REFORMED IMPRESSIONS - SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING

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🍿👎🏾 REFORMED IMPRESSIONS™ : SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING -

- After giving this movie a fair second screening on Blu ray, my original impression is adjusted -- downward. Yeah, I like it even less than before, and it wasn't much then. I can understand that this isn't supposed to be the classic version of Spider-Man, the version that became the most popular superhero character to begin with, and the one I love. I can understand the need to reach out to a new audience, however apathetic that audience may be as far as the source material. But this effort risks alienating the faithful while pandering to kids in such superficial ways, lacking any true intelligence or sincerity. Aside from the dopey comedy riddled with curiously dated references to the works of the late John Hughes, aside from the forced ethnic diversity featuring a most annoying assortment of high school nerds, the underlying messages are sloppy and inconsistent. In a dysfunctional mentor/pupil relationship, young Peter Parker is berated and punished by Tony Stark for taking too many big risks and wreaking havoc. But then Peter is praised and rewarded by Stark for doing the same thing, only with more successful results without the use of the hi-tech tools from Stark. So, basically, Peter was a better Spider-Man WITHOUT Stark's help, saving the day by preventing a planeload of Stark's gadgets from falling into the hands of the bad guys. Congratulations, kid. Now, you can have the suit back, even though you just proved that you don't need it.

All of which brings me back to the main sticking point I had from the beginning: Spider-Man being Iron Man's pet, Spider-Man not being his own man. Flush all that crap about how unrealistic it always was for a high school kid to create his own superhero outfit as polished as that of Spider-Man. This is FANTASY. Why is it so easy to accept that Peter Parker invented his own incredible web-fluid and web-shooters, but not that he could also be brilliant enough to make his own amazing outfit? It's FANTASY, and the more you explain the details, the more details you will have to explain. The idea of The Amazing Spider-Man needing a tricked-out suit as computerized and complex as Iron Man's armor is offensive to me. Basically, they're feeding the kids Iron-Spider-Man, not Spider-Man. Much of what is cool and unique about the character has now been appropriated as surely as Disney has appropriated Marvel Comics. Indeed, all that tech begs the question: If Tony Stark cares so much to engineer an upgraded suit for Spider-Man, why wouldn't he do the same for each of his Avengers teammates? It's inconsistent.

And speaking of inconsistencies, how does this Spidey movie fit into the expanding continuity of the cinematic Marvel Universe now? Clearly, they have deliberately pinpointed this new Spider-Man's world debut in the middle of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, a rather dark adventure whereby the Avengers were torn apart, with one severely injured. But in this film, we have Tony Stark casually traipsing around as if the other dire events are not occurring. In CIVIL WAR, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts are separated, 'taking a break,' but in HOMECOMING the two are happy as ever together, even playfully considering marriage. Where exactly does this Spider-Man story fit, since Peter's gym teacher does mention in passing that Captain America is now a wanted criminal, yet Stark is cheerfully giving Peter a tour of the new Avengers facility?
Maybe they have a solid timeline for all this, and everything will be explained going forward. Or maybe not. Maybe they just wanted to be cute with HOMECOMING at the expense of maintaining consistency in the MCU. We shall see. In my view, they need to tighten it up, instead of relaxing, and getting more goofy with these movies.

As always, Your Mileage May Vary.

© 2017 - 2024 Jerome-K-Moore
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DANJAMESV's avatar
 forced ethnic diversity ? have you ever been to new york for like 5 seconds