayal. He's both geeky, and a smart-ass.

I also gotta gotta give props to the action. When people are hit hard in this movie, I could feel it in my seat. Spider-Man takes plenty of hard knocks in this, and by the time the film ends, I'm sitting there, wondering how he's managed to stand up. It's quick, it's smooth, and a lot of fun. Some of these fights were so incredibly fun to watch, particularly the ferry fight, which does a neat callback to Spider-Man 2. And I might as well say it, Iron Man's role is pretty fitting for the film. I was kinda scared he'd be one of those show-stealers, but I gotta admit, it's a very fitting role for him. And when he's involved in the action, as limited as it is, it doesn't detract in any way.

I also kinda appreciate how this isn't an origins story. With a great trilogy already showing that, and a cancelled reboot also showing how Spider-Man came to be, Marvel put some thought into this film, and decided, hey, we're not idiots. We know how Spider-Man came to be. So they stent to give us a fun story which of course ties into the big Marvel cinematic universe. Unfortunately... in the same retrospect, this is where problems start to show up. While some will argue that it's good that this movie doesn't go all out in introducing Spider-Man to us, I honestly don't think they did enough of an interesting story here.

Yes, we're all happy that it's not just some big sky laser destroying the world, and whatnot, and that the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is indeed dealing with a rather local problem, but the problem here is that I honestly don't really see this story as all that memorable. The story is just about Spider-Man thwarting the illegal thefts and sales of weapons developed from alien technology. That's it. We couldn't... up the ante just a little here?  And it doesn't help that almost no characters we're familiar with in the Spider-Man canon appear here. It's literally just Peter Parker, and his aunt. The love interest is generic, we don't see Norman Osborn, even MJ isn't introduced by name until the very end of the film. Despite her actually drifting around in the film. Which brings me to my next problem. The villain

This film is exhibit A for me right now in terms of the classic argument of marvel villains not being so memorable. And conning from a Spider-Man film, that's inexcusable. This is a universe that includes the Green Goblin, Venom, Doc Oc... Some of the most iconic villains Marvel has at its disposal. And we get...Birdman I guess? Seriously, who is that guy? Some of the villains I've listed I daresay have that same elite status as comic book villains from things like Batman and Superman. Marvel right now has Loki, and Thanos. That's it. While I personally enjoy the villains from the other movies, particularly Guardians of the Galaxy, most will say that Marvel villains are pretty weak as far as iconic status is concerned. What could have been a great way to turn that argument around, sadly isn't taken advantage of here. Instead, we have the first Marvel villain that has yet to really make any impression on me in the least bit. The movie tries to pull a fast one on us as far as who he is and whatnot, but I saw it coming a mile away. I wasn't surprised at all.

And on a more personal gripe, I don't like Aunt May here. Maybe I still have my nostalgia goggles on from the early 2000's, but my fear from Civil War has been realized. Aunt May is nothing but a running joke. How so? In Civil War, Iron Man played creep, and made a bunch of "Your Aunt is hot" jokes that I just didn't find that funny. I had a fear it would be this running gag, and some people toss me, "Oh she's barely in the movie. Shut up. You don't know what they might do with her." Fair enough. We got a Spider-Man movie now. And the jokes just kept coming. If it was from Tony Stark alone, I'd probably be more okay with it as he's that Casanova we know him as, but it comes up multiple times, from different people. Can you see why I'm more prone to liking Aunt May from the original trilogy? She had more of a purpose in those films for Peter. Here... she's just comic relief. And not exactly very funny. So... yeah. I saw it coming, and I didn't care for it. If you laugh at it, all the more power to you.

I know I'm kinda harping, but truth is, the film is very much a lot of fun. One thing I'm not giving the story proper credit for is that this story does indeed flesh Spider-Man out. Peter finds out what it means to be the Spider-Man, without a rehash of another "Great power, great responsibility" story. Granted, it isn't the best, but it's still very well told. It does lead to some very strong development from Spider-Man, and I actually really liked how he had to find his true inner strength without his fancy suit. I daresay it's the strongest element of this movie, and while I'm sure diehards would have liked more of that classic Spider-Man formula we're all used to at this point, I don't think anyone will complain too much that they executed the film in this manner.

Spider-Man: Homecoming earns a three star rating out of four. While certainly not the best superhero film I've ever seen, the praise it's getting can be argued in its case. It's a good strong opening for Spider-Man in the cinematic universe that shows off a lot of potential, and promise for future films that are indeed coming. It has me wanting more from the cinematic universe in all the right ways. And coming from a guy who started off not really caring too much about these films in the first place, I think that's high praise in and of itself.

Please feel free to request a film you'd like to see my thoughts on. Leave a comment down before of your own thoughts on the film of you wish. And as always, thanks for reading.

Final Verdict: 3/4

REVIEW: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

When Guardians of the Galaxy came out in 2014, I originally thought it was one of the dumbest looking things out there, and just an overall dumb idea. I was thankfully very much proven wrong, because the Guardians easily have become my favorite aspect of all marvel right now. And when I heard the sequel was on its way? You can bet I was ecstatic. More awesome space action, big laughter, and awesome music? Yes please! And... well the sequel is fun. Is it as good as its predecessor? Probably not, but I guess that's to be expected nowadays. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 provides a gun enough story but honestly, it feels slightly bloated, and a bit of a small mess.

When I first saw Guardians of the Galaxy I  2014, I'd not seen anything Marvel in years. Not since Iron Man. And when I saw it, it was a followable story without me needing to know ANYTHING about Marvel. It did a good job telling its story, introducing and developing its characters, and it didn't need to unload all this information that I would have had to see the other movies to understand. This movie? Honestly it's a bit of a mess in that retrospect. And I think that comes from the fact that there are just so many characters they're trying to flesh out in this movie. New and old. The film does do a good job in developing these characters out, and developing their relationships with one another... but honestly that's all it kinda does right, because the story seems to go all over the place.

The story's main focus is of course Peter Quill's father being revealed and how they bond, and again the relationship they develop is rally believable and well done, but they also throw in this Raveger subplot which is barely touched throughout the film, these high priestess aliens that are absolutely forgettable (and it doesn't help that it seems they'll be back), and....(sigh).... baby Groot.

Who thought this would be a good idea? Let me take a step back here, because thankfully, Baby Groot doesn't take center stage so much of the film. He's not exactly the biggest focus. But when he IS, it can be very annoying. The opening sequence of the movie, we see the Guardians battling this big alien monster for some compensation, but instead of actually showing us that battle.... Baby Groot is the focus of the screen as he dances to the usual 1970's classic pop/rock. An obvious callback to the first film. I don't know why. It wasn't that funny then, and it's certainly not funny now. Seriously, no one was laughing in the theater at this part. And it goes on for quite a while too. It got stupidly annoying. And honestly, so did Groot. How did one of the most badass characters of the first film stoop like this? He has a few good moments, but everything that made him a genuine awesome character last film is gone here. "Travis, it's because he's a baby!" Yeah. And it was a bad move. What would you rather watch, Groot impaling multiple enemies through the chest with his arm, flinging them around a hallway, or a mini groot that is very much just eye candy, and takes out ONE single bad guy in this movie? In a Marvel movie, what do you think I'm gonna choose???

Sorry, I had to get Baby Groot out of my system. He's easily my biggest problem with this movie.

If you want some other criticism, I don't exactly care for the jubilee of CGI used either. I'm not gonna pretend that Marvel movies know when enough is enough in CGI, but when you have sequences that serve little more than to seemingly pad out the runtime and do their best to get a giggle from the viewer, I will dock points. There's a sequence I  which Rocket and Yondu need to make a jump through space, and the sequence involves the distortion of their faces, and... It looks like it came straight out of the late 90's. If that's not enough, some of the landscapes and environments don't exactly wow me either. There's just not a lot to convince me that their world is real. Too much CGI... and this is coming from a guy who doesn't often complain of the overuse of CGI...

And finally, though it's growing on me, on be of the biggest aspects of this film kinda fell short for me. The soundtrack. I wasn't alone in 2014 when I praised the selection of pop and classic rock showcase on that wonderful little cassette tape. It showcased quite a bit of fun stuff, from David Bowie, to Norman Greenbaum, to the Runaways, to 10cc. It's a wonderful soundtrack. And while this film's soundtrack is charming in its own ways, it does kinda fall short for me. I had quite a wishlist of artists I'd hoped to see featured, and not one of them was featured. (For the record I'm not saying this soundtrack sucks because nothing I hoped would be on there made it, I'm saying I had a big list of potentials,  and nothing made it to my surprise honestly) The music is still fun to listen to, with nice hits from Fleetwood Mac, Electric Light Orchestra, and George Harrison, among others, but there are songs I feel may have been misselected. Even the stuff I wasn't familiar with in the last film's soundtrack managed to impress me. I'm not really getting that same feeling here. Again, it is growing on me, and it is not at all a bad soundtrack, it just lacks the magic I feel of the first one.

Truthfully, I know I've been a bit critical in this review, and yes, I stand by that criticism, but this film is still a lot of fun. It does what the first film does in pushing that limit of fully embracing the fact that it is indeed a comic book movie. The humor can vey much revolve around that. In 2014, when I saw Guardians, I said it was about as literal a comic book movie as one could get, and that feeling is still there. There is very funny, unexpected humor (even if a lot of the humor centers on Baby Groot, and penis jokes.... yeah that was a thing). The action is tons of fun. From the fun space combat to the gunfights on the ground. And I will say that the big climax at the end of the film? It's great. They say that Marvel suffers from bad villains. I think they hit the target here.

But of course, I think this film's biggest strength is it's character development. The relationship between characters of the last film incredibly fleshed out. I found myself rooting for characters I never thought I'd root for. And even if a lot of these characters just let out as bunch of expositional backstories at times, I really did connect with all of them at one point or another. The film did get emotional on more than one occasion, and it does hey me very much excited to see what's coming in the future of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and it gets me excited for the next Avengers film. Here's hoping it delivers.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 earns a high three star rating out of four for me. The story is jumbled, but it is held up with the fun I've come to expect from both Marvel movies, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Would the solid story have been appreciated? Absolutely. Should some of the bloated sequences here have been cut? Sure. I mean... There's like five post credit scenes that barely do anything for any future story, except maybe one. But it's held up, it's fun, and I guess I couldn't ask for anything else. I will say my expectations for the third film that's been announced well be higher, even if the magic of the first film may not be able to be caught again, but I will expect more than what I got here. Don't get me wrong. This is a fun movie, but it does suffer the common problems of most sequels. And with some of these problems seemingly fixable, I will say I hope next time, we will get a bit more magic than what we got here.

Feel free to request a film you'd like me to view I  the near future. Leave a comment down below, expressing your own thoughts on the film, and as always, thanks for reading.

Final Verdict: 3/4

REVIEW: Captain America: Civil War

Civil War is what Batman v Superman is, only done right. Now granted, I didn't exactly see Batman v Superman (Superman isn't exactly one of my favorite heroes out there), but I think I can take the word of some of my respected critic colleagues out there on the consensus that it could have been better. A lot better. Personally with me, superheroes aren't exactly on top of my world. I don't know if they ever really were. They can be fun to follow, but every now and then, I'll come across that movie that will peak my curiosity. Guardians of the Galaxy did that, and I had a lot of fun with that. And that was the first marvel movie I'd seen since Iron Man. Well here I am, watching Captain America, haven't even seen Avengers, and I'm sitting here. Now I can hear some of you yelling at me that I should have seen the other movies, and I'll just say....continue reading.

Going into this, I had a basic idea of what has happened in the Marvel universe. Decently, and the movie was kind enough to give me a rough outline of peak events that had happened before this movie. Climactic events from the Avengers movies and whatnot. And despite my lack of knowledge at to the origins of characters like James Barnes (who o thought was literally James Bond at first...I mean come on that last name is too similar), I followed the story will enough to thoroughly enjoy myself. I said up above that this is likely what BvS should have been like. From what I've heard, the writing of that movie was atrocious, and the reasons for fighting were ridiculous. Thankfully, this film presents a clear, understandable, and genuinely good conflict of interest. The resulting conflicts make this one of the darkest films that Marvel has ever done, or likely ever will do. Coming from a studio that's never too sure whether or not to take their product seriously, or goofy, it's quite refreshing to me.

Now that's not a bad thing to say. Civil War may be dark, but the goofy moments are still there. Tony Stark's smartass persona hasn't gone anywhere, and there are a few lines that legitly had me chuckling. From characters all over the place. I honestly wish there was more of that, because the middle third of this film...drags. Maybe it's my fault for drinking too much coke, but in the middle of this film, the setup is painfully slow. I understand that you need buildup, and you don't just show fists, but there were times I felt things could have been sped up a little faster. Because there were times all I could do was ask myself how long I'd been sitting there.

When the action gets going though, everything just goes smoothly, and at a piece that will keep your attention fully.i must commemorate the studio for giving some of the coolest action I've seen in theaters. Watching two teams of heroes on both sides collide was easily one of the coolest things I've seen on the big screen this year.  It's the climactic, over-the-top, brawl fest that the fans could wish for, with some of the most iconic characters of the universe, and even some of the newer ones.  And yeah, looks like Marvel's got their hands on Spiderman now. Because the tease at the end of the movie might as well read "Sony is our bitch." So there's something for the fans to look forward to.  

The story was easy to follow, and the conflicts of interest I will say kept my interest.  There were a few times I scratched my head wondering why certain things were as they were when there were these other factors to take into consideration.  Without spoiling too much, the condemning of the Avengers seemed out of place. And I do feel that the vengeance side of Iron man seems just a bit off character, but then again, maybe I just need to rediscover the character.  My biggest problem with this movie however....ironically is the title.  I can't help but feel that marketing manipulated this movie ever so slightly.  The concept of a Civil War is a nation divided amongst itself. The thing is, not once is America, or any other nation divided, Civil War is just one big metaphor for the turmoil that the central characters face. But...with trailer lines that don't even appear in the movie such as "You just started a war!" Or "You chose the wrong side." (Though to the film's credit, that last one is at least part of a sentence), I can't help but feel that the conflict we were supposed to believe happened, never happened.  Or maybe it's to setup the next Avengers movie?  If that's the case, save it for the next damn movie. I'm not saying I didn't like the film, far from it.  But I will call marketing out for their BS moves...and I think I smell one.

All in all, Civil War has succeeded in something I didn't think possible.  Not only has my interest in Marvel been rekindled a bit somewhat, but after the movie, I found myself going to Target to check out prices of the Captain America, and Avengers movies.  Why?  Because I realized that I wanted to get invested in this universe more than I had before.  I don't think I'll find myself buying the Thor movies anytime soon, but I found myself at least wanting to look into Captain America, because though Iron Man seems to be the fan loved character, I think Captain America has a better background and is the more interesting character, It's making me want to look into his movies...and the Avengers.  These are movies I honestly didn't see myself watching in the near future, and now I'm looking for a decent price. When your movie makes me want to look into more of your universe, you've done something right, and Civil War did more than hit on target there.  Despite it's flaws that I did find, I had a lovely time,, and perhaps, I may just get more into Marvel than I thought I would.

Captain America: Civil War earns a three and a half star rating out of four. Dark, gritty, and full of risks not often seen in most Marvel movies, it was a ride I fully enjoyed from beginning to end, even if it dragged itself out a bit.  The action was stellar, the acting, spot on, the characters, fun, and though the clichés that were used now and then made to some predictable circumstances, and the musical score was nothing special, I won't lie that it's fun to watch the captain and Iron Man during it out.  DC should be taking notes on these movies, especially since the most anticipated comic book film of the year was such a letdown.  But all I can or will say is this. If you were disappointed by Batman v Superman...Civil War will give you what you want, and may just erase that movie from your mind.  

Please feel free to request any movie you'd like me to review.  Leave a comment down below telling me what your thoughts on the movie were, and as always, thanks for reading.

Final Verdict: 3.5/4