Plotline: –
Following the Civil War of Avengers, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) resumes his study at school while being under the guidance of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Happy (Jon Favreau). While Peter wants to be more involved in action with the Avengers, Tony constantly refutes all such demands of Peter by reminding him that he isn’t ready for any of that.
Can Peter convince Stark about his abilities or will he understand Stark’s concern that reasons his constant refusals?
Positive points: –
- Three actors; Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr. and Michael Keaton give stupendous performances in their respective avatars and pump in life to the movie time and again.
- It has been a good decision by MCU to not have included the story of the origin of Spider-Man because we would have been bored of seeing the radioactive spider biting Peter for the third time. Moreover, we got to see a new kind of Spider-Man who is kinda…. ummm… Iron-Man-Spider-Man for his suit is laced with wonderful technologies and it seemed cool.
- Tony Stark in an Indian wedding! *Grins*
Negative points: –
- A loosely written script with some obvious plot-holes mar a cool storyline.
- Except a handful ones, most comic-punches are forced and stale. We expected better humour from a Marvel movie atleast.
- The movie had good action sequences but they aren’t upto the standards set by superhero movies. Technologies have developed and cinema has excelled in making awesome VFXs’ so why wasn’t it used to the maximum in this flick? Bleh indeed!
- Except Peter Parker and Ned, no other character gets ample space for development, not even the antagonist which is disappointing.
- So after making movies like Logan which dismantles the notion that being a superhero or having superpowers isn’t cool at all, Hollywood gives us a movie which does everything to show that it is. God save cinema!
Direction, Script and Other Technicalities: –
Jon Watts must have had thought that directing a Spider-Man movie was going to be an easy roller-coaster ride and if he did, he got it all wrong. It’s not that he has done a poor work in terms of direction coz there have been some awesome shots such as the superb montage where Peter sees a visage of half his face and half of Spider-Man’s when he is trapped after a fight. However, he failed in ameliorating the shortcomings of a tepid script which is not only marred by some obvious plotholes (like Peter puts a tracker on the goons when they come to his school which he could have done the previous night when he had fought with them) but also by some age-old gags (like a goon leaving the villain’s gang by threatening him that he would reveal his identity which will eventually lead to his death obviously; I mean seriously, can’t our movie characters ever act smarter?). The dialogues lack the usual Marvel kind of punches which evinces the fact that the many writers involved with the film had written it down in haste ignoring its potential.
While Salvatore Totino’s cinematography and Lebental-Berman’s editing were cool, the VFX department as well as the action choreographers have let us down. It isn’t that they are any bad but given to Marvel’s previous ventures (especially Doctor Strange), this comes as underwhelming. The music score by Michael Giacchino was nice however and suited well with the action montages.
Performances: –
Tom Holland is more than impressive as the eponymous character and is the soul of the movie. He knows that he is talented to the core and hence flaunts his acting skills blatantly without worrying about the world. Except two occasions (which you may not notice), his immaculate American accent never lets you feel that he is actually British. He has a lot of potential in him and can become a star like the actors with whom he has worked in the flick.
Robert Downey Jr. can never disappoint you in his Iron-Man/Tony Stark avatar and he, even in a sort of cameo, steals the show (that’s not a new thing but still..). Furthermore, it was great seeing him in an Indian attire! *Grins again*
Michael Keaton is a terrific actor and it isn’t strange that he nails his job as Vulture. However, he doesn’t get much of a space to show his character’s emotional strengths as well as have a proper development of his onscreen persona which is actually frustrating. Honestly speaking, he has been wasted in this film.
Jacob Batalon is delightful as Peter’s best buddy Ned. His chemistry with Tom is wonderful and we hope to see more of it in the future films.
Marisa Tomei is good as Aunt May even though she is in kind of a cameo in the film. It’s again a shortcoming of the movie not only because they wasted an actress of her caliber but also ignored the emotional aspects of her relationship with Peter.
Zandaya is good in her small role. Jon Favreau is delectable as Happy. Laura Harrier is confident as Liz but her frailty as an actor can be seen completely towards the end where she is supposed to be emotional but is trying to act cool. Sadly, for her and us, she (and to some extents even Tom) doesn’t look like a 15-year-old.
Final Verdict: –
Spider-Man: Homecoming isn’t a disaster but with the kind of expectations it had on itself, it falls way short of them. It isn’t outright bad as it has some enjoyable moments but when they finally add up, the result isn’t something exciting. This movie had the potential of being a lot more owing to the presence of a super-talented cast, but finally yields to a below average flick. This is not the movie we wanted or deserved. For me, this is MCU’s first dip and I hope it’s the last one too.
Movie Freak India 