Movie Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming

So I saw Spider-Man: Homecoming on Wednesday with my oldest daughter and I really, really liked it. The film is bright and colourful, fits itself comfortably into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and focuses on a key aspect of any good Spider-Man story, Peter attempting to find the balance between his superhero and school lives. Equal time is given to both, and the film borrows liberally from both previous MCU films and the teen-focused films of John Hughes to place Peter in a really interesting niche in the continually expanding franchise.

I have to admit I was initially hesitant when Marisa Tomei played Aunt May in Captain America: Civil War, but I really liked her in the film, also, I think it works to make Peter appear even younger and the Avengers much older and established.

In the end the movie is a lot of fun, and not getting into any spoilers, was really satisfying - I would definitely see more Spider-Man if it was coming from this creative team.

On Fraction’s Hawkeye

So here I am, two days before “All New Hawkeye” by Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez begins, and I’m finally just getting Into The Matt Fraction era of Hawkeye that ended a few months back. To be fair to my well-read book club friends, I’ve had a number of people pointing me at this series for a while, it’s only now that I got ahead enough in my regular reading to dip into some new comic titles.

So last week I got the first three collected volumes (Issues 1 – 11, the first annual and issues 14, 16, 18, and 20) of the 22 issue series, and over the course of three days I got myself well into the series.

Here what I’ve found out (again, well after almost everyone else).

1) You should really take the time to check out this series
2) The artwork is very clean, has a unique feel that runs through each story arc and
3) Sometimes it’s a great idea to go beyond the A-lister’s (being, Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Spider-Man, etc.) as the second stringers tend to have a little more slack in what can be done with their stories (I’m thinking Sandman, Swamp Thing, Starman, and other similar series here)
4) The writing moves from incredibly relatable to hilarious to heartbreaking with ease and left me wanting to read more RIGHT NOW!
5) Perhaps I should listen to my friends recommendations more often, because this stuff is FANTASTIC

Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

This afternoon my family joined the rest of North America (apparently) and checked out the newest Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy.

Directed by James Gunn (director of one of my favourite horror-comedies, Slither), Guardians of the Galaxy (GotG) was something I wasn't really expecting from Marvel these days, a stand-alone feature.

I mean sure, it has a few cameos from the other Marvel films (characters, plot points, and props), but as much as I loved The Avengers (and I really did), it really worked best if you had viewed all of the films leading up to it, while GotG could be watched by pretty much anyone, whether they had seen the other Marvel Cinematic Universe films or not.

The action was fun, the story was sweet, and considering the film had five leads, you got to spend enough time with each of them to care about them as characters, which was a pretty nice treat.  Yes, there are a lot of extra treats for Marvel fans in the film, but seriously, this may be one of the better Marvel films to start someone on, showing them the types of stories that the film Studio can tell.