Spidey Smashes Box Office Records While Fighting Evil

Spider-Man Brave New Day is the best movie about your favorite spider, and it is no wonder it is squashing box office records.  Why is it the best?  Well, we can start with Peter Parker (Tom Holland, who in my view is the best actor to ever portray our friend Peter).  The old Peter Parker was struggling to make it as a Pizza delivery boy and photographer for Adolf Hitler (disguised as newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson, of course). There was just too much time devoted to makin Peter's life miserable, and it was just not as exciting as the moviemakers assumed.  Who is actually that interested in selling pizzas and getting yelled at by crabby customers and unreasonable dictator bosses?  

Spidey BND has plenty of more challenging problems due to being worn down by super-villains, while living in a world that has all but forgotten the existence of Peter Parker due to a spell cast by Dr. Strange. He doesn't have time to sell pizzas.  He winds up clashing with incredibly powerful humans as well as mutants.  Unlike DC Comics, which sought vanilla made-up urban areas for its heroes to in habit, there is no doubt that Spidey lives in real live New York City and confronts a city with its true-to-life problems.  

Historically, in moviedom the New York cops as well as the Feds have been Spidey's enemies.  Look, in the 1960s it was a fresh idea to have superheroes be masked vigilantes that were misunderstood by the authorities and persecuted by the media. But that plot device gets stale after 60 years or so.  Thankfully, we heard not a peep from Jolly Jonah this movie. The New York cops are on Spidey's side. It's about time they figured out he's a good guy! Even the United States Department of Damage Control (DODC), which is set up to regulate super-powered individuals, are willing to work with Spidey in solving problems that afflict New York City. 

DODC Head Bill Metzger (Trammell Tillman) holds a rational discussion with Spider-Man, realizing they may be facing threats larger than either of them can handle alone. 

Thankfully, this movie is finally about SPIDER-MAN, not some stupid puzzle piece that is part of the Thanos saga dealing with the bad guys winning and killing half the universe. That was just a horrible idea from the get go, and attaching all Marvel movies to that was tiresome and sick (sick = the literal definition, diseased; not the slang definition meaning really cool).

There are a lot of interesting characters who appear, but I can't even tell you who they are or it would spoil the fun. Just trust me on this one. You will not be disappointed! 

One major mystery is that we need to know more about the Punisher's backstory. Evidently he has accomplished both enormous positives as well as enormous negatives, and thus both Spidey and the authorities are not anxious to take him down.  Put it this way, if he looks like a terrorist, quacks like a terrorist, swims like a terrorist and waddles like a terrorist, why is he not regarded as a terrorist? There's an ongoing reference in the film that everything is explained by an event in Staten Island, but that is a cop out.  All the Internet commentators I researched seem to agree that whatever that event was, it is not (yet) contained in film or the comics. Someday it will probably make sense. But that day is not today.  Till then, you just have to keep an open mind about the Punisher, okay?  

There is a mystery to be solved, by Spidey, the Punisher, by the New York and Federal authorities. It's not just video game caliber action, though there are some memorable conflicts there too. Spider-Man has to rely on the science and engineering genius of Peter to figure out what is going on and what to do about it.  He is not just a web-slinging punching machine.  He is a complex young man who is prepared to do battle against evil with tech, psychology, inductive reasoning, super powers, and old fashioned grit and determination.  

Who wins?  Well, that is hard to say.  As we learn more about what is actually going on, the goals of many of the players, including Spidey and Peter, begin to change.  The resolution is not what you thought it was going to be at the beginning of the movie.  

Some of the tech has changed, and some of the characters have changed, and indeed the universe has actually evolved quite a bit since I started reading comics in the 1960s, but Spider-man is down to earth again, in fact, down to New York again, where he should be, and I could not be happier about how this movie developed and how it turned out. Somewhere, up in the sky, I know that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko are looking down on this movie and smiling.  Too bad they can't spend the money in Heaven, because there is going to be plenty made on this one, deservedly so.  

 

 

 

 

Black Panther is All That

Black Panther is a stunning visual spectacle.  

  Black Panther is thrilling, beautiful, fascinating....everything that the critics have been saying.  The only question is why it took so long to make this movie.  Hollywood has been in a rut lately, seemingly fearful of Afrocentric films.  Though some progress has been made, face it, this move has turned Hollywood upside down by brilliantly shattering stereotypes. 

   If this movie had only been about the natural beauty of Africa, it would be a good movie.  The nature scenes are gorgeously shot, the colors and composition are beautiful.  In fact if you could invest in a travel agency that specializes in tours in African countries, it might be a good investment now.
    If this movie had only been about fictional tribes in Africa, it would be a good movie.  For at least two hours (far too short), you can get a feeling about what it's like being a member of King T'Challa's tribe, and how it differs from nine other tribes in the area. It's not intended to be authentic, but nevertheless you get a feeling about what it might be like in an African society.  And we are allowed to see the tribe members not as a faceless monolith, but as individuals with different personalities and individual points of views.  Hey, if you can identify with green skinned aliens in sci-fi movies, then the Wakandan society should be equally sympathetic. Rituals are cool.
    If this movie had only been about ethnically inspired fashion it would be a success. The hairstyles and costumes are fantastically colorful, beautiful and so obviously inspired by African designs.  Now please don't get carried away by the Dora Milajae, who are the all-women royal guards, with shaved heads.  They are not real, okay?   But they are strong and gorgeous and, well, we're just not in Kansas anymore.  But perhaps the most important thing is that they are far from one dimensional.  You can understand their emotions and motivations and a little about what makes them tick. General Okoye is a particularly interesting character.  In fact there could very well be a movie simply about her.  Initially it was kind of jarring, but by the end of the movie I had totally accepted the style choices for the Dora Milajae. If you liked the Amazons in Wonder Woman, you'll be just fine with the Droa Milajae.  

King T'Challa's elite all-female guards, the Dora Milajae led by General Okoye are worth getting to know. Honest.  But don't mess with them.    

  The superhero scenes are very exciting, totally up to spec with Marvel's best.  That alone could have carried the movie.      There is a diverse cast of bad guys, good guys and in-between guys.  They are all very interesting characters.   The only thing you can count on is unpredictability.
    Marvel did a fantastic job handling the ethnic diversity issue, and in fact clobbering it, at least in this reviewer's humble opinion.  Maybe someday there will be a superhero who is Korean-American.  Do you suppose? 😊
   The best thing I can say about any movie is that I've never seen anything like it before.  As for the Black Panther, I've never seen anything like it before.