The title of the likable, amusing “Spider-Man: Homecoming” indicates that this is a return, though to what exactly? To Queens? To youth? The rest of us can’t go home again, but given that this is the second Spider-Man reboot in 15 years from Sony Pictures it seems Spidey has few other options. Once more, it spins on Peter Parker (the nice, boyish Tom Holland), a teenager who develops super-skills after he’s bitten by a troublesome spider. Sony’s latest Spider-Man movie is kind of like the first and fourth, even if it’s hard to keep track of what happened when in this on-and-off again series. The Guardians take whacks at the blob, jumping and thrashing around a patently digital environment that’s vaguely far-out and indeterminate. The movie begins in medias res, with Quill and the gang facing down a blobby adversary with fat, snapping tentacles and rows of nasty teeth - the better to eat them with or just tear them limb from limb. Gunn does a pretty good job of keeping the whole thing reasonably fizzy, starting with an opener that winks at the audience with big bangs and slapstick. It’s tough being a hitmaker who isn’t weighed down by corporate expectations, but for a while, Mr. The name still brings a light smile, even if the movie can’t help but feel as deadly serious as any other lucratively branded Marvel property. three years ago are back on board and led by Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), a cheerily roguish type who calls himself Star-Lord. Most of the ragtag futuristic fighters who powered through Vol 1. In many respects, it’s not much different except it all feels a bit strained, as if everyone were trying too hard, especially its writer-director, James Gunn. 2” has all the digital bells and whistles as well as much of the likable, self-aware waggery of the first. He meets leaders and fellow travelers, studies books and unlocks secrets, in time becoming a superhero with magical powers, a dubious goatee and a flirty cape that dries his tears. After a crippling accident, he abandons his old life (partly embodied by Rachel McAdams, dewy and funny) for a grand exploit, traveling simultaneously into his soul and to the misterioso Far East. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), is flying high as a supersurgeon. A tale of hubris - with foolish pride and an inevitable fall - it opens in contemporary New York, where Dr. Its latest, the giddily enjoyable “Doctor Strange,” is part of Marvel’s strategy for world domination, yet it’s also so visually transfixing, so beautiful and nimble that you may even briefly forget the brand. In between start and finish, there are moments of levity and discovery in the machined product, but too often you can’t see the movie for Marvel’s action plan. They deliver quips and silky come-hither nonsense, only to end up like a big green monster stuck on rewind: “Hulk smash!” again and again, ad infinitum. Most Marvel movies open like Robert Downey Jr.’s stand-up routine in “Iron Man” before it goes south. The designated good guys are responsible for the deaths of innocents, and the question of their accountability hovers over the movie and sets its plot in motion. helmet? - the film glances at some of the moral complexities of modern warfare. More seriously - because, come on now, do you really think Captain America is going to put on a blue U.N. So “Civil War” pauses for a few moments of chin-scratching and speechifying about whether a group of genetically advantaged, highly weaponized individuals should be brought under the supervision of the United Nations. An aura of vaguely topical importance is as vital to a superhero-franchise movie as a merchandising deal. I hate to disappoint, but I have to say that I’m not really feeling it. Trump and Elon Musk, would you get Tony Stark? Would Captain America’s endorsement have made a difference for John Kasich? Is Ant-Man a Bernie Bro? In spite of occasional public scolding about the rampant misuse of allegorical interpretation, hard-pressed, click-seeking cultural journalists and political pundits can be counted on to take up the hard work of finding echoes, resonances and subtexts in a big pop-cultural pseudo-event. If you release a movie called “Captain America: Civil War” to an ideologically polarized nation in the midst of a notably contentious presidential campaign, you can expect to reap a whirlwind of think pieces.
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