Friday, July 7, 2017

Spider-Man: Homecoming Movie Review - Unexpectedly Funny

It's been a while since I've posted anything other than my About Me page. I had forgotten I do movie reviews, too. In my next post I'll review
Wonder Woman, [I know, old news, but better late than never.] but for now...
I have a hot relevant topic: Spider-Man: Homecoming! (Pg-13)
(2hrs 13mins) Starring Tom Holland (Best Spider-Man actor yet), Robert Downy, Jr. (not his funniest work, but he played his role in the story well), Zendaya (I had never seen nor heard of her before. She plays a minor role here, but struck me as over qualified for the part. Apparently she is. I'm guessing her character will have a major role in the next movie. Probably even a love interest.), and Michael Keating (great convincing villain.) and directed by Jon Watts, who did an–wait for it–amazing–job. [Get it? Amazing Spider-Man. Yes, I know, it's a lame joke if you have to explain it.]
So I may be bias, since I love funny super heroes, Spider-Man and the X-Man, Nightcrawler, being far and above, my favorites. The Marvel movies have brought many more funny super heroes to light for me, though their style of humor is different than the mostly humble, down to earth type of those two.

Funny Super Heroes

# 1   Spider-Man/Peter Paker  (Intentional humorous in a humbly snarky  sort of way.)
# 2   Night Crawler/Kurt Wagner – X-Men (Also intentional humorous in      a humbly, snarky sort of way.)
#3    Shadow Cat/Kitty Pryde – X-Men  (Humorous in an inexperienced sort of way.)
4. Ice Man/Bobby Drake – X-Men  (Intentionally funny, and a bit fumbling.)
5. Iron Man/Tony Stark (Not sure how many other actors could pull off the arrogant yet slightly vulnerable hero the beautiful way           Robert Downey, Jr does.)
6.  Thor (Accidentally humorous to his lack of knowledge of  mere mortals, Chris Hemsworth does a great job with him.)
7.  Star Lord/ Peter Quill - Guardians of the Galaxy I have never read any of the comic books, but Chris Pratt does a nice job of playing an understated, mildly arrogant, yet extremely vulnerable, hero.)
8. Drax – Guardians of the Galaxy (Accidentally humorous to his lack of knowledge of Earthlings and human feelings)    
9. Groot - Guardians of the Galaxy (Accidentally humorous because he is so different from us.)
10. Rocket - Guardians of the Galaxy (Bitterly humorous, made more    funny because it's coming  from a genetically modified raccoon)
11. Dr. Strange       (Arrogant and                
usually only slightly funny, but Benedict Cumberbatch  does a       great job with bringing out the humor of this character.)
12. Human Torch/Johnny Storm – Fantastic Four (I haven't been impressed with the movies but the cartoon TV series Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes  (2006) – was really well done and
 made him a lovable, funny prankster.)

13. Avengers (Quite funny in the movies, much drier in the comic books. I give credit to the script writers and to Chris Evans playing Captain America, traditionally a stiff, holier-than-thou hero from a by-gone time, but in the current Marvel movies played with a gentle sincerity that comes off more earnest than judgmental.)
14. X-men (Often funny in the comics but hit or miss. The two movies I've seen have mostly been misses on the funny aspect. Professor Charles Xavier and Wolverine/Logan/ Weapon X, staples of the movies, take themselves way too seriously, as does several of the other X-Men. But the X-Men: Evolution (2000-3) cartoon series was usually pretty funny. It showed most of the X-Men as high school students, with inexperienced Night Crawler and Shadow Cat featured.)    
                                                        I even like funny Super Villains.

#1    Loki               (Tom Hiddleston does an excellent job with him.)
2.  Dead Pool?       (I'm told he's very funny by my kids, who are                                    usually right, but in the trailers I have yet to laugh.                              He might not be my kind of funny.)

Notice the lack of DC heroes. DC takes itself way too seriously, [Even the Joker is mostly maniacal and menacing rather than funny. You would think the name would give them a clue, but it doesn't.] with only three exceptions I can think of:

1. Batman, the 1966-8 TV series, which was pathetically funny
2. The 1978 Superman movie with Christopher Reeves. He did a great Super Man.
3. The new Wonder Woman movie that I'll review next time

All of this is to say, Spider-Man: Homecoming was fabulous. Not only did it have Spider-Man's
intentional, humble, snarky humor, but he was clearly written as a 15 year old science geek making tons of mistakes as he learns how to be a super hero. Hilarious, well written, well acted and well filmed. The actor, Tom Holland, nails Spider-Man, both here and in the Avengers movie as a higher pitched, super energetic, chatty, reckless, smart yet earnest kid. Emphasis on the word kid! I hope he can keep up the good work as he ages into the next movies, since real life will continue to age the actor beyond the time frames of the screen.

The villain, Vulture, played by Michael Keating, as stated above, was a well done believable character that upgrades the comic book and the cartoon TV series Vultures, in spades. Spider-Man even gets a side kick, a definite plus in my book. All of this and it had several good messages. I can clearly say I and my family are clamoring for more Spider-Man movies.

Rumored by the Toranto Sun, Michael Feige, the Marvel Studios's president, said the next villain will be new to the screen. Many people have guessed it will be Mysterio. My family would love that. I hope he'll be at least as funny as my family thinks he is. Also, Black Cat
might make a great addition to the screen.

The Black Pather Trailer looks great, too. As does the Thor: Ragnarok. Maybe I can get my family to play the Marvel Heroes board game tonight.

I'd love to  hear what you think of the movie and/or my review. Please take the time to share with me, since I shared with you!

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