Note: a few years ago, after hearing that another company had purchased the rights to make the next Spider-Man film, I wrote a post expressing perplexed doubts, but I'm wondering if the reasons behind my initial misgivings were misinterpreted, and figured I would supply a more detailed explanation. I didn't mean to suggest that previous Spider-Man franchises didn't add up, in fact I rather enjoyed the Sam Raimi trilogy way back when, but unfortunately never saw Andrew Garfield's films, for the following reasons. Spider-Man films were just coming out too often (like Batman films). There was Raimi's trilogy. It was great. 5 years elapsed between his trilogy and the first Amazing Spider-Man film. It wasn't enough time in my opinion. I wasn't ready to invest myself in another incarnation of the story, and thought it was more about cashing in, than presenting good storytelling. I may have been incorrect to think that and I never saw the films so I can't describe them, but I certainly wasn't ready for another Spider-Man franchise, hey, it's probably good, I probably missed out. Now Marvel has been making high quality action films for years and the universe they've created is colossal. I figure that if you were 7 years old when the first Iron Man film came out, the cinema of your youth was incredible, if you liked action films. Marvel didn't start out with a Spider-Man film, it introduced Spider-Man during Captain America: Civil War, just kind of snuck ye olde Spider-Man in there, without making much of a fuss. Taking the pressure off the new Spider-Man character made his first film much less of a spectacle, and then it turned out to be really well done, as have its successors, Marvel's youth contingent. Spider-Man: Far From Home ended on a thrilling cliffhanger and had been so well done that the thought of just ending it there and starting up again fresh with a new franchise seemed like such a bad idea, something that wouldn't sit right with millions of fans. The thought of having no closure with that narrative and suddenly having a new franchise with a new origins story and different actors 2 or 3 years later was too much, hence I thought Marvel should continue making new Spider-Man films (they had been doing such a great job). It's not that I thought the new production team would do a particularly bad job, if anything Marvel's excellence has had an auriferous effect across the action/fantasy film spectrum, DC is currently making much craftier films, not to mention the mad craze of independents. But it was possible the new franchise may have been less compelling, and no doubt would have been vehemently criticized regardless, due to the lack of closure. Spider-Man: No Way Home plays with franchise particularities, and brilliantly synthesizes the three latest franchises, in a tender and caring homage to constructive sympathy. Rather than try to defeat the 5 villains who appear after one of Dr. Strange's spells goes awry, with the help of fan favourites from the last 20 years (like living history), this youthful Spider-Man tries to find a way to cure (with help) them from the nutso accidents that led them astray. Meanwhile, he also wants to get into college while dealing with high school and a lack of anonymity. I thought it was a great idea. An atemporal blend of different creative conceptions. Not sure where it will head next. But in terms of actions films thinking about the dynamics of action films, Spider-Man: No Way Home does an amazing job, without seeming like it's making much of an effort. Not bad.
Showing posts with label Spider-Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spider-Man. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
Friday, July 12, 2019
Spider-Man: Far From Home
I briefly considered taking a break from Marvel Studios after viewing the last Avengers film.
It was incredibly intense and seeing another related film shortly thereafter seemed borderline overload; I wasn't sure if I could hack it!
The thoughts weren't too demanding though, just one of the hundreds that float around deep down and then suddenly pop into one's head at random individualized intervals while they trek around town throughout the day, and I eventually found myself ready for Spider-Man: Far From Home for one of its first screenings, with an IMAX ticket no less, purchased for a matinee showing.
And I wasn't disappointed.
Not to heap too much praise on Marvel Studios, and it's important to never rest on your laurels or think you've found that magic touch that works each and every freakin' time, but they do consistently release creative stunning convincing witty films that cleverly blend action, drama, comedy, and science-fiction, to present thrilling tales that'll likely hold up for multiple viewings, for now, and far into the foreseeable future.
Adventure films which made similar impacts were few and far between when I was growing up, which likely explains why I find Marvel Studios's consistency so mind-blowing.
It's like what you used to wait 4 or 5 years for comes out every 3 or 4 months.
And the quality's usually high.
With incredibly deep interdependent storylines.
The new Spider-Man film functions as a spellbinding overconfident-emergent-villain vs. doubt-plagued-protagonist revelation, but it's also a chill coming of age Summer teen comedy, the two thematic thrusts imaginatively seasoned with narrative expertise.
If you want multiple characters developed in varying degrees, there are at least 14 given room to manoeuvre within, and the brisk pace sees them observing and commenting along different youthful and aged lines, as responsibility irritates Peter Parker (Tom Holland), who foolishly thought he was going on vacation.
Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), Mr. Harrington (Martin Starr), and Mr. Dell (J.B. Smoove [who could have used more lines!]) skilfully present differing variations of the appropriate, proceeding in awestruck error, in situations far beyond their control.
Perhaps the situations are a bit too out of control for a student trip to Europe.
It's sort of like an elite counter-terrorist is still in high school and on vacation with his unsuspecting classmates, who become indirectly involved as he confronts dire globalized ambition.
But their somewhat far-fetched integration does make for some thrilling comedy, as long as you're confident nothing will go wrong, and Spider-Man will enact game changing regional parity.
But will he?
I highly recommend Far From Home for both fans of the superheroic and people looking to chaotically chill.
In the Summer.
The Summertime elements are so thoughtfully interwoven I'll likely watch it every Winter and Summer for years to come, in Winter as preparation for Summer, in Summer since Summer is Summer.
I should say that Marvel Studios brought their A plus plus game to move their Spider-Man films into the Iron Man position.
Thor and the Guardians have their work cut out for them.
Along with Black Panther.
And so many many others.
Laidback cool synergistic overload.
I do love these new Spider-Man films.
Overflowing with raw contemplation.
It was incredibly intense and seeing another related film shortly thereafter seemed borderline overload; I wasn't sure if I could hack it!
The thoughts weren't too demanding though, just one of the hundreds that float around deep down and then suddenly pop into one's head at random individualized intervals while they trek around town throughout the day, and I eventually found myself ready for Spider-Man: Far From Home for one of its first screenings, with an IMAX ticket no less, purchased for a matinee showing.
And I wasn't disappointed.
Not to heap too much praise on Marvel Studios, and it's important to never rest on your laurels or think you've found that magic touch that works each and every freakin' time, but they do consistently release creative stunning convincing witty films that cleverly blend action, drama, comedy, and science-fiction, to present thrilling tales that'll likely hold up for multiple viewings, for now, and far into the foreseeable future.
Adventure films which made similar impacts were few and far between when I was growing up, which likely explains why I find Marvel Studios's consistency so mind-blowing.
It's like what you used to wait 4 or 5 years for comes out every 3 or 4 months.
And the quality's usually high.
With incredibly deep interdependent storylines.
The new Spider-Man film functions as a spellbinding overconfident-emergent-villain vs. doubt-plagued-protagonist revelation, but it's also a chill coming of age Summer teen comedy, the two thematic thrusts imaginatively seasoned with narrative expertise.
If you want multiple characters developed in varying degrees, there are at least 14 given room to manoeuvre within, and the brisk pace sees them observing and commenting along different youthful and aged lines, as responsibility irritates Peter Parker (Tom Holland), who foolishly thought he was going on vacation.
Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), Mr. Harrington (Martin Starr), and Mr. Dell (J.B. Smoove [who could have used more lines!]) skilfully present differing variations of the appropriate, proceeding in awestruck error, in situations far beyond their control.
Perhaps the situations are a bit too out of control for a student trip to Europe.
It's sort of like an elite counter-terrorist is still in high school and on vacation with his unsuspecting classmates, who become indirectly involved as he confronts dire globalized ambition.
But their somewhat far-fetched integration does make for some thrilling comedy, as long as you're confident nothing will go wrong, and Spider-Man will enact game changing regional parity.
But will he?
I highly recommend Far From Home for both fans of the superheroic and people looking to chaotically chill.
In the Summer.
The Summertime elements are so thoughtfully interwoven I'll likely watch it every Winter and Summer for years to come, in Winter as preparation for Summer, in Summer since Summer is Summer.
I should say that Marvel Studios brought their A plus plus game to move their Spider-Man films into the Iron Man position.
Thor and the Guardians have their work cut out for them.
Along with Black Panther.
And so many many others.
Laidback cool synergistic overload.
I do love these new Spider-Man films.
Overflowing with raw contemplation.
Friday, April 5, 2019
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Alternative dimensions, co-existing in immaterial symbiosis, parallel narratives unconsciously confabulating interdimensional repartee, no first contact, no apparent links, nothing organically orchestrating symphonic resonance, yet conceptual substance fantastically resides, even though manifold possibilities disenchant synthetic theses, corresponding primordial corporealities existing in fluid gurgle, perhaps by accident, perhaps extrajudicially, although their ontological synergies suggest otherwise, as if they're ethereally co-dependent envirosketches.
They're clearly independent inasmuch as each realm reverberates with distinct novelty, complimentary orthodoxies stretched out like multilateral scripture, naturalistic pretensions conflicting in universal bewilderment, as dogmas that seem tried and true are virtually lost in emancipating infinities.
Multivariability.
Emphatically groomed.
But they're clearly dependent insofar as each distillation is characterized by the same peculiarities, compelling factors from each resembling one another, even though their matrices may be innately avant-garde, from the outside looking in, they're still inhabited by the same constituents, still constructed with the same schematics.
What incorporeally organic material binds them?
What's responsible for their biodiverse resolve?
Star Trek examines the concept from different angles, Inception taking a more introspective approach.
If people hear voices who's to say they weren't multilaterally conceived by invisible ecological beings whom they're capable of phantasmagorically translating?
As if physical constructs like iron could be spread like Nutella, as if they could see and transform matter with tectonic credulity, crafting portals out of thin air with geological finesse, like aged astronomical alchemists, intergalactically demure yet cheeky.
Vortex.
Multiple alternative dimensions wildly present themselves in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, some of them demanding their own agile features, in unacknowledged tantalizing Grindhouse.
And as one Spider-Person perishes, another must heed the call, although he's somewhat shy and bluntly nervous, and distrusting of his coveted newfound gifts.
Spider-Peeps make for a rambunctious roll call, as diabolical technological largesse seeks to cheat mortal temporality.
Paradigms of popularity dynastically converge in the superheroic postmodern, grating the spice mélange, blending ye olde everything.
So so love film noir Spider-Man.
Plus anime Spider-Woman.
And jaded middle-aged Spider-Man.
A cool collection of Spider-People.
*Still no Mirai no Mirai.
They're clearly independent inasmuch as each realm reverberates with distinct novelty, complimentary orthodoxies stretched out like multilateral scripture, naturalistic pretensions conflicting in universal bewilderment, as dogmas that seem tried and true are virtually lost in emancipating infinities.
Multivariability.
Emphatically groomed.
But they're clearly dependent insofar as each distillation is characterized by the same peculiarities, compelling factors from each resembling one another, even though their matrices may be innately avant-garde, from the outside looking in, they're still inhabited by the same constituents, still constructed with the same schematics.
What incorporeally organic material binds them?
What's responsible for their biodiverse resolve?
Star Trek examines the concept from different angles, Inception taking a more introspective approach.
If people hear voices who's to say they weren't multilaterally conceived by invisible ecological beings whom they're capable of phantasmagorically translating?
As if physical constructs like iron could be spread like Nutella, as if they could see and transform matter with tectonic credulity, crafting portals out of thin air with geological finesse, like aged astronomical alchemists, intergalactically demure yet cheeky.
Vortex.
Multiple alternative dimensions wildly present themselves in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, some of them demanding their own agile features, in unacknowledged tantalizing Grindhouse.
And as one Spider-Person perishes, another must heed the call, although he's somewhat shy and bluntly nervous, and distrusting of his coveted newfound gifts.
Spider-Peeps make for a rambunctious roll call, as diabolical technological largesse seeks to cheat mortal temporality.
Paradigms of popularity dynastically converge in the superheroic postmodern, grating the spice mélange, blending ye olde everything.
So so love film noir Spider-Man.
Plus anime Spider-Woman.
And jaded middle-aged Spider-Man.
A cool collection of Spider-People.
*Still no Mirai no Mirai.
Friday, July 21, 2017
Spider-Man: Homecoming
The bourgeoisie surreptitiously asserts itself in Marvel's new Spider-Man: Homecoming, as competing potential father figures sternly challenge wild teenage convictions.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) offers fame and fortune.
He nurtures young Peter (Tom Holland) with august olympian tragedy, but isn't there to provide sought after guidance when the perplexities of crime fighting overwhelm as bewilderingly as they undermine.
His approach is school-of-hard-knocksy and Mr. Parker is none too amused.
Thus, he sees Mr. Stark's world and that of the Avengers as too ornate, too disassociated from that of the common person, and even though he wholeheartedly seeks to become an Avenger, like Henry Carpenter, he prefers to keep his feet on the ground, since he's unable to balance avenging rewards with communal sacrifices.
Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) on the other hand presents a successful self-made entrepreneurial gritty streetwise contrast to the illustrious Ironman.
He doesn't hobnob with politicians and plutocrats and geniuses and royalty.
He's an intelligent hands-on formerly honest businessperson who was forced into a life of crime by insensitive shortsighted unapologetic bureaucratic greed.
Choosing to keep his house and to save the jobs of the workers he employs, he adapts to his unfortunate circumstances and finds ways to controversially endure.
He's still a criminal though, and Peter's right to attempt to stop him from selling highly advanced weapons to bank robbers and thugs (he could have found other applications for his salvage), but when Peter sees the effects his actions have on his friends at school, he can't help but wonder if he's made the right decision.
He's caught between silver spoons and heavy metal, uncertain as to where he fits in, naturally gravitating towards Mr. Stark, who is a good person and can't be accused of being self-obsessed after the ballplaying actions he takes in Captain America: Civil War, but Pete still can't help but wonder if there's a dark side to his illuminated heroics, a dark side that leaves people like Toomes and his family stricken, as he prepares for another year of high school.
In hearty bourgeois style.
I doubt critics who lambasted the bourgeoisie for decades thoroughly contemplated a Western world where there was no bourgeoisie and a serious lack of honest professions for intelligent hard-working University grads.
Not me. J'aime mes emplois.
I may have done that too.
Before entering the real world.
The internet does provide ample opportunity to set up a business though.
Or your own newspaper.
It makes sense that traditional news outlets would vilify self-made electronically based independent journalism for trying to broadcast news online because they can realistically put them out of business, a threat major news sources didn't have 15 years ago.
Monopoly contested.
If they won't hire you, and you want to be a reporter, just keep reporting online while utilizing commensurate principles of honesty and integrity.
If they call your news fake afterwards, you'll know you've been noticed.
If you are just making stuff up out of thin air and not adding a humorous element that makes it obviously seem ludicrous, then major news sources are justified in labelling your outputs fake.
Oh man, too heavy.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is an entertaining thought provoking comedic yet solemn examination of contemporary American society crafted from hardy adolescently focused momentum.
Parker's struggles to fit in, to get Mr. Stark to listen, to prove himself avengefully, to impress the girl he likes (Laura Harrier as Liz), etcetera, aptly reflect the struggles of so many youthful reps, who likely also possess incomparable super powers.
Peter's friends and family, along with his teachers and adversaries, and Toomes and his squad, persuasively expand the Marvel universe's exceptionally diverse cast into cool and quizzical alternative realms, complete with the potential for amorous arch-villainy, possibly in a sequel that builds on Peter's conflicted yet contending earnest yet withdrawn middle-class symbolism.
With that theme in mind, the next Spider-Man film could rival Captain America: Civil War in terms of groundbreaking action-based sociopolitical commentary, streams crossed and minds melding, to keep things fresh and pyrotechnically strewn.
Perhaps Peter will be strong enough to hold the boat together in subsequent films?
That's what the middle-class does when it doesn't overstretch itself.
Steady as she goes.
Classic 20th Century Canada.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) offers fame and fortune.
He nurtures young Peter (Tom Holland) with august olympian tragedy, but isn't there to provide sought after guidance when the perplexities of crime fighting overwhelm as bewilderingly as they undermine.
His approach is school-of-hard-knocksy and Mr. Parker is none too amused.
Thus, he sees Mr. Stark's world and that of the Avengers as too ornate, too disassociated from that of the common person, and even though he wholeheartedly seeks to become an Avenger, like Henry Carpenter, he prefers to keep his feet on the ground, since he's unable to balance avenging rewards with communal sacrifices.
Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) on the other hand presents a successful self-made entrepreneurial gritty streetwise contrast to the illustrious Ironman.
He doesn't hobnob with politicians and plutocrats and geniuses and royalty.
He's an intelligent hands-on formerly honest businessperson who was forced into a life of crime by insensitive shortsighted unapologetic bureaucratic greed.
Choosing to keep his house and to save the jobs of the workers he employs, he adapts to his unfortunate circumstances and finds ways to controversially endure.
He's still a criminal though, and Peter's right to attempt to stop him from selling highly advanced weapons to bank robbers and thugs (he could have found other applications for his salvage), but when Peter sees the effects his actions have on his friends at school, he can't help but wonder if he's made the right decision.
He's caught between silver spoons and heavy metal, uncertain as to where he fits in, naturally gravitating towards Mr. Stark, who is a good person and can't be accused of being self-obsessed after the ballplaying actions he takes in Captain America: Civil War, but Pete still can't help but wonder if there's a dark side to his illuminated heroics, a dark side that leaves people like Toomes and his family stricken, as he prepares for another year of high school.
In hearty bourgeois style.
I doubt critics who lambasted the bourgeoisie for decades thoroughly contemplated a Western world where there was no bourgeoisie and a serious lack of honest professions for intelligent hard-working University grads.
Not me. J'aime mes emplois.
I may have done that too.
Before entering the real world.
The internet does provide ample opportunity to set up a business though.
Or your own newspaper.
It makes sense that traditional news outlets would vilify self-made electronically based independent journalism for trying to broadcast news online because they can realistically put them out of business, a threat major news sources didn't have 15 years ago.
Monopoly contested.
If they won't hire you, and you want to be a reporter, just keep reporting online while utilizing commensurate principles of honesty and integrity.
If they call your news fake afterwards, you'll know you've been noticed.
If you are just making stuff up out of thin air and not adding a humorous element that makes it obviously seem ludicrous, then major news sources are justified in labelling your outputs fake.
Oh man, too heavy.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is an entertaining thought provoking comedic yet solemn examination of contemporary American society crafted from hardy adolescently focused momentum.
Parker's struggles to fit in, to get Mr. Stark to listen, to prove himself avengefully, to impress the girl he likes (Laura Harrier as Liz), etcetera, aptly reflect the struggles of so many youthful reps, who likely also possess incomparable super powers.
Peter's friends and family, along with his teachers and adversaries, and Toomes and his squad, persuasively expand the Marvel universe's exceptionally diverse cast into cool and quizzical alternative realms, complete with the potential for amorous arch-villainy, possibly in a sequel that builds on Peter's conflicted yet contending earnest yet withdrawn middle-class symbolism.
With that theme in mind, the next Spider-Man film could rival Captain America: Civil War in terms of groundbreaking action-based sociopolitical commentary, streams crossed and minds melding, to keep things fresh and pyrotechnically strewn.
Perhaps Peter will be strong enough to hold the boat together in subsequent films?
That's what the middle-class does when it doesn't overstretch itself.
Steady as she goes.
Classic 20th Century Canada.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Spider Man 3
I was surprised that Spider Man 3 wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm usually weary when I hear people claim that a film is good according to what it is because this comment often denotes that the film is a successful piece of crap. I like the odd crappy film, but when a big budget sequel extravaganza like Spider Man 3 gets the crap plug, one wonders if it's worth the time. But after viewing it, I have to admit that it is in fact good according to what it is, the third melodramatic installment in a teenybopper comic book franchise that skillfully juxtaposes the maudlin with the macabre, the morality with the mystery. The film is fun and entertaining and is not really trying to deliver any profound philosophical message so searching for one outside of the symbolism is likely unfair. And the way in which it skillfully employs its plethora of minor characters really helps maintain one's interest throughout, notably Bruce Campbell's scene as well as the interactions between Peter Parker and his landlord's family. Spider Man 3 lasts for almost two and a half hours but the pace is tight and when the final reels had played I felt like I'd just seen a typical 90 minute flick. And wow bob wow, J. Jonah Jameson steals the show, adding beautifully crafted stylistic breaks which briefly send one's perception into a ridiculously sublime filmic wonderland.
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