Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming

I liked it, my 10-year-old liked it, what more do you need in a summer blockbuster?

This is a dialed-back Marvel film, Spider-Man isn't saving the world, just catching a bad guy. Most importantly, even though it's a reboot, we skip the whole origin story. The radioactive spider is mentioned, but that's it. And not a word about Uncle Ben.

Thank you for skipping all that; no one needs it anymore. The only thing missing that's important to the canon is J. Jonah Jameson. But I didn't miss him until my 10 year old pointed out his absence after the film.

Tom Holland (another Brit to play the role) plays it as an awkward teenager very anxious to get in the game, but is told to "keep to the ground" by (on-loan-from-Disney) Tony Stark. You don't believe he's 15, but still, he is good enough to make you forget the other Spider-Men.

This is another winner for Michael Keaton, who is less a genius super villain, and more a mob guy who's just doing business. He's not trying to  conquer the world, he's just running a black market for weapons. They're alien-enhanced weapons, but hey, business is business.

A third-act twist turned this good movie into a really good movie. There's a scene where you watch the gears turn in Keaton's head as he figures out Spider-Man's secret identity that's just as suspenseful as anything you'd see in a Hitchcock film.

There's just enough Avengers crossover to keep things interesting in the Marvel Universe, without it overshadowing the main star. (There's a funny running gag about Captain America doing all-purpose PSA's for Peter Parker's high school).

Marisa Tomei is the hottest Aunt Mae ever, but I'm not complaining.

Film Review: Fantastic Four

Is it the colossal train wreck everyone on the Internet says it is?

No.

Is it good?

No.

If Joss Whedon's Avengers movies taught us anything,  it's you have to  litter your movie with  action sequences. Seemingly every fifteen minutes the Avengers individually or together are pummeling someone or being pummeled.

Toward the end of The Fantastic Four, someone says, "He's going to create a black hole and destroy the world!" (there's a lot of clunky exposition in this film). I'm thinking, "What, it's the big finale already? There hasn't been any action sequences."

And this is true, it's a superhero movie with one action sequence.

Just one.

Come late because it's at the end.

Another thing we've learned from Whedon is, if you're making a superhero movie, you better have a sense of humor. Ant Man knew this, it was hilarious.

Fantastic Four, not so much.

The theater I saw this in just installed recliners. Instead of sitting on the edge of my seat, I was reclined the whole film.

This is a good opportunity to discuss organic storytelling: I believe an inherent problem with the Fantastic Four in movies is its lack of organic structure.

Let's go back in time a little. All-American Comics didn't create the Justice Society of America out of the blue. No, Flash had his own title, Hawkman was featured in his own stories in Flash Comics, Green Lantern had his solo stories in All-American Comics, Hourman, the Atom, Dr. Mid-Nite, Dr. Fate, all solo stars brought together in an All-Star team up.

Decades later this was repeated with the Justice League: Every member had his own title, or at least solo stories before forming the JLA.

Decades later Marvel had the genius idea of giving Iron Man, The Hulk and Captain America solo movies before getting them together. And after owning the DC line-up for 50 years, Warner Bros. is finally thinking, hey, let's do what Marvel is doing with our JLA film.

Now -- according to legend, the publishers of Marvel and DC comics were playing golf when the DC boss mentioned casually to the Marvel guy that DC's biggest seller was the Justice League. The Marvel guy then ordered Stan Lee to make a super-team title.

Hence the Fantastic Four. Assembled all at once, not from solo characters, just out of the blue.

This gives everyone who ever tried to make a Fantastic Four film a problem. He'd have to spend the first two-thirds of any film telling the origin of four different super heroes ... and Doctor Doom!

Richard Donner was somehow able to spend the first two acts of the first Superman film as origin story. The first act on Krypton, the second act in Smallville. Superman doesn't even show up until almost an hour into the film.

Yet, those first two thirds were exciting, and funny and emotional, and jaw-dropping and everything the first two-thirds of the Fantastic Four were not.

 As long as Ant-Man and Age of Ultron and Mission: Impossible are out there this summer, I really can't recommend Fantastic Four. Maybe wait til Marvel gets the rights back and reboots it again.

Review: Avengers: The Age of Ultron

Another epic from Joss Whedon. This is what happens when you give the biggest comic book nerd in the world $200 million.  The CGI and love are all up there.

Tony Stark plays Dr. Frankenstein, trying to create a robot defense system that gets off the table and tries to kill him, the Avengers, and pretty much everyone else in the world.

There's some great Joss dialogue in scenes at work and play. He has a genuine love for the characters and it shows.

A centerpiece fight between Iron Man and Hulk is worth the price of admission. And the climax involves a plot to destroy the earth much more ambitious than any we'd ever seen before.

Its only shortcoming is Joss' trick to keep all these heroes busy with hundreds of faceless minions. It's exciting, but he did this in the climax of the last Avengers as well.

Either way, it's well-deserving of its summer blockbuster status. Believe the hype, it's that good.

Movie review: The Avengers

Why in the world isn't DC Comics backing a truck full of money up to Joss Whedon's house to have him write/direct a Superman movie or a JLA movie? This is incomprehensible. And they didn't want him for Wonder Woman? Insane!

Great action sequences, great effects. Dialogue that made everyone distinct. And, a genuine love of comic books. This is what he would have done if each episode of Buffy had a $200 million budget.

And even with a film crowded with heroes, everyone got a chance to shine either in action or exposition sequences. The first two-thirds are the characters fighting each other, the last third they're fighting the aliens. Just like the comic books! And this is the difference between DC and Marvel. In Marvel books the characters are always at each other's throats, DC didn't start that til relatively recently.

During the climax I was thinking of the last 5 minutes of the last episode of Angel where the sky opened up and these monsters started pouring out (including a dragon). The series ended at that point, but Joss picks it up right where he left off for the last battle sequence.

Very funny, making Mark Ruffalo, the most soft-spoken actor in Hollywood play the Hulk, what a great contrast. And the Hulk looked like Ruffalo. (minor quibble, in the Hulk's first appearance he's uncontrollable, when it's time to smash the aliens, he's suddenly rational.)

I know this review is late, but if you've been on the fence, go see it in a theater while you still have the chance.