Spider-man: Homecoming a belated review

Hi Marvel fanboi here to give you 100000000 reasons why Tom Holland is teh greatest while all you bitchez luv Tobey McCryer pussy ass.

Hey fanboi thanks for joining the humble blogger to break down the new Spidey film.

Fanboi: respec


Oh-Kay let's start off with the GOOD:

To your point fanboi I thought Holland was delightfully charming as both Peter & Spidey, but to say best ever is a bit premature. Tobey was great at finding the dramatic nuances, but I'm not sure if it was by design or not his Spider-banter was relatively limited. Garfield was kind of a happy median between the 2 extremes, & Holland played a kid like you'd want to see it played. He is unsure of himself, his place in the world & his mission. If we don't see him struggle & don't see him fail & don't see him get back up again there's no emotional/human connection on his journey.

Fanboi: Das true Fam. I thought Keaton was good too.

I agree it was almost like his part was a movie all of its own very dark & seedy and it clashed with the mostly bright Breakfast Club movie with Peter Parker in it. When the 2 inevitably combined with the late stage reveal it was really great.

Fanboi: it was wicked funny too

Yeah I think it's kind of the expectation you kind of have to set for yourself going in. The writers and directors have the unenviable task of appealing to a mass market & to make movies "for the fans" it's a tightrope they have to walk, but I think as long as the humor is appropriately timed it can cut tension & bring some much needed levity. Sometimes they go too much into the comedy territory, but as I said it's a fine line to walk and sometimes they will go over.

Fanboi: Hey don't you usually do bad & ugly on these? Too bad you won't have much to say this time.

Actually...I covered what I really liked on the FB page this is where I'm looking at things a bit more critically.

Fanboi: ....

BAD:

I'll be honest I understand why it's there but the Stark suit thing kind of pissed me off as a fan. This is Spider-man not Iron Man Jr.  The ingenuity of Parker is one of his defining traits & if this eventually leads to him doing his own thing then that's fine, but I preferred him learning to be himself in his homemade suit.

Fanboi: hater

Oh I'm not done

Fanboi: ...

The entire plot was convenient. He happened to find the weapons that started the whole thing. It's a cliche & a trope that is lazy storytelling & while there were a lot of great things that I enjoyed about the overall story this was something I hung up on.

Fanboi: I can't even...

Well we might as well do Ugly.

The box office drop is concerning. There are a lot of factors sure & it's not the biggest by a wide margin but bottom line is a factor in any business. It's still on par to do pretty much the Marvel average at the box office, but it's slightly disappointing to have a revered character like Spidey carry that albatross especially when he is the face of the MCU going forward. Like I said there are a lot of factors not including that this is the 3rd full reboot in less than 15 years, but it doesn't make the bottom line any easier to swallow.

Fanboi: So you hated it?

No not at all. I don't go to movies to care about box office numbers or anything else I go to be entertained and on that merit I thought it was tremendous. If I cared about box office I wouldn't have enjoyed Dredd that made like $7 & a half eaten bag of cheetos worldwide.

 They made a fun Spidey movie that I could go to with my family and that my 3-year-old not only enjoyed but he sat still for the entire thing.  I'm thankful for that. I think it was great but maybe not top of the line as it would be hard for anything to top Spider-man 2 that is one of my favorite movies of all time.  On a scale of 5 I'd give it about a 4 maybe 3.5 for quality & a 4.5 for entertainment. Anything else Fanboi?

Fanboi: nah man I'm good

Okay great. See you next time folks at The Comic Shop!

A list...comic fan bros you shouldn't be

Hello & Welcome to a special edition of The Comic Shop Blog! 

I haven't had a fun post in awhile, so here we go.  If any of this bothers you remember it's all in good fun so lighten up.  I can admit that I've fallen in to some of these categories from time to time.  If you think of any more please comment on the FB post, and be sure to share if you like what you see here.


Comic fan bros you shouldn't be 


1.  "Salty because they didn't do the movie EXACTLY like the comic book" - this was a chief complaint by some about "Age of Ultron" & "Civil War".  Naming something after a famous story line can lead to that expectation, but take my word for it shot-for-shot remakes are F&CKING BORING.  Go rent the Watchmen motion comic movie and you will see what I mean.  Also in the examples I gave those story lines would have made zero sense.  Civil War in example was about secret identities which have not been a focal point in the MCU. 

2.  Contrarian - "a contrarian is a person that takes up a contrary position especially a position that is opposed to that of the majority"... also a Hipster.  If something is good & you like it just man up and admit it.  Being a hipster is lame.

3.  DC vs. Marvel guy - it's not sports bro calm down.  There are good to great things coming from everywhere and we should enjoy the ride because at some point this bubble will burst.  I'm old enough to remember the early 2000's comic book movie boom where "X2" & "Spider-man 2" were the cream of the crop and we could only hope to have the quality movies we have now.

4.  Everything is a metaphor for the political world guy - this is more for the self important journalists out there.  Sure there are parallels out there but we don't need to be beaten over the damn head with it.  Let people draw their own conclusions and review the damn movie.

5. Male-ists or whatever the hell they are called - I've outlined before the sheer overwhelming number of movies featuring a white-male-superhero lead.  Some diversity is good.  Shut up.  Marvel has a trio of white dudes named Chris leading their stable with Hemsworth, Pratt, & Evans.  Mixing it up is great.  Furiosa, Rey, Wonder Woman, and others have proven that female led films are just as riveting.  I say bring on Captain Marvel, Kamala Khan, Black Canary, Harley Quinn, Black Widow, Gotham City Sirens, Batgirl, bring on all the women!

6. Creepy con guy - yes there are gorgeous cosplayers out there.  There are women like Jessica Nigiri and others that seem just unreal.  Here's a tip to not be a creep, be polite, ask for a picture, compliment the cosplay, keep your hands to yourself, and move on.

7. Know-it-all guy - just don't be that in regular life.

8. Debbie Downer guy - the saying different strokes for different folks I think was created by someone associated with the arts.  People enjoy different movies, music, books, comics, and other media in different ways.  If someone likes something you don't share your opinion, but don't rain on their parade.

9. Old is always better guy - It is impossible for anything new to compete with your rose colored memories of how things used to be.  This is true in all things, but for this entry I point to comics and associated media.  The thing I like best about DC's rebirth is that it embraces the past, but uses it to tell a compelling story for the future.  For instance our old Superman is back but in a new and different way.

10.  Publish your own comics blog guy - LOL JK that's totes awesome just don't take yourself too seriously.