For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tom Holland), our friendly neighborhood hero's identity is revealed, bringing his Super Hero responsibilities into conflict with his normal life and putting those he cares about, including his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), his aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and friends Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), most at risk. When he enlists Doctor Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) help to restore his secret, the spell tears a hole in their world, releasing the most powerful villains, including Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) and others, who've ever fought a Spider-Man in any universe. Now, Peter Parker will have to overcome his greatest challenge yet, which will not only forever alter his own future but the future of the Multiverse.
Others to round out the cast are Benedict Wong as Wong, Tony Revolori as Flash Thompson, J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, Angourie Rice as Betty Brant, Arian Moayer as Agent Cleary, Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman and Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard.
This was effectively directed by Jon Watts ("The Scariest Show on Television" (TV movie) '08, "Eugene!" (TV movie) '12, "Our RoboCop Remake" (segment "Scene 06") '14, "Clown" '14, "Cop Car" '15, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" '17, "Spider-Man" Far from Home" '19) plus TV, shorts and music videos. Certainly this filmmaker knows his way around a big-budget film hence his resume, and with that, he simply just carried the character development, which is already established, and staged and paced his actors accordingly. This doesn't mean that his job was easy--he's over every aspect of the film which covers many people and units, but he simply carried that similar style of directing he brought from the past films he had already completed. It was adequately written by Chris McKenna ("Igor" '08, "The Lego Batman Movie" '17, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" '17, "Ant-Man and the Wasp" '18, Spider-Man: Far from Home" '19) plus TV and Erik Sommers ("Cuz-Bros" (TV movie) '14, "The Lego Batman Movie" '17, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" '17, "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" '17, "Ant-Man and the Wasp" '18, "Spider-Man: Far from Home" '19) plus TV, based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Even though there is a plethora of information in which to implement in any of the Marvel 'comic book films', repeatedly, the films can and do get mired down with enough of inconsistencies and meandering because they've created stories that end up splitting into so many tributaries. I could go into the choppiness and what's meandering, however it would then approach a spoiler alert. Suffice it to say, the script became bogged down at about two-thirds the way through, then, all of a sudden, the pace and continuity picked up and it became the film that the writers truly meant it to be. Certainly these writers are honed artists--their "The Lego Batman Movie" was uproarious and well written, but other than maybe comedy being more their genre, I'm not sure what happened--bad day at the laptop? Not sure, but maybe their "Bermuda" that is in preproduction will be a better effort. And, as usual with these big-budget films, the visual effects predominantly designed by SPI (Sony Pictures Imageworks), Digital Domain and Framestore were seamless, but one has to recognize this before walking in the door.
Certainly if one is a Marvel geek, they will be in Marvel heaven, However if you're looking for something a bit meatier, you might want to pass on this. If this type of film isn't the genre you're into, just by the title it should keep that particular demographic away. It's not terrible--certainly the visual effects look amazing on the large screen, but there are parts where it jumps around too much and then becomes frustrating until it picks up then is very interesting. It is also presented in an IMAX format as well.
Out of $ Stars: 2.5 Rated: PG-13 148mins.
No comments:
Post a Comment