Spider-Man: Homecoming

[Mooky]

So I saw the movie and it was entertaining, but I just can't understand why it is getting such good reviews. Other than Michael Keaton and Tom Holland's performances which were great, the movie was a creative mess, had too many plot points going around, and it was too dependant on its connection to MCU. People piled on Iron Man 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for gratuitous references to a larger universe, but Homecoming did the same and did it even worse. On top of that, there was this aura of meanness with the whole high school part of the plot, with some very inappropriate humor. Like, high school kids playing "F***, marry, kill" with superheroes. I know worse things happen in real life high schools, but that was more than unnecessary to see in a movie about 15 year-olds. But the worst part was that the movie itself just didn't have enough heart. Every single emotional scene had to be ruined by some sarcastic joke or a quip. As I said earlier, the movie is entertaining with a couple of terrific performances, but it doesn't really leave you with anything worth caring for or remembering or warranting a repeated viewing. It's corporate, franchise filmmaking at its commercially best/creatively worst.

[Disney's Divinity]

I went ahead and watched Captain America: Civil War a month or two ago to see the cameo of Holland there. I really loved him as Spiderman and now having seen Homecoming, I'd say the film survives entirely on the strength of his performance and the great action sequences/humor which seems to have become the norm for superhero films now (on the back of Deadpool, GotG, Thor, f.e.). Well, they are present in most superhero films, I guess, but not as successful as they have been consistently lately.

I'd also say the things I had dreaded coming into the movie (the teenybopper aspect of them being in highschool, Zendaya ugh) weren't as bad as I expected, thankfully. The highschool situations, characters, and dialogue weren't annoying even if they felt very inconsequential; Zendaya wasn't too bad either actually (I was shocked--who knows if she'll be as good in sequels). Donald Glover was completed wasted though, and the villain was pretty bland (not a new thing either--X-Men: Apocalypse and the first GotG had the same problem). Really, there weren't any noteworthy characters for Parker to interact with here to me outside of Iron Man and the villain. Even the aunt felt like a throwaway.

Either way, I'm looking forward to the sequels and will probably pick this up on Blu-Ray at some point for Holland alone.