It's hard to rave about the latest Spider-Man movie after seeing Wonder Woman. It's definitely better than the two Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies, but it follows the typical superhero movie plot line - we meet the superhero; he gets involved with the bad guy; he loses a few encounters before the final big fight. While the Peter Parker in high school stuff is enjoyable, the movie lacks inspiration. Even the big twist is more worthy of a chuckle than a dropped jaw. However, it is the first Spider-Man to occur in the 'Marvel Cinematic Universe,' which allows for appearances by Ironman (Robert Downey, Jr.), Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Captain America (Chris Evans), who has the best post credit sequence.
Spidey's enemy this time around is a nasty piece of work called The Vulture (Michael Keaton), a scrap scavenger who has been lucky enough to come into possession of alien technology. The Vulture is a black-market seller of super-powered weaponry. Along with his henchmen, he prepares heists of high-value targets to increase his inventory. That's when Spider-Man starts interfering and, because Stark is temporarily distracted, Peter is forced to battle The Vulture on his own. Tom Holland proves to be an excellent choice for Peter/Spider-Man. He embodies a teenage caught between the desire to reveal his identity and bask in the glory that would accompany such an action and the recognition that 'with great power comes great responsibility.' He handles the many one-liners with panache and is more believable than Toby Maguire and more suitable in general than Andrew Garfield. Michael Keaton is an excellent foil, playing The Vulture as a man with a grudge against Tony Stark. Jacob Battalion's Ned, Peter's teen best friend, is more irritating than cute. Although "Spider-Man: Homecoming" serves its purpose as a place marker before the next Avengers' Infinity War, the plot is a little too threadbare to stand by itself as one of the summer's best action movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment