Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day (B+), the title character’s standalone fourth film, is two movies in one: an excellent film about the hero coming to terms with re-establishing his secret identity, throwing himself into crime fighting while his friends march on with life, and a seemingly studio shoehorned extended epilogue about a much less interesting character. I wish they’d stopped at the Spidey part. Tom Holland is superb in the lead as he discovers new expansions and limits to his powers and reconciles his lonely lifestyle. Jon Bernthal, Florence Pugh and Mark Ruffalo play off his character nicely as MCU colleagues. Zendaya and Jacob Batalon provide series nostalgia as the hero’s sidelined friends. In the film’s best parts, the director summons authentic atmosphere on the streets of New York with ample comic book style action and better, more realistic practical effects than in recent Marvel outings. It’s all pretty great until it shape shifts into something else for a while to set up the next stage of studio synergy and emerging characters. That would be fine if said character were of interest. Still, as a summer blockbuster with a favorite character, this movie is a largely triumphant juggernaut.
It’s a support group for superheroes as a ragtag bunch of renegades stares into the void of depression to summon better days in solidarity as Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts* (A-), the most cohesive and satisfying and least fussy Marvel film in quite a while. Looking to get out from under the trauma dump and back with a chest pump, several outcast MCU characters get a timely reintroduction. Ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes — previously introduced characters Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster and John Walker — embarks on a dangerous mission that forces them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Florence Pugh and David Harbour are emotional and comic standouts as literal family members in this film of found family. Lewis Pullman is a solid addition to the troupe, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a delight as a prickly politico. The action sequences are a thrill, the sarcastic comedy is consistent and the emotions are earned as natural outcroppings of solid character work. Music by Son Lux gracefully underscores the occasion of a thoughtful allegory about the road to mental health recovery and how even heroes need a boost from each other sometimes. This rewards the casual viewer and those obsessed with Marvel minutiae alike.
For a superhero series marked by continuous reboots, it’s only appropriate the latest entry is all about second chances. Spider-Man: No Way Home (A-) is the third in the arch directed by Jon Watts, and if Sam Raimi’s first trilogy sputtered in its third incarnation and Marc Webb’s trilogy two didn’t even eek out a third film, this installment manages to soar more than ever the third time around. Tom Holland is exceedingly charming and relatable in the titular role and joined again by a wry Zendaya and an amusing Jacob Batalon as his high school classmates. After his secret identity is revealed, Holland’s Peter Parker seeks out the multiverse magic of Dr. Strange (a droll Benedict Cumberbatch), and a cabinet of curiosities is flung open including some past villains. The film has a fresh and frenetic quality with a winning brand of humor and elaborate action sequences to please the Marvel Universe faithful. There’s a Back to the Futuremeets Inception quality to this entry, with insider humor and twisty timelines lacing this magnificent movie mixtape. More sentimental and more epic in scope than any of the live action Spider-Man films before it, this one rewards both casual and fanatic viewers with blissful bombast and heart.
Director Jon Watts follows up his Marvel Universe reboot of the web-slinging series with the returning, utterly charming Tom Holland conveying convincing spectacle in the title role of Spider-Man: Far from Home (B), a worthy but overly busy Spidey sequel. This installment finds our hero mourning the loss of a fellow superhero while juggling a high school European field trip in which he’s looking for a romantic hook-up with MJ played with sass by Zendaya and battling emerging supervillain Mysterio, a mixed bag of a Jake Gyllenhaal performance. The teen angst is the best part; the set-up for the epic action in an augmented reality showdown is curiously half-baked. Holland’s Peter parkours, trapezes, amazes and teases through it all and makes this episode worthwhile viewing. The film is fast, funny and occasionally tender.
Jon Watts’s Spider-Man: Homecoming (B+) marks the superhero’s seventh on-screen adventure (as played by Tom Holland, he most recently had a minor but memorable role in Captain America: Civil War) and his first standalone Marvel movie, with small bits by a quintet of actors popularized in other universe franchise series. Thankfully this third reboot of the series eschews the origin story, spider bites and uncle tragedy and simply lets Peter Parker be a regular high school kid with an extraordinary extracurricular life. Tom Holland is superb as the awkward arachnolescent, and the film’s best sequences show him fumble through the stickiness of growing up. Following other roles in the bird and bat family, Michael Keaton is strong as villain Vulture, a salvage purveyor turned arms trafficker who assembles Avengers scraps into fancy new weapons. Watts is inventive with the teen scenes and largely successful on the action front (disaster sequences at Washington Monument, aboard a Staten Island Ferry and at Coney Island are believable). The stakes seemed a bit smaller than the usual Marvel epic, but the characters reveal themselves nicely. Robert Downey, Jr. is fun as mentor/impresario Tony Stark, and Jacob Batalon is a delight as sidekick Ned. Effective storytelling and upbeat, compelling characters continue the Marvel winning streak.
Jon Watts’s Spider-Man: Homecoming (B+) marks the superhero’s seventh on-screen adventure (as played by Tom Holland, he most recently had a minor but memorable role in Captain America: Civil War) and his first standalone Marvel movie, with small bits by a quintet of actors popularized in other universe franchise series. Thankfully this third reboot of the series eschews the origin story, spider bites and uncle tragedy and simply lets Peter Parker be a regular high school kid with an extraordinary extracurricular life. Tom Holland is superb as the awkward arachnolescent, and the film’s best sequences show him fumble through the stickiness of growing up. Following other roles in the bird and bat family, Michael Keaton is strong as villain Vulture, a salvage purveyor turned arms trafficker who assembles Avengers scraps into fancy new weapons. Watts is inventive with the teen scenes and largely successful on the action front (disaster sequences at Washington Monument, aboard a Staten Island Ferry and at Coney Island are believable). The stakes seemed a bit smaller than the usual Marvel epic, but the characters reveal themselves nicely. Robert Downey, Jr. is fun as mentor/impresario Tony Stark, and Jacob Batalon is a delight as sidekick Ned. Effective storytelling and upbeat, compelling characters continue the Marvel winning streak.