Iron Man Review
Grand Total: 8 ¾
The Incredible Hulk Review
Grand Total: 3 ¾
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
An amazing scene (testing the suit) +½
Amazing visuals +½
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man) +½
Great writing +½
Total: 9 ½
Overall impression
Iron Man is the superhero origin story of Iron Man and tells the story of how Tony Stark, the head of a giant weapons and energy corporation, becomes this hero. The first hour or so of this story is dedicated to character development, as Tony Stark is almost killed by the very weapons he created. He then has to figure out why he was attacked and how his attackers managed to get their hands on his weapons. On the way, of course, he realizes that maybe being a selfish weapons dealer isn’t such a great idea if he wants to have a clear conscience. This summary of the movie makes it sound like a generic story. What sets it apart? The writing and the performance from Robert Downey Jr. This actor completely disappears into the role, so much so that the two are now virtually inseparable. The writing in the film is absolutely amazing, lending itself to a lot of comedy and creating the characters in the film. I said before that the first hour or so is dedicated to character development and, I have to say, this half of the movie is really good. The characters make sense, Tony’s arch from, as the movie likes to call it, zero accountability to full accountability is shown and paced really well. Unfortunately, the film starts to stumble with what to do next. The villain in the film is obvious and generic, but is not a total disaster due to the performance from Jeff Bridges, who brings a sort of quiet scariness to the role that was a pleasant surprise. The plot becomes one of the many “bad guys want to use these weapons and selfish business tycoons will sell their weapons to the bad guys because money”, which is why I was glad that almost all of the film focuses on Tony Stark’s character and why, in the end, it makes sense that Tony doesn’t become one of those “business tycoons” and instead fights against them. On top of the good characterization, this movie has a very cool feel to it. The quick writing and great visuals along with the witty character Robert Downey Jr. creates make this vibe become the embodiment of the movie and, to an extent, Iron Man himself. Even with the confusion at the end, this film is a successful study dedicated to creating one character and doing it really well.
Total: 8
Technical
Watchable 4
Great performance/character (Edward Norton as
Bruce Banner) +½
Obvious plothole -½
Bad performance/character (Liv Tyler as Elizabeth Ross) +½
Total: 3 ½
Overall impression
The Incredible Hulk came out only a couple months after Iron Man tore up the film world with its style and flair. For better or for worse, the former movie was seriously overshadowed by Iron Man even though it was part of the same universe and technically mattered just as much. That is basically the “for worse” reason. The “for better” reason is because this film, as a whole, is really not that great. I had to include “as a whole” because there is a part of this film that is really great: the beginning. The first twenty or so minutes of this film do a great job of setting up a great setting and a great character. The set pieces Bruce Banner (a.k.a. The Hulk) finds himself in are used well by the film and add a lot of dimension to a particular chase scene that happens around the twenty minute mark. The setup to Bruce Banner is shown in the opening credits and from then on, the movie does its best to show where he’s gone and what he’s trying to do while surviving under the radar. After these twenty minutes are up, the movie changes gears to focus on a romance between Edward Norton’s character and Liv Tyler’s character. Honestly, the film plays this subplot very seriously and Liv Tyler’s acting really makes the romance feel comedic so that didn’t work very well. This is quite a shame, because Edward Norton does a really good job of making his calm and collected character (very much opposite the alter-ego of the Hulk) feel genuine and real. After the romance, the film begins to get really generic with its usage of the military against Bruce Banner and I began to get a little bored because none of these side characters were worth getting invested in. How many times do we have to see a film tell us that the military wants to weaponize whatever superhero the film happens to feature? Additionally, the film’s attitude towards science as presented by the character of Mr. Blue (introduced late in the film) upset me; all I can say is that he has no practicality whatsoever. Overall, the beginning of the film had me intrigued and invested but the romance and military subplots really weighed the movie down, so much so that the movie ends up being more failure than success.
Total: 4
Iron Man 2 Review
Grand Total: 1 ½
Technical
Watchable 4
Too long -1
Obvious plothole -½
Bad performance/character (Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko) -½
Boring part -½
Terrible writing -½
Uneven tone -½
Total: 1
Overall impression
Iron Man 2 has no reason to exist at all. It adds nothing whatsoever to the characters that have already been established and adds nothing whatsoever to the franchise it is a part of with the possible exception of introducing the character of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), who holds almost no relevance to the movie whatsoever. Before it becomes obvious that I hate this film, let me just tell you that I hate this film. Here’s the premise: Tony Stark realizes that the arc reactor that is keeping him alive is poisoning him with the element it uses so he must find another element or compound to replace it before he dies. The first hour of the film is dedicated completely to Tony Stark living it up before he dies. It is utterly incoherent in that almost nothing ties together or makes sense on its own; it’s all a complete mess. And it doesn’t even seem like a difficult task to accomplish either, I mean, most of what everyone loved about the first film was the fantastic writing given to Robert Downey Jr. who just knocked it out of the park with his performance. Downey made the movie, so putting him in various situations for an hour should have been fine, even if you threw the plot out the window. The reasons it didn’t work at all are these: the writing wasn’t there and the performance wasn’t even there. I mean it when I say that the writing in this movie feels really lazy and sloppy and Robert Downey Jr. just feels like he’s phoning in his performance, and I couldn’t get invested in anything I was watching. While Iron Man is having a blast doing nothing, a dark and sinister villain named Ivan Vanko is scheming. For the first hour, all this villain does is scheme. His threat level is at zero and his character development is also at zero. I can’t tell you a single thing about this guy other than what his name is. You know your movie has created a terrible character when somebody who has just seen the movie can’t even list one personality trait about said character. The second half of the movie is admittedly a lot better than the first because things actually start happening. Now, the things that happen make little sense, but are nice to look at, and it’s refreshing to go from nothing to something. Apart from that though, this film is easily the worst of all of the films that are part of the MCU; you actually lose no context at all for the other films by skipping this one. You also save yourself a lot of time.
Total: 2
Thor Review
Grand Total: 5 ¼
Technical
Engaging 6
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Tom Hiddleston as Loki) +½
Overuse of effects -½
Total: 6 ½
Overall impression
Thor tells the origin story of the superhero Thor. He’s an arrogant prince of Asgard, a “realm” some many light-years away from earth. When some frost giants (from some other slavic-named realm) manage to break their way into a vault in Asgard, Thor goes on a rampage of revenge against them, practically starting a war. As punishment, his father, Odin, exiles him to earth, stripping him of his powers; if he should prove that he is worthy to hold his famous hammer (it’s not specific about how he can prove this worth), then he can have his powers back and return home. Yes, it sounds pretty generic and bland. That’s the story in this film. Now, there are other things happening in the story, mostly surrounding Thor’s brother, Loki, but the story is pretty straightforward and simple. Luckily, the fish-out-of-water scenario is milked a lot for comedic moments because Thor, someone who has no idea about anything to do with culture on earth, often makes an idiot of himself. For the most part, this comedy is the reason the film remains entertaining. Hardly any of the characters have any depth (maybe except for Loki) beyond what their stereotypical natures give them by default. As this film is the origin story of Thor, his world is introduced and somewhat explored. This is done through a series of tracking shots of Asgard, which is completely computerized everywhere. One of the film’s largest problems is that nothing feels real at all; effects are used so overwhelmingly that I felt like the actors never actually set foot in a physical set with items and surroundings they could actually interact with. Visual effects people consistently claim that this never affects the performances in a film but I think logic speaks for itself when I say that an actor can do a better job if he/she can actually see what it is he/she is supposed to be reacting to, looking at, or interacting with. Of the performances in the film, the clear standout is Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of Loki. Though his character makes many strange decisions in relation to the plot and I often question the viability or reasoning behind his plans, Loki never ceases to be compelling to watch. Chris Hemsworth as Thor is fairly bland, but that’s because the character is written that way. Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, astrophysicist and love interest of Thor, is similarly bland. Thor has a few nameless sidekicks in the film (I only say nameless because the characters are completely forgettable) that serve little to no purpose in the story. There really isn’t much else to say about the film except that it is entertaining because it has a lot of comedy in it. Apart from that, the story is unoriginal and the characters are pretty bland. It’s an enjoyable-enough film if you aren’t looking for anything more.
Total: 4
Captain America: The First Avenger Review
Grand Total: 6
Technical
Engaging 6
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Phillips) +½
Obvious plothole -½
Boring part -½
Total: 6
Overall impression
Captain America: The First Avenger is the origin story of Captain America, the superhero created when Steve Rogers, a tiny kid from Brooklyn who got beat up too many times, gets injected with glorified steroids. While not the most flattering summary, this is essentially the premise of the film. Taking place during World War II, Captain America: The First Avenger does a good job of both setting the time period well and setting up the character well. While the film does rush through the first twenty minutes so that it can maximize its time with beefy Captain America instead of shrimpy Steve Rogers, it is never so rushed that things don’t make sense; you understand why he was chosen for this steroid injection (sorry, the film refers to it as a serum) and you understand how the serum came to be. The characters all make sense, from Doctor Erskine (played very well by Stanley Tucci) who believes in Steve, to Colonel Phillips (a perfectly cast Tommy Lee Jones) who is constantly doubting him. This having been said, once Steve makes the transition to Captain America, the film really slows down and a certain dance routine that follows was actually boring. Thankfully, the film quickly gets back on its feet, but often tones down the Captain America fight scenes by use of montages, which was a bit annoying. The villain that he’s up against, Schmidt (played by Hugo Weeving), isn’t given all of that much of a backstory or context and you often are wondering how he is doing all of the things he does. While the film never stops being entertaining past the dancing scenes and into the second half, I think that it is in this half that the film begins to make less sense. Chris Evans as Captain America does a decent job in the role, though his character doesn’t have a whole lot of depth and isn’t written particularly well. During the first third or so, when Chris Evans is playing Steve Rogers and not Captain America, the special effects used to make Chris appear smaller really don’t work very well because they reduce his body size but barely affect the size of his head. As a result, Steve looks like a disproportionately built alien of some sort. While the effects are sometimes passable, a specific scene where Steve is lying on a table made me cringe at how large his head looked when compared to the rest of his frame. In general, the visual effects in the film are decent, but not great. Luckily, the setting of the film allows for a certain dearth of special effects that probably made the film look better in the long run, especially considering how poor and overused the effects in Thor turned out. At the end of the day, Captain America: The First Avenger makes a decent, if a little bland, character and gives him a decent story to follow. It’s entertaining for 90% of the film, though not without some pacing and plot issues. The word “decent” does a good job of describing the quality.
Total: 6
The Avengers Review
Grand Total: 8 ¾
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
An amazing scene (Stark vs. Loki) +½
Really funny +½
Amazing visuals +½
Amazing cinematography +½
Great performance/character (Tom Hiddleston as Loki) +½
Great writing +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 9 ½
Overall impression
The Avengers is the film set up by all of the previous Marvel movies. In this film, earth’s mightiest heroes (some characters from Marvel) join together to fight against Loki, a charismatic bad guy who has intentions of destroying earth. If you don’t know anything at all about Marvel Comics or any of the other movies released by Marvel Studios, then you’ll be in my shoes when I saw this movie for the first time. In hindsight, it was a terrible idea to watch this movie before watching the others. Unfortunately, that is probably a pretty universal drawback to this movie, and I genuinely think that this movie will make way less sense to a newcomer than it will to someone who is well-versed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Does that mean that you, a newcomer, won’t enjoy this movie? Absolutely not, because this movie is, if anything, an entertaining visual delight. It’s full of action, full of great dialogue, and full of characters that the movie abusively manipulates to get the most laughs and enjoyment out of the audience. For what it is (a movie that pits so many characters together and expects to make a coherent story out of them), this movie is impressive. Now, you won’t understand all of the dialogue on the first watch, or probably even the second watch, but you will still enjoy it and feel satisfied at the end. That is something that impressed me more about this film: the satisfaction. It isn’t often that you walk away from a movie feeling satisfied, but I think this movie did just that, even if it is a touch too long. Now, this movie isn’t perfect, or even whole. I mean, how can a movie with six or seven main characters have enough time to give each character his/her deserved moments? That is definitely something the movie doesn’t do too well: character development. However, I guess that isn’t a huge sin, since this movie relied on those other movies that came before it to develop the characters. Speaking of character development, and I’m not sure that this is a bad thing, the movie made me want to know more about the characters of Black Widow and Hawkeye. The movie hints at a backstory or involvement between them that I think should get its own movie given that each of the other characters got a standalone movie. The standouts in this movie are, of course, the most colorful characters: Iron Man and Loki, the latter being the most interesting. I say this because he may be the only compelling baddie in all of Marvel’s movies. I definitely think that the villain is a chronic weak spot in most Marvel movies, and in The Avengers, he still isn’t perfect. After a fifth watch, I’m still not sure I buy Loki’s motivation for targeting earth. That or it just seems silly. There are a few other things in this movie that are hard to swallow, including some pretty gaping plotholes, but the movie is so enjoyable that you’ll pretty easily ignore them on the first watch. For what it’s worth, this movie is definitely a lot of fun, and impressively pieces together a decent story from the many pieces it has to work with.
Total: 8
Iron Man 3 Review
Grand Total: 6 ¾
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Robert Downey Jr.
as Tony Stark) +½
Great writing +½
Obvious plothole -½
Bad performance/character (Ty Simpkins as Harley) -½
Total: 7 ½
Overall impression
Iron Man 3 was the first Marvel film to come out after the events of The Avengers. As such, it explores how those events affected Tony Stark and what happens as a result. Now, the first half of this film does both a good job of deepening Tony’s character but also setting up a really cool villain in The Mandarin (played by Ben Kingsley). The Mandarin is the leader of a terrorist group that has been bombing various areas and murdering various people, all broadcast to television users. How the terrorist organization managed to hijack all airwaves across the globe is a complete mystery, as it is never revealed in the film. But that aside, this Mandarin character was sold really well in the first half of this film. None of the bombs had any traces of a bomb going off, and we’re introduced early on in the film to some fiery people who become unstable and explode. While you as a viewer are trying to piece together how everything is connected, Tony threatens The Mandarin and his house is blown up. On the run, Tony meets a kid who gives him enough supplies to get back at The Mandarin. Though the child actor who plays the kid is terrible, the major problems with the movie begin as soon as Tony confronts this villain; things start to get far less serious and I became much less invested in what was going on. To the film’s credit, it managed to get through an entire half of the film before going bad, and that first half was pretty great. The writing and performance from Robert Downey Jr. were back to match those seen in the original Iron Man (though they were nowhere to be found in the sequel). The quippy dialogue was back and so was the character we all loved; the humor and wit were on point. Tony was deepening as a character too as he begins to value all of the things he may have lost if he had died in The Avengers. On top of that, the story really picked up in the “I don’t know what’s going on but I really want to find out” kind of way. Genuine suspense was felt in a few scenes, which can only be achieved if a viewed has invested something in what is going on. This confrontation with The Mandarin, however, took away all investment I had in what was going on. The rest of the film just kept the same silly tone that had been felt during the scene in question and, though the film stayed entertaining, I just couldn’t help but feel like I had been let down by a second half of a film that couldn’t capitalize on what was a more promising first half. The action in the second half is really dumb and mindless, with pretty fireworks exploding on the screen without any investment required from the audience. Quite a step down. Overall, Iron Man 3 is still an entertaining entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but its second half brought the movie from being a good movie to being a fun movie. The character of Tony is still expanded upon and the aftermath of the events of The Avengers were wisely explored. It’s just that the movie gave up on trying to tell a good story halfway through and lost a lot of quality.
Total: 6
Thor: The Dark World Review
Grand Total: 4 ½
Technical
Engaging 6
An amazing scene (funeral) +½
Amazing visuals +½
Too short -1
Obvious plothole -½
Boring part -½
Total: 5
Overall impression
Thor: The Dark World serves almost no purpose to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it fails to expand on any of the characters, tell a story that ties into what happened in The Avengers, or establish anything that has any effect whatsoever on future films; it literally exists to entertain. Does it do its job? For the most part, yes. Thor: The Dark World is an entertaining film that brings back familiar characters and puts them in forgettable situations with a forgettable villain. The villain in this film, Malekith, is given no depth whatsoever. Instead, he’s another villain who wants to get some weird magical thing called the Ether and use it to return the world to Darkness. Nobody knows what that would entail or what the Ether even is, but that’s Malekith’s plan. You see, he’s waiting for all of the worlds to align so that he can zap them all with the Ether. Unfortunately for him, Jane Foster has already been infected with said Ether, somehow. Makes sense, right? I really wish the movie spent more time explaining how this thing worked so that plot details made more sense and we could actually get invested in what was going on. But at the same time, I wish it had spent less time explaining the few details that it did, because this first half is almost completely boring exposition. Almost nothing happens, and the only thing I paid attention to was the vastly improved visual effects; though still as overused as in the first Thor, these visuals were really, really good. Things begin to happen around the halfway point of the movie when Malekith and his group of dark elves somehow invade Asgard (Heimdall was pretty useless) and kill a character very close to Thor. The resulting funeral scene for this character was easily the best part of the movie. Instead of throwing together exposition or a dumb action scene (the two things that make up the rest of this film), the scene plays without any words or sound effects used; the music and scenery do everything to set the tone of the scene, making quite a good job of it. Though not what I would call moving, the scene is visually stunning and beautiful. This made me ask one question: why don’t Marvel movies take the time to make a short but beautiful scene like this in more films? The rest of the film has fun action scenes smothered in ridiculous CGI and inexplicable nonsense. While that may seem like more of an insult than a compliment, none of this film made much sense to begin with, so the fact that these scenes were fun made the movie much better than it could have been. How fun this film is sets it apart from other pointless Marvel films like Iron Man 2. If you were to ask me what I remembered about Thor: The Dark World, I would tell you that it was an entertaining film with one good scene in it that despite the fact that I couldn’t remember much of anything about its plot, has stuck with me for a while. Loki is great in the few scenes he’s in, and but there isn’t much going on in the film, and I still don’t know why Thor’s friends are in the film; they’re just kind of there, the same way they were in the first film.
Total: 4
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review
Grand Total: 7
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
An amazing scene (ship scene) +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 7
Overall impression
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the sequel to The Avengers from the perspective of Captain America. Now in the present day, Steve Rogers has joined S.H.I.E.L.D. to continue serving his country. But the newer problems of the present day confuse Steve, as his enemies are so much more vague and concealed now, and he often doesn’t know who or what he is fighting for. When a S.H.I.E.L.D. ship is hijacked by pirates, and Steve finds out that it may have been S.H.I.E.L.D. itself that had hired them, he begins to wonder what that ship was doing in the first place and who in S.H.I.E.L.D. is working for some other entity, perhaps an organization that has infiltrated it. This type of spy-action movie has so far been absent from the Marvel canon, which is unfortunate because the majority of this movie is really quite good. With the exception of some shaky action clips on the opening ship scene, the action in this film is beautifully shot and amazing to watch. Add some characters we care about to the mix and you have a lot of suspense. This movie does a really good job of exploring how Captain America has reacted to being sprung on this new world where he recognizes almost nothing. You may have noticed that I haven’t talked about this Winter Soldier character at all yet, and that is because he is not a huge presence in this film. Instead, it is what he represents and where he comes from that is so important to this film; this is why his name made its way into the title of this film. Everything in this film makes sense, from the villain’s plot and why that doesn’t agree with Captain America to where these villains come from and how that relates to Captain America actually being able to relate to modern problems. Everything makes sense, until you finish the film and start thinking about it. The film actually makes more sense towards the end, when you actually know where the plot is going and what the characters are trying to do. It is in this beginning ship sequence that things begin to go awry. The way the second half was set up by the first half is very confusing and, though it never ceases to be entertaining, I still don’t really know what that ship was doing and how it got hijacked. There are little things like this throughout the first half that came back to bug me on the second viewing. Fortunately, these are really the only problems with the film. The action is really good, and the way in which Captain America fits into the villain’s plan is really fitting for the character. Supporting cast, something I haven’t really talked about yet, are also really relevant. Sam Wilson (Falcon) and Natasha Romanov (Black Widow) are both featured prominently in this film, and Nick Fury plays a huge role in this film. As this film is primarily about S.H.I.E.L.D. it makes sense that Nick Fury would play such a big role. Overall, Captain America: The Winter Soldier does a better job than Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World at both being relevant and being a good film, even if it is confusing at times.
Total: 7
Guardians of the Galaxy Review
Grand Total: 8 ¼
Technical
Engaging 6
An amazing scene (Nova Corps Blockade) +½
Epic in scale +½
Really funny +½
Amazing visuals +½
Amazing cinematography +½
Great performance/character (Vin Diesel as Groot) +½
Great music +½
Great songs +½
Great writing +½
Obvious plothole -½
Bad performance/character (Lee Pace as Ronan) -½
Total: 9 ½
Overall impression
Guardians of the Galaxy tells the zany story of five characters who come together through the strangest of circumstances to save the galaxy from the evil Ronan. The story begins with Peter Quill who, on a mission to steal a magic orb of unknown power, decides to sell it to a third party instead of returning it to Yondu, the person who gave him the mission to begin with. Meanwhile Ronan, the person guarding the orb, sends Gamora to kill Quill and retrieve the orb. While this is all going on, Rocket and Groot see that Quill has a bounty on his head and try to abduct him. When they are all abruptly captured, they go to prison where they meet Drax, a huge blue human whose family were killed by Ronan. Together, they have to escape, figure out what this orb is, figure out why Ronan wants it, and stay as entertaining as possible. Sound complicated? Well, Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely a film that benefits from repeat viewings so that you can begin to take in the enormous amounts of names and nonsense thrown at you. Guardians of the Galaxy’s greatest strength is its entertainment value, as this is one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure, however, how well the story holds up as a whole because there are a lot of holes (get it?) and the villain is quite a bore. Still, the movie effectively establishes five brand-new characters, gives them all a good amount of screen time, surrounds them in a crazy story, and provides an excellently hilarious tone for audiences to soak in while enjoying a dazzling explosion of special effects. That is the saving grace of this movie: the tone, which is a direct consequence of the fantastic writing. These jokes are a mile a minute, and they never fail to entertain. My favorite character of the bunch is Groot, the talking tree, only because he’s so adorable. Starlord is a very colorful character, and so is Rocket, so I like them both. Drax is hilariously out-of-touch, which makes him entertaining too, and Gamora is a little bit of a bore. That is mostly because of the underdeveloped storyline between her, her sister Nebula, and their family. Still, those issues only came up in rewatching the movie, because all you will be focused on during a first watch is the fantastic humor. Another thing worth mentioning about the movie is its great music. Many of the scenes, such as the prison escape scene, the flying scenes, and the final battle scene benefit greatly from the music. The music works well in the film and on its own. To go along with the music, the film plays a mash of songs from the 60’s and 70’s that add another layer to the movie by cleverly work their way into many scenes in the film, including the opening; they really set the tone of the film in that scene. Apart from that, the movie is impressive because of how entertaining it is, even if the story is average and the villain is really, really lame.
Total: 7
Avengers: Age of Ultron Review
Grand Total: 7
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Really funny +½
Amazing visuals +½
Great performance/character (Hawkeye) +½
Great music +½
Great writing +½
Too short -1
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 8
Overall impression
Avengers: Age of Ultron, is the 11th film in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe that was kicked off by Iron Man in 2008. That’s correct. Your math skills are not flawed. Eleven films in seven years nets an average of more than one Marvel film per year. Until today though, I had not felt franchise fatigue. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “franchise fatigue” means exactly what it sounds like: feeling the weight of a franchise as movies become tiresome. But first, the positives. Avengers: Age of Ultron was a darn good time, combining a lot of great action, a breakneck pace, and plenty of humor to create popcorn fun. The film did a great job of tying up what the first The Avengers was trying to do: build the previously established characters more. This film did that especially well with the three most underdeveloped characters: Black Widow, The Hulk, and Hawkeye. Unfortunately, that really doesn’t leave a lot of room for new characters. The bummer here is that this film features four new characters and has the burden of needing to develop them. Of these new characters is Ultron, whose name appears in the title of the film. Ultron is a character whose origin is so rushed, I was actually surprised that there was little to no buildup to his character. One minute he was an idea, the next minute, he was fully real. So much for buildup, suspense, and intrigue. This theme of rushedness played at the back of my mind throughout the film. While it did make it so that I didn’t even think to check my watch during a two and a half hour movie, I also felt like there was too much. The movie can be summed up using those words: too much. At the end of the day, this movie’s biggest flaw is overachievement. If the film had simply developed the previously existing characters more (which it does) and left the new characters alone, or even excluded them from the movie altogether (more on that soon), the film would have been far more satisfying and far more well-paced. Driving at full speed has one drawback: you’ll quickly run out of gas. Back to characters, two characters this movie established were Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, who are essentially new superheroes with new powers. The more I thought about them, the more I realized that they are completely unnecessary. Sure, they have some great lines, cool scenes (Scarlet Witch does something to each avenger (minus Hawkeye) that I really liked), and are fun to watch, but they really served no purpose at all to the story and could have been easily left out. If the film had taken them out (they have a lot of screen-time) and instead used the time spent on them to develop the villain, Ultron, then the film would have been far better. Ultron is in the title of the movie! How could it be that Ultron is under-developed? It’s true, this villain, though fun to listen to, just didn’t have the well-roundedness that another villain had in another movie called with the word “avenger” in the title. If you’ve been keeping track of the new characters, then you know that there is one remaining new character. That character will remain unnamed, but is under-developed, has some great scenes, and is probably just there for new movies to come. Apart from the bloat of the film though, there is one scene during which the film slows down. This scene has to do with the character building of Black Widow, the Hulk, and especially Hawkeye. The three characters that were the least developed throughout the solo Marvel films were given lots of time to develop, and I really enjoyed watching the movie take a deep breath and work with these characters. Throughout this film, Hawkeye was a standout character for me. He had the best lines, some of the best parts in the action, and the bulk of this scene. I really felt like I knew what he was about and why he was doing what he was doing, which is more than I can say about the four new characters in this film. I realize now that this review has a lot of negative criticism and I want to emphasize that I still enjoyed this film quite a lot. I just feel as if it could have been far better if it had focused on the characters already at its disposal. You can chalk this up to the director or the studio trying too hard to make the best movie possible, but I think the best way to do that is to reduce the amount of characters and focus on them so that the film can get to that nice sense of balance that all films need. A two and a half hour movie shouldn’t need to be longer to get everything tied together nicely.
Total: 6
Ant-Man Review
Grand Total: 7 ¾
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
An amazing scene (Thomas the Tank Engine) +½
Really funny +½
Amazing visuals +½
Great performance/character (Michael Douglas as Hank Pym) +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 8 ½
Overall impression
Ant-Man is not the origin story of the Ant-Man but rather the story of who succeeds Hank Pym (played to perfection by Michael Douglas), the original Ant-Man, as the newest incarnation of the hero. You see, Scott Lang, the man this film focuses on, is just an ordinary guy. He’s an electrical engineer who got put into prison for performing a sting operation on his corrupt employer. I guess he didn’t really think it through because, despite his good intentions of exposing the corrupt, his prison time lost him custody of his daughter and lost him his wife, who is now in a relationship with the guy who guards Scott’s prison. When Scott is released from prison, he finds it really difficult to get a job, as his criminal record makes his degrees and experience useless. Scott really wants to keep his life straight, because he wants to be able to support his daughter and see her again. Given the difficulties, however, he naturally swings back to crime at the behest of his buddies (one played by a hilarious Michael Peña) to break open the safe of a rich businessman to steal whatever is inside. Now, they don’t know what is inside, so once they break open the safe, Scott has to figure out exactly what it is that is inside, what it does, and who else wants it. At the same time, Hank Pym, a retired businessman is told that his longtime business partner, Darren Cross, is trying really hard to replicate the serum Hank Pym uses to become the Ant-Man. Can you see where this is going? Probably, so at this point the story isn’t as important as the characters or the entertainment value. Both are strong, as it turns out. Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang and brings so much likability to the role that I couldn’t help but be reminded of Chris Pratt’s portrayal of Starlord in Guardians of the Galaxy. This film feels as if it took many leaves out of the book held by Guardians of the Galaxy as the tone is pretty similar. The difference is that Ant-Man is more grounded; Scott’s whole world and all of his motivations are centered around getting to his daughter and being a good father in her life. For the most part, the film does a great job of balancing out humor and drama. There is a lot of humor in the film, but not too much, making this definitely a more serious film. You see, Hank Pym doesn’t want this Darren Cross character to be able to replicate his Ant-Man costume and, as such, seeks to sabotage Cross before he can unleash the Ant-Man into the hands of evil generic military people. The villain in this film and the story are definitely the weaker points, as I’ve said, but the characters, humor, and drama balance out to produce a good superhero film. The action towards the end is really great, and a certain scene at the end in the “quantum zone” features some truly amazing visual effects. Overall, Ant-Man is one of the better Marvel films that does a good job of establishing the character and keeping the entertainment high, even if the story and villain are generic and forgettable.
Total: 7
X-Men: Origins - Wolverine Review
Grand Total: 2
Technical
Watchable 4
Too long -1
Obvious plothole -½
Bad performance/character (Liev Scheiber as Victor) -½
Overuse of effects -½
Boring part -½
Total: 1
Overall impression
X-Men Origins: Wolverine has a title that suggests that other character names could go after that colon and that this whole “origins” business could expand to incorporate other characters. Seeing as no such other film has been made is quite a telling sign of the quality and success of this one. This one tells the origin story of Wolverine, the popular character played by Hugh Jackman, that has been in each and every other X-Men film. The biggest problem with this film is that the story it’s trying to tell is a complete mess. It’s difficult to give a one or two sentence summary of this film’s premise because it really doesn’t have one; it just throws you into this mix of brand-new characters. Victor, Logan’s brother, is one of these new characters. The problem with throwing the audience into a mess of characters and then not being able to put some sort of overriding mission or backdrop to the story is that the audience has nothing to get attached to. Nothing in this movie is worth getting attached to because things come and go like they don’t matter and the film just doesn’t ever focus on anything. Each of the previous X-Men films, even the terrible X-Men: The Last Stand, had an overriding mission or problem that the X-Men had to either confront or survive. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Logan is part of a special mutant division of the military that goes rogue. Logan doesn’t want to be part of their operations and leaves, settling down in Canada to do honest work. But of course they track him down and make him come after them. So many elements of the story don’t make sense, and the first half of the film is so poor that I genuinely found it hard to watch. Characters come and go without anything really meaning anything and it’s not until about two-thirds of the way into the film that things began to make sense and there was something to get invested in. But then it tries to rush all of this information into about ten or fifteen minutes at the end of the film that just made the whole experience tiring again. Even new characters are introduced at the end of the film, shoving them into a movie they don’t belong in and then never mentioning them again. Throughout this film, however, the biggest disappointment was Victor, Logan’s brother. He is supposed to be the backbone of this film as he is what keeps Logan attached to what is going on. Liev Scheiber seems bored playing him and only the music and camera angles spook any sort of menace into his character. At the end of the day, X-Men Origins: Wolverine just throws you into a mess of a story that doesn’t seem cohesive at any point during the movie. There are entertaining bits here and there, but the pacing, disposable characters, and terrible visual effects more than kill this film.
Total: 3
The Wolverine Review
Grand Total: 6
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
An amazing scene (revisiting Nagasaki) +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 7
Overall impression
The Wolverine is a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand and tells the story of how Logan, The Wolverine, reacts to the events of said movie and what he does to recover. Living alone and away from most of society, Logan is called back into the world by the granddaughter of Ichiro Yashida, a Japanese man Logan saved from the destruction of Nagasaki. Yashida is now old and offers Logan the chance to become mortal and live a normal life. All throughout the movie, it is never really explained how Yashida has the power to take Logan’s power away, only that he does. That is only the beginning of the film’s problems. Before we get to those, however, the positives must be admitted. This film has a very fast pace and a feeling of suspense throughout as the members of Yashida’s family fight for control of the vast empire of business he will pass on when he dies. Samurai are often used all over the place and, though they are both relevant and frequently great, they flip around needlessly and add a very silly and unbelievable element to the film. This ridiculous flipping around is also a little strange next to the brutal violence depicted in this movie. Even though it’s rated PG-13, The Wolverine should honestly be rated R. Some of the scenes in this film are just really difficult to watch. Still, the fast pace keep the movie going strong all the way through. The best part of the film, however, is how the writers manage to relate Nagasaki and how humanity bounces back with how Logan must move on after killing Jean Grey. These is a really great sequence in which Logan revisits Nagasaki that allows you to see the parallels between the recovery of the city and the recovery of Logan. But then the movie gets back to the complicated story and so many elements just don’t make sense. It’s hard to get attached to anything that is going on because of the many inconsistencies flying around, just waiting for you to notice them. The film had an uphill battle to fight though, given that nearly all of the characters in the film are new. For the most part, it does a good job of explaining each of the characters and how they are all related. What it doesn’t do, however, is do a good job of explaining the motivations behind the characters and how they got there in the first place. Overall, The Wolverine is certainly an entertaining addition to the X-Men franchise, it just has too many inconsistencies to be called a good movie.
Total: 5
Deadpool Review
Grand Total: 8 ¼
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
An amazing scene (punching Colossus) +½
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool) +½
Total: 8 ½
Overall impression
Deadpool is a ridiculous, self-aware, self-deprecating superhero film about Wade Wilson, a hit-man of sorts who falls in love with a stripper and is stricken with cancer (not as a result but, you know, he just was). So he undergoes a special surgery that turns him into Deadpool, an indestructible, self-healing mutant. Unfortunately, the procedure severely damages his appearance, so much so that he’s ashamed to go visit his fiancé. The beginning of this movie does a really great job of showing us what the character is like, while mixing in bits of his backstory. It tells the two stories in such a way that the story never drags but is actually benefitted from the additional knowledge you now have from the backstory bits. The backstory bits usually don’t last that long, at least until you get to Wilson’s procedure. This clip has a lot of real, scary and serious drama that really worked for me, because it’s unexpected in a movie like this. What the villain, Ajax, does to Wade Wilson to turn him into Deadpool is scary, and the movie doesn’t hold back on the drama, the same way it doesn’t hold back on the violence or the profanity. Now, the film has copious amounts of both physical and verbal comedy. The physical comedy is incredibly effective, with almost all of the jokes landing. The verbal comedy was a little more spotty. Some of it was great, especially the self-referential bits where Deadpool makes fun of the X-Men, or other superheroes, or Hugh Jackman (a lot of that). Other times though, it doesn’t work as well. Since the movie relies completely on these quips landing so that it can be entertaining, these moments when the jokes don’t land really halt the movie. When you strip the movie of the jokes and the violence, there isn’t a whole lot there (except for the good drama in the middle that I mentioned). The camerawork is pretty average and the effects are pretty mediocre, which is to be expected given this film’s small budget when compared to its scale. So it's a good thing the film was as entertaining as it was. Overall, Deadpool managed to make me care about an anti-hero of sorts with moments of great drama that get mixed in with ridiculous action, physical humor, and some great jokes. The movie was short, didn’t tell much of a story, but made what it had count.
Total: 8
Captain America: Civil War Review
Grand Total: 9 ½
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Moving +1
Thought-provoking +1
An amazing scene (Stark vs. Cap) +½
Amazing story/plot +½
Great performance/character (Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man) +½
Total: 10 (10 ½)
Overall impression
Captain America: Civil War is a continuation of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, two of the more recent films in the series. As such, it helps to know of the events that took place in both and how much destruction there was, particularly in Avengers: Age of Ultron when an entire city was lifted out of the ground and essentially destroyed. As a result, the Avengers and their freedom are questioned by the governments of the world. Why can they move around freely, cause collateral damage, and then always just walk away without any accountability? As a result, the governments of the world want the heroes to be kept in check. Tony Stark is behind this proposal because, well, he’s the reason the disaster in Avengers: Age of Ultron happened, and he wants to be held accountable. A lot of the other heroes agree. Captain America, on the other hand, is afraid of being controlled by a body that might hold special interests not in line with what the Avengers want to do. And he also has supporters. One of the many things I enjoy about this film is that both of these sides bring up legitimate points. If that weren’t enough, the characters’ philosophical debate actually makes you think about their situations in the world, and what would happen if we had superheroes who were on “our side”, if such a side could exist. But the biggest positive I can give this film is that it did what no other Marvel film has done for me so far: it took itself seriously. These characters are really fighting, and for deeply personal reasons. When it all comes together at the end, for the great fight between Iron Man and Captain America, you really feel the stakes and the emotion behind the fight. You see the motivation and you really don’t know whose side you’re on. This really brings out some great performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, the former giving, I think, his best performance as the character. Downey shows that Stark really cares about these issues; he hates the destruction he and the other superheroes cause whenever they interfere. To top it all off, the fighting, action, and stuntwork in this film are terrific. All of the action scenes feel creative even though they’re meticulously choreographed, which makes it always seem like real people are fighting and not clusters of CGI goodness. Two action setpieces, one in the middle with all of the characters and especially the one at the end are, I think the two greatest action setpieces in a Marvel film. The middle fight scene involves two new characters, actually: Black Panther and Spider-Man. They both have relatively minor roles in the film, but are both perfectly set up such that you understand what their personalities are and why they’re in this fight. Spider-Man, in particular, added a ton of humor to an otherwise serious film, which is strange to say given that this is from the studio that delivered Guardians of the Galaxy. Just as Avengers: Age of Ultron struggled to keep its focus with all of its characters, Captain America: Civil War remains focused throughout. This is, before anything else, a Captain America film and a sequel to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As such, it heavily involves characters like Bucky Barnes, whose story is really expanded in this film. All of the things I have complained about concerning these Marvel films, about having villains always trying to destroy the entire world, about the conflicts not being rooted in the characters, are all washed away in this film. It is everything I ever wanted a Marvel superhero film to be. There are very few things to criticize in this film, because the story and characters are so engaging. That having been said, I think the film ends a little abruptly, and I think Spider-Man leaves the film a little too quickly as well. There might be a few story elements that I find don’t quite add up when I see the film a second time, but I’ve given the film a lot of thought and I don’t ever focus on anything but the characters and how they clash, which is exactly what this movie was supposed to do. Because of that and all that I mentioned above, I think Captain America: Civil War is the best Marvel film to date.
Total: 9
X-Men: Apocalypse Review
Grand Total: 6 ¾
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Moving +1
An amazing scene (Magneto’s home) +½
Epic in scale +½
Amazing visuals +½
Too long -1
Obvious plothole -½
Uneven tone -½
Total: 7 ½
Overall impression
X-Men: Apocalypse is the continuation of the new X-Men story set up by the section of X-Men: Days of Future Past that took place in the past. It’s a little confusing, and I would definitely recommend watching that film and X-Men: First Class, it’s predecessor to help you understand all that is going on in this film (they’re also both good films).
This films is centered around Apocalypse, the first-ever mutant, who is resurrected in the 1980’s and wants to destroy the world for reasons that are very unclear. In any event, he goes around recruiting four followers who include Magneto, all while Charles Xavier is in the process of running his school for mutants, which now includes Jean Grey and Scott Summers, two mutants who can’t fully control their powers.
First, what I liked. I really enjoyed the action in this film and I really enjoyed the depiction of the aftermath of the previous film. Quicksilver had another great scene, though this time, it came out of nowhere. The acting was great across the board. The relationship between Jean Grey and Scott Summers was done well, though it wasn’t given nearly enough time. I enjoyed the opening scene, which sets up Apocalypse. I enjoyed the pace of the film and the bits of humor here and there.
Unfortunately, what I did not like is going to seem like it overwhelms what I did like. I don’t dislike this movie so much as I think it is bloated. As you might be able to see already, this film has a lot going on in it. Even for me, a huge fan of the X-Men movie series, I found a lot of it to be messy and confusing. The film has a really tough time getting all of the storylines to mesh together, leaving out some much-needed character development. Nowhere is this seen more than in Apocalypse’s followers; the only one that has a clear backstory is Magneto, and that’s not just because of the previous films. After X-Men: Days of Future Past, Magneto really seems to have changed. It’s revealed in X-Men: Apocalypse that he’s trying to live like humans. What happens to him as a result is incredibly moving, and I wish the movie had focused a lot more on that than on all of this other messiness. From there, however, Magneto doesn’t really go anywhere. There was a lot of potential for this backstory to come into play in a dramatic way, but it just didn’t. This leads into my biggest problem with the film: it lacks character where it needs it the most.
Unlike the previous two X-Men films, this film just can’t seem to make its character moments pay off. Character motivation and ideology are what should drive a movie like this. I don’t think I can describe anything about Apocalypse’s character, except menacing. I don’t really know what kind of personality he has or what he wants to do. As a result, it was really hard for me to get invested in what was going on because I didn’t feel personally attached to the characters. Whenever a villain’s plot is to destroy the world, I instantly find myself disconnected because it doesn’t feel personal.
Overall, I thought X-Men: Apocalypse had too much going on in it to connect me to the main story. The villain was without character and there are too many storylines going on at once. Within this film are several great films. But too much is left unexplained and too many characters are sidelined for me to call this a good film.
Total: 6
Doctor Strange Review
Grand Total: 6
Technical
Engaging 6
An amazing scene (watching the snow fall) +½
Amazing visuals +½
Great performance/character (Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange) +½
Obvious plothole -½
Too short -1
Total: 6
Overall impression
Doctor Strange, the latest superhero film from Marvel is about Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), an arrogant surgeon who, on the way to a conference, crashes his Lamborghini. When surgery fails to heal his hands, he heads to Tibet in hopes that some Eastern form of healing can do what Western methods could not. He meets The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) who shows him a spiritual world in a psychedelic scene for the ages. He is also alerted to a spiritual threat about to be unleashed by Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen), a former student of The Ancient One. As jumbled and rushed as all of that is in the film, I prefer to start with positives, so let’s talk about how entertaining and visually dazzling this film is.
Right from the start, the Marvel Studios formula is in full effect as we’re introduced to a cocky character, a brisk pace, and a fair amount of humor. The story operates as a mixture of familiar stories, notably those of Ant-Man and Iron Man (who are remarkably similar to begin with). And it’s a good time with a lot of fun moments and good performances all around (Benedict Cumberbatch seems perfectly cast). I wouldn’t say it’s more fun than Iron Man and Ant-Man, but it was still an entertaining time. Where this film definitely stands out is in its visual style. As I mentioned before, this film deals in spiritual worlds, which can look like anything. This film capitalizes on the infinite possibilities here by presenting manipulations of our world and entirely new worlds. Both are mind-bending, but the most spectacular was definitely in the “entirely new worlds” parts. The standout scene for me in terms of visual effects was definitely towards the beginning of the film, when The Ancient One first shows Strange this world. There are plenty of other ways in which the film dazzles as well.
The film’s problems lie in its pacing and length. This film, which bears a lot of similarity to Iron Man in terms of its story structure, is almost fifteen minutes shorter. So much of this film is exposition that, given the film’s shorter runtime, compromises the exploration of themes and character-building. Iron Man has had a much fuller character transformation at the end of Iron Man than Doctor Strange has had at the end of this film, much of which is because Doctor Strange is just a lot shorter. My favorite scene in the entire film is in a slower moment when a particular character reflects on life and how short time is. The villain’s entire motivations have to do with the shortness of time and mortality. This is an important theme in the film that needed proper exploration! It would have given the story more focus, clarity, and depth. The difference between a decent superhero film and a great one is in how much time it dedicates to character and themes. It’s why I’ve discussed the conflict in Captain America: Civil War countless times to different results and never once discussed anything about Iron Man 2 but its lack of these qualities.
Overall, Doctor Strange was another fun addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It had a unique visual flair that produced some really standout scenes. But the shorter runtime limited the film’s potential, rushing the story at the expense of character development and exploration of themes.
Total: 6
Logan Review
Grand Total: 8
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Moving +1
An amazing scene (child lab) +½
Amazing cinematography +½
Great performance/character (Hugh Jackman as Logan) +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 9
Overall impression
In a world of uplifting, happy-ending, fast-paced superhero films, Logan takes a different approach. It presents its titular character as a dark, depressed man who’s lived for two-hundred years, watching other mutants like him rise and fall, and watching people he’s cared for get killed because of him. To Logan, the world is a painful place, and there isn’t much to make him care about living. Charles Xavier is one of the few people he takes care of—until he meets Laura, a young Hispanic girl that he must take to the Canadian border.
This film is half road-trip, half bloody action. There are no bright colors nor super heroes. The opening ten to twenty minutes set the tone perfectly: heartbreaking, realistic and believable. They also provide some backstory about Laura and make the main characters feel authentic.
The special effects, sound design, and cinematography are all great in this film. Hugh Jackman plays Logan well and has for the past seventeen years. Dafne Keen, who plays Laura, isn’t given a whole lot to do until the last act of the film, but really brings it then. As far as I know, she’s never been in a film before, so I’m interested to see where she goes from here.
Logan’s character arc develops strongly in the first two acts of this film (introduction and road-trip), but it does not play out well in the third act. For a dark movie like this to work, you need the main character to be either likable, relatable, or sympathetic. There needs to be something to connect to. After all that Logan has been through in the previous X-Men films, he should at least be sympathetic. But in the third act, he isn’t. He just goes back to being a stubborn, cranky guy who doesn’t want to do anything or help anyone. And that took me out of the movie.
Overall, Logan the superhero genre a new tone. It features a different world for mutants without hope or purpose. The first two acts are strong in setting up the tone, characters, and story. There are some truly heartbreaking moments here, but the third act made Logan unlikable again—which was disappointing. I would still recommend this film, but just know that it is a bloody mess and isn’t terribly uplifting or fun like a typical superhero film.
Total: 7
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review
Grand Total: 6 ¼
Technical
Engaging 6
An amazing scene (Mary Poppins) +½
Epic in scale +½
Really funny +½
Amazing visuals +½
Great songs +½
Too long -1
Obvious plothole -½
Uneven tone -½
Total: 6 ½
Overall impression
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the sequel to 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, a film that surprised me with its humor, memorable characters, and great soundtrack. This film tries its best to bring all of that back. This time around, the team of five are running away from a strange race of gold-skinned people when they are saved by a mysterious person. This mysterious person has information about Peter Quill’s father, a big mystery figure from the first film.
Let’s get this out of the way quickly: this film still has the humor and dazzle of the first film. The worlds and characters are colorful, and the humor is on point. The timing is sometimes a little too quick, but the film still has a lot of great moments, especially from Drax and Yondu. Yondu was one of my favorite parts of the first film, so I was glad to see him get a lot more screentime here with an expanded role.
Beyond the entertainment value though, there isn’t a lot, and this problem stems from the fact that the film is very unfocused. Seriously, this film has its focus so far away from story that I find it difficult to remember any sequence of scenes because they often feel disjointed and unrelated. There are so many different storylines going on in this film that it is a little difficult to keep it all together. In fact, it’s a little difficult to understand what this film is even going to be about until about 45 minutes into it. When the jokes are on point (which is most of the time), you likely won’t mind this unfocused plot because you’ll be too entertained. But for the 15% of this film that isn’t jokes, the film slows down so much because there isn’t much to get invested in.
Don’t get me wrong, this film is hilarious and very pretty to look at. But when the jokes start to get old, there really isn’t much else here. In place of an engaging story, the film tries to give its characters more depth, and succeeds on some level with a couple characters. But the way it does so feels very unnecessarily dark and tonally out-of-place. If this film had cut out the ridiculous gold-skinned people from the film (which felt unnecessary to begin with), it would have been a lot more focused.
Overall, I enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 but felt that the tone and story were both a little unfocused. While this tonal focus problem was definitely present in the first film, it was easier to ignore due to the film’s fresh feel. The originality and novelty of Guardians of the Galaxy has worn off just enough that there needed to be something more to keep the sequel afloat. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t. I still had a good time watching this film and would recommend it, but I don’t see there being a whole lot of rewatchability; once the jokes get old, this film will have little left to offer.
Total: 6
Spider-Man: Homecoming Review
Grand Total: 7 ½
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Really funny +½
An amazing scene (going to homecoming) +½
Great performance/character (Tom Holland as Spider-man) +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 8
Overall impression
Spider-Man: Homecoming is about Peter Parker (Tom Holland), a 16-year-old superhero struggling to get recognized by Tony Stark and the rest of the Avengers after his involvement in Captain America: Civil War. He’s really just using his powers to help out the neighborhood and stop petty criminals but knows he can do more. So when he stops runs into some criminals with incredibly powerful weapons during a bank robbery, he decides to find out where these weapons come from and who is behind it all. He does all this while trying to be a normal high-school student. The result is a very entertaining movie that feels like other Marvel films - enjoyable but pretty disposable.
Let’s start with the good performances. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) makes a few appearances in this film, as he made Peter’s suit and plays a sort of father figure. Even though he’s only in the movie for a few scenes, he really brings it when he’s on screen. Michael Keaton is quite menacing as the villain of the film (more on the villains later). Jacob Batalon is great as Peter Parker’s nerdy high school friend. Even Chris Evans makes a few hilarious appearances as Captain America! But the performance that carries this film comes from Tom Holland. This guy perfectly embodies the naive, super talented, and overly eager Peter Parker. You can see that he’s just a good kid trying to do the right thing with his powers. And at the same time, while he’s Spider-Man, he’s just so happy because he’s doing what he loves. Tom Holland perfectly captures both sides of the character and was the source of most of the film’s entertainment.
The rest of the movie is pretty decent. There are two movies going on here - Peter’s high school life and his crime-stopping life. The high school side of the story was the superior of the two parts of this film. The more action-heavy side of the film felt a little inconsequential and repetitive, as if it was taking up just a little too much room. Peter didn’t really have a personal connection with the antagonists of the film and was really just stopping them to prove himself to Tony Stark; they could’ve been anybody. So the film was mostly surface-level entertainment until there’s a surprising twist most of the way through the film. This makes for a great five minutes but not much more; I just wish the film had done a little more with the twist and the villains in the film to give the movie some real stakes. The high school stuff was more interesting because it was personally connected to Peter and I wish the writers had done that with the villains.
Overall, I found this to be another entertaining movie from Marvel. It was a little disposable and could’ve used higher stakes, but the central character felt genuine thanks to Tom Holland’s great performance. The high school elements of this film were better than the more monotonous action scenes (featuring a few too many gadgets in Spider-Man’s suit) and I just wish the film had focused on the more personal elements of the story. It was very entertaining, but felt like it had more potential.
Total: 7