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| ★★★★☆ |
Watched the film at my local AMC at around 7:30pm. Crowd definitely wasn't sparse but was surprisingly (mostly) well-behaved, leaving me to be able to enjoy the film in it's entirety. A rarity I indulged in.
I have a lot of nostalgic feelings towards the MCU. I've been there since the first Iron Man (2008) film- one that I was way too young to be watching- to being 12 years old in a completely full screening of The Avengers (2012), the room so congested yet many people still snuck in and sat on the stairs to enjoy the movie with me. Say what you will about the MCU but it has solidified its' place in pop culture. I grew up along with it, so it always has a special place in my heart.
The quality of their projects have definitely faltered in these recent years. Quick cash-grabs with uninteresting plots and characters. A lot of their filmography now have this egregiously flat look to them. However, I think this film is a step in the right direction. Quite grounded for a movie about a kid with superpowers. Quite sad, too.
Peter Parker has literally lost everything he has, and for years he's struggled with that fact. I was a big fan of the montage in the beginning; the routine, the flowers for Aunt May, beating the next bad guy of the week, ending the day eating shitty pizza in an asbestos-filled attic as he watches the people he love thrive without him. It's the first time I've felt that I could actually relate to a Marvel character. You go through his emotional journey and it doesn't feel silly. You want the best for him so badly.
I also adored how well the city felt integrated into the movie. The shots of public transit, grabbing burritos from the bodega, the citizens greeting Spidey with warmth whenever he crosses their path. I could see the realism of the world adapting around this superhuman being. The credits showcasing shots of everyday life. It felt like a love letter to New York.
Of course, the movie is not without its faults. The cheesy comedy and punchy one-liners is something you can expect from this movie. It ran a little bit too long. In typical Marvel fashion, it piles on CGI but I think in a way that felt inventive. The Spiderman vs. The Hand fight is probably my favorite action scene in the movie, and as someone who doesn't like action that often, I'm saying that as the highest compliment.
And... the movie actually looked good??? The scenes were lit well. I could even go as far as to say it was color graded a lot better. Warmer I feel. I was quite surprised. It didn't feel heavily green-screened, or if it was I'm still impressed. This kind of reminded me of early MCU films in that regard.
All in all, I liked it a lot. Which is sentiment that I haven't had in a really long time.
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