SPIDERMAN: HOMECOMING REVIEW

Peter Parker, with the help of his mentor Tony Stark, tries to balance his life as an ordinary high school student in New York City while fighting crime as his superhero alter ego Spider-Man when a new threat emerges.

Starring: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, and Robert Downey Jr

Directed by: Jon Watts

Written by: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers

  With D.C. Comics needing a hit and getting it with “Wonder Woman,” it’s Marvel’s turn to see if they could continue their run of solid superhero movies. Spider-Man is a pretty big superhero to tackle, especially with the run of recent Spider-Man movies. Those movies might have made some tired of Spider-Man by now. So the challenge is to bring something new and refreshing to the table, and it looks like they did in “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”

  One refreshing thing is that they assume everyone already knows the story of how Peter (Tom Holland) becomes Spider-Man. At this point, it’s hard to believe audiences wanted to see that again. Instead, most of the backstory is covered in a quick, funny conversation with his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon). As for his aunt May (Marisa Tomei), there’s mentions of the tough time she’s had, but there’s never any conversation about what happened. The best backstory given is at the start of the movie showing how Spider-Man found his way into the battle in “Captain America: Civil War.” Those few moments were a whole lot better than any retelling of Peter’s story would have been.

  What’s also refreshing is seeing Peter really just be a kid, even when learning how to be Spider-Man. In some of the previous films, Peter was just too serious, and acted more like an adult at times then the kid he’s supposed to be. It also adds a lot of humor like when he’s doing some basic crime fighting. It’s funny watching him stop someone from stealing a bike or car, and not really know if a crime is being committed. All of this is done because of a pretty good performance from Tom Holland. He definitely is nails acting younger than he is.

  It’s even nice seeing the villain, Adrian Toomes aka Vulture (Michael Keaton), not going over the top as a bad guy. He’s really just the average guy looking to make a good living, and support his family. He’s relatable to many in the audience, and they can almost root for him. Once Spider-Man gets on his tail, he gets a little out of control, but again for the right reasons.

  It turns out seeing Spider-Man back in theaters is a good thing. The franchise needed a new start, and it got one. It brought Spider-Man back to the beginning, but without the backstory fans have seen plenty of. Seeing Spider-Man truly be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man actually turns out to be a good thing, which works out perfectly with a more low key villain. Throw in some humor, well timed appearances by Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), a twist, and of course some good action, and you get another solid Marvel movie. With that, I give “Spider-Man: Homecoming” 3.5 stars.

  HorrO

 *There are two after credit scenes*

THE BATMAN LEGO MOVIE REVIEW

Bruce Wayne must not only deal with the criminals of Gotham City, but also the responsibility of raising a boy he adopted.

Starring: Will Arnett, Michael Cera, and Rosario Dawson

Directed by: Chris McKay

Written by: Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern, & John Whittington

  Not expecting much, “The LEGO Movie” quickly turned into one of my favorite animated movies. They created a lot of great characters, and while Batman (Will Arnett) wasn’t an original character, they certainly added a lot of originality to this version of Batman. With that, it wasn’t totally surprising to see why they decided to make “The LEGO Batman Movie.” However, could it be better than “The LEGO Movie?” 

  This movie wastes no time getting into the silliness with Batman commenting on the opening credits. After the credits pass, the audience sees the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) in the middle of his latest evil plan. Of course Batman eventually steps in to foil it. To celebrate, Batman gets some quality alone time. Yes, one theme in this movie is how he struggles with wanting to do everything by himself.

  Too bad he gets plenty of help whether he likes it or not. Without realizing it, he ends up adopting Robin (Michael Cera), a very curious young boy. While Robin just wants to be his son, he starts off almost being his trained pet, as he does everything Batman tells him to. However, he doesn’t get help from the Justice League. He isn’t even invited to their anniversary party. It’s pretty funny how they play off the whole Batman vs Superman thing.

  The Joker also gets some help in his ultimate sinister plan, as he brings all of the evil creatures and bad guys stuck in the Phantom Zone to Gotham City. This creates a huge LEGO style battle with the odds against Batman, Robin, Alfred (Ralph Fiennes), and Barbra (Rosario Dawson). The battle has plenty of action and funny moments, but also too many stops in the action to focus on Batman’s issue. It’s an important storyline, but just gets a little old in the middle of the action.

  So did “The Batman LEGO Movie” top “The LEGO Movie”… not really. However it has a lot of similarities that make it an enjoyable movie. It has a lot of the same Batman humor they started in the previous movie. There’s some LEGO building, but it isn’t the focus. Even though it’s a major theme, Batman’s struggle to let others help him becomes a little tiresome. Still it’s definitely a unique Batman movie worthy of 3.5 stars!

  HorrO