Movie Review: Spider-Man Homecoming (2017) *Spoiler Free*

Movie Review: Spider-Man Homecoming (2017) Spoiler Free

Spider-Man Homecoming delivers on the promise of the new Spider-Man from Captain America, Civil War, with an enjoyable stand alone Spidey film that also clearly shows where the character fits in relation to the Avengers.

Tom Holland continues to shine as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man with a good mix of self conscious uncertainty as well as decisiveness and resolve, when needed.

In this film Peter is initially obsessed with becoming a fully fledged Avenger. In the meantime he's working hard at being a 'friendly neighborhood Spider-Man', looking for ways to impress Tony Stark with his superhero capabilities.

In the process he discovers alien technology based weapons are being sold to street level criminals, which sets him on the trail of the Vulture, played by Michael Keaton.

I will say I was expecting to be a little more satisfied with this film than I was because it is, by far the best stand alone Spider-Man film to date. However I think the film suffers a little from its marketing.

I certainly didn't seek out all the trailers and teasers prior to seeing the movie but, of those I did see, they allowed me to anticipate certain moments in the film ahead of time, thus taking the edge off a particular joke or situation.

That aside, almost everything in this movie comes together and just works. Peter and his class mates all look age appropriate and are not obviously older actors trying to convince us that they're 15 years old. There's no tired old Spider-Man plot line where Peter is trying to save his girl friend and, for once, the main villain is not anyone known to Peter or a result of something Peter set in motion.

In fact the Vulture and Michael Keaton's performance is a highlight of the movie. He has a genuine story arc that you can almost empathize with. If you took Spider-Man out of the equation you could make a great movie out of the Vulture's entire reason for coming into existence. (I could definitely watch a whole movie of Michael Keaton playing the Vulture. It's not many MCU villains you can say that about).

Unlike the marketing, Iron Man and Tony Stark don't overshadow the film's stars. He's in the film just enough to link Spidey into the wider MCU in a way that makes sense, and builds on the mentor relationship in exactly the way you'd expect Tony would, given his history in the MCU.

One thing I'm kind of in two minds about is Spidey's, Stark created, Spider-Man suit. On the one hand it's great watching Peter figure out all it can do, on the other it does give off a very Iron Man-ish vibe. Almost like Tony made a Spider-Man, spandex, Iron Man suit. It's quite a lot more 'techy' than previous Spider-Man suits, which is both great but distracts a little from Spider-Man's own Spider powers. Though, without spoiling anything, you do get plenty of Peter relying almost entirely on his Spider powers.

Props to the filmmakers and Tom for not having any scenes of Spider-Man fighting without his mask in front of crowds of people/reporters/press, some of whom, obviously have cameras. Considering Tom probably did much of his own stunt work (otherwise why did he do all that gymnastics training?) it would be very tempting to prove it was him doing the stunts in a scene by giving some lame reason for his mask to come off. Almost every previous Sony, Spider-Man film has his mask come off during a fight for no good reason.

Overall, Spider-Man Homecoming is an incredibly solid film for this incarnation's first solo movie. Tom Holland gets to explore and expand upon his very likable, somewhat naive but good humored Spider-Man whilst Michael Keaton gets to play one of the most interesting villains in the MCU to date (who isn't plotting world domination or setting off a great big blue cloud of trash in the sky).

There's plenty of supporting character relationships (which I haven't even touched upon) weaved in around the main story, with nothing feeling forced or shoe horned in. The only way this isn't your favorite Spider-Man movie by the end is if you're not a fan of Tom Holland's Spider-Man to begin with. I'm definitely a fan.

Comments

TV Series Review: Velma (2023-2024) No Spoilers

A s a kid, Scooby Doo cartoons were something I used to watch fairly regularly. I wasn't a diehard fan but it was one of the better, of the many, cartoons I used to watch. I had heard about the new animated series, Velma , around the time of its release but it wasn't coming out on any streaming service I was subscribed to so it went off my radar pretty quickly. Quite by chance I signed up to a streaming service so I could watch DC Entertainment's, The Penguin, and noticed Velma was on that platform. I figured I may as well get my money's worth out of the subscription. I did know that Velma, herself, had been race swapped for the show, which made no real difference to me, though I do prefer classic Velma if pushed to choose. However the first episode of season one was a real shock to my expectations! No where had I heard this series was skewing very much into adult humor and themes. I was expecting something more along the lines of the original Scooby Doo show. Instead I

TV Series Review: The Office - Australia (Prime Video) (2024) No Spoilers

W hile I'm a late comer fan of The Office, only watching after the original and USA versions were both available on streaming services, I did watch them in the order of release i.e. I watched the U.K. version first. Now, with the release of the Australian version of The Office on Prime Video, I think it's best to approach watching this new version understanding that it is not those shows. More importantly, remembering the US version was not well received or as popular as it has become since streaming became a thing. I personally remember people often saying the original version was better, back in the day. Of course, the Australian version has analogues for all the same characters you're familiar with from the previous versions, with their characteristics, so you can easily see who is the Aussie version of each character. While there are actually 13 different adaptations of the series worldwide, I was surprised to learn this is the first time the boss has been female. No

Movie Review: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) No Spoilers

I f you're like me and didn't go to see Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in theatres you made the right choice. For context, I loved the first Aquaman movie . It's one of my favorites from the Snyder/DCEU era. It is a relatively well made adventure story, with some fantastic world building, amazing visuals, and included some commentary on environmental issues as well. Despite having, mostly the same creative team, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes across as a film that couldn't decide what it wanted to be, in terms of a sequel. On the one hand it wants to showcase the cool, fun, wisecracking, but bad ass, rock'n'roll version of Aquaman (Jason Momoa) with another rollicking adventure. On the other it feels like someone said it had to be epic with potentially world changing stakes so Aquaman would have to do 'King Shit' and be all serious, navigate deep sea politics, and generally try to be a responsible heroic good guy that he is when he's not being

Trump's 2024 Election Win Will Change Everything - At Least I Sure Hope It Does!

Trump by Leonardo.ai & TET A s an outsider looking in on the US 2024 election, right up until election day, it is beyond my belief that the election continued to be a 'close race'. It is even further beyond my belief that Trump won, without question. Even if the Democrats wanted to claim the election was rigged somehow (which I'm sure Trump was gearing up to do had the outcome been different) it would be hard to make the case, beyond a recount. There's no slim margin here. Trump clearly won. While I would've preferred a Blue win, I at least got one outcome I was hoping for. A clear winner on election day. If I could give the Democrats some free, unsolicited advice for the next election. Stop targeting the opposition as if they're somehow selfish, evil villains. That's not how political parties work. At the end of the day the all represent the public. The people. The everyday citizen who you're trying to convince that you have what it takes to meet t

Optimus Robots, Self Driving Cars and Buses - Tesla's 'We Robot' Event and the Evolution of Optimus

Tesla Optimus Robot Serving Guests. Image: Tesla O n the tenth of October Tesla held their 'We Robot' event, which I guess is the new incarnation of their previous Tesla AI Day annual event. There were three much talked about reveals, the driverless taxis, a driverless bus, and Optimus robots moving around the event, fully interacting with people 'on the ground'. Tesla Driverless Taxi. Image: Tesla While it was cool to see so many driverless taxis, that you could get in and experience for yourself as they drove around the Warner Brothers lot, and the driverless bus was something of a surprise reveal nobody expected, my attention was on Optimus. Tesla Driverless Robovan. Image: Tesla It was in September of 2021 that Elon Musk first announced his plan to create an affordable, humanoid, domestic robot, that would eventually be in homes worldwide. That vision was underlined with a person wearing a robot suit, that wasn't as well received as Elon may have liked, despite

If I Could Talk to the Animals... Maybe AI Can Make This a Reality?

W e've always been able to talk to animals, and it's sometimes said, jokingly, you may have a problem if they start talking back, but what if they could? One thing that AI is good at is processing data and spotting patterns, common elements, and highlighting relationships which makes it ideal for all kind of research, so why not studying the language of animals? It seems like science fiction but so were real-time language translators not too long ago. What if you could understand exactly what your pets are saying to you and speak back to them (through a real-time translator) in their own language? While were not there yet, advancements in AI learning systems seem to suggest that the idea is no longer as far fetched and fanciful as it used to be. To be honest, using AI to decipher animal communication accurately, is something that never crossed my mind but I'm truly excited to know that this research is being done. Watch the Bloomberg Originals video, Could AI Unlock the S

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices. My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe? Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog