Tom Holland

Spider-Man: Far From Home

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  • Title: Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • IMDb: link

Spider-Man: Far From Home movie review

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, a movie you will definitely want to see before sitting down for this one, Spider-Man: Far From Home centers around Peter Parker (Tom Holland) struggling to fill the void left by Earth’s mightiest heroes while also trying to enjoy his high school class trip to Europe.

There’s quite a bit screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (both who also helped write Spider-Man: Homecoming) get right. One of the oldest Spidey tropes is Peter Parker being crushed by the responsibility thrust upon him at such a young age. The loss of Iron Man, and expectations for him to grow into “the next Iron Man,” are overwhelming for the teenage super-hero just wanting to protect the neighborhood and find time to admit his feelings to the girl he likes (Zendaya).

The script offers a new threat in elemental monsters from a parallel Earth and Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), a hero who has tracked them here. When Peter’s summer trip is hijacked by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) he has no choice but to help Mysterio fight the threat as he struggles with his destiny.

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Avengers: Infinity War

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  • Title: Avengers: Infinity War
  • IMDb: link

Avengers: Infinity War movie review2012’s The Avengers brought together all the elements from the planned Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was a payoff movie, and one that was executed brilliantly by Joss Whedon. It also gave us the first on-screen appearance of Thanos (now played by Josh Brolin) whose foreshadowed war on the universe would be put on hold for several years. Until now. Since The Avengers, too many of the Marvel movies have been forced into world building while telling their story. For the first time in years, there is no horizon which frees sreenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directors the Russo Brothers to simply tie the elements together as Whedon did six years ago and tell one hell of a story. And you know what? They do a damn good job.

With some notable exceptions (Natalie Portman, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, and Marvel is still completely ignoring their television properties) everyone is on hand to deal with the threat of Thanos who finally gets around to collecting the Infinity Stones which will allow him to complete his life-long quest of killing off half the lives across the universe with the snap of his fingers.

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Spider-Man: Homecoming

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  • Title: Spider-Man: Homecoming
  • IMDb: link

Spider-Man: Homecoming movie reviewSpider-Man: Homecoming presents a problem that Marvel and it’s tightly-connected Marvel Cinematic Universe has been able to avoid… until now. Having not yet relaunched any of the Marvel Cinenamatic characters, Marvel hasn’t had to deal with recasting and repackaging the same old stories. Working with Sony, there’s no doubt this is a MCU movie, and not only because of the appearances of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), and a cameo so good I wouldn’t think of ruining it here. For the most part, writer-director Jon Watts and his five (FIVE!?) other screenwriters succeed in building on the character’s small role in Captain America: Civil War.

Tom Holland returns as Peter Parker. Other than being a bit too buff, Holland’s take works well. Despite his good intentions and smarts, Peter continues to get himself in over his head (both in and out of costume) while failing to juggle his life as Peter Parker and as a web-spinning vigilante. And while I’m on the subject of webs, let me say that the comic nerd in me is happy that the new franchise has kept web-shooters as Peter’s creation rather than Sam Raimi‘s choice to go with organic web-shooters.

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Captain America: Civil War

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  • Title: Captain America: Civil War
  • IMDb: link

Captain America: Civil WarThe most ambitious Marvel Studios’ movie to date, Captain America: Civil War attempts to merge aspects of Marvel’s two best movies (The Avengers and Captain America: Winter Soldier) into a cohesive whole while telling a very streamlined version of the comic event of the same name. You know what? It’s pretty damn good. It may not be the best of the Marvel movies, but it’s certainly more successful than Avengers: Age of Ultron and halts the backslide we’ve been witnessing in the quality of the Marvel films since Winter Soldier.

Beginning with tragedy in Africa, the Avengers are called to task by the governments of the world who believe a group of powerful super-heroes must be made to answer to someone other than themselves. While Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and War Machine (Don Cheadle) are in favor of putting the group under the oversight of the United Nations, Captain America (Chris Evans) opposes any such move. As the Avengers choose sides things take an even more dramatic turn with the return of the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) only further dividing the group with his latest actions.

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How Rich White People Survived The Impossible Tsunami

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  • Title: The Impossible
  • IMDB: link

the-impossible-posterThere are really only three types of disaster movies. The first are those focused on preventing a disaster (Armageddon, The Core). The second are movies solely concerned with the immediate problem of surviving the disaster (The Day After Tomorrow, 2012). And the last are focused more on living in the aftermath of a disaster (Blindness) than the disaster itself. The Impossible is the later.

Based on real events, Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, and Oaklee Pendergast take the place of a Spanish family who survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami while on Christmas vacation in Thailand. Sergio G. Sánchez‘s retelling of Maria Belon‘s story is a visceral tale of raw emotion, loss, and the chaos following the disaster which is almost as traumatic as the events of the tsunami itself.

Only six minutes of the near two-hour film are devoted to the actual disaster. That means the crux of the story isn’t the disaster itself but the emotional separation of family, the level of devastation, and the search for survivors.

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