No Way Home is by far my favorite in Tom Holland’s franchise. When I wasn’t obsessing over the fan service, the heart wrenching moments made me cry in the theater. The themes of redemption and doing what’s right no matter what work well with most of the villains. Unlike most fantasy/sci-fi villains who are evil because of their nature, the villains from Tobey’s and Andrew’s Spider-Man universes either fell into unfortunate circumstances or went too far with their good intentions. So, it’s believable that Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, the Lizard, and Electro can be redeemed. Even Andrew gets a moment of redemption when he catches MJ from her fall. He deserves an Oscar for that scene alone.
With this multiverse plot, No Way Home gets to highlight recurring Spider-Man themes that the last two installments didn’t talk about: fate, legacy, and closure. Rather than copy Into the Spider-Verse, No Way Home forgoes the mentor relationships and makes Tobey and Andrew brother figures to Tom and each other. Their shared experiences of losing loved ones because of their Spider-Man identities allow them to support each other in a way no one else can. Plus, Tobey and Andrew’s wisdom gives Tom the push he needs to continue doing what’s right, even when it requires self-sacrifice. Because of that, I’m not too upset that Tom doesn’t remind MJ and Ned of his existence after the memory wipe. It demonstrates how selfless he’s become over the series.
Steve Rogers, a rejected military soldier, transforms into Captain America after taking a dose of a "Super-Soldier serum". But being Captain America comes at a price as he attempts to take down a warmonger and a terrorist organization. Chris Evans is fantastic as "Cap", Hayley Atwell delivers, Hugo Weaving hams it up in a rather disappointing performance, Tommy Lee-Jones is always a joy and then also along for the ride are the likes of Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson and sadly Neal McDonough.
I've now watched this twice, I enjoyed it more the second time around but can still confidently say I believe it's very overrated. To be clear Evans is great here, he knocks this role out of the park and I couldn't have bee happier. The supporting cast here are also first class, the film also has some great heartfelt and hilarious moments! So why am I not keen? It's got some great everything, but when you throw it in a mixing pot what comes out the other side is a smidge disjointed, oddly rushed, our villain is under utilized and the whole thing just doesn't flow the way you'd expect it to. Captain America isn't the worst entry into the MCU, it's just one that should have been considerably better considering the overwhelming tools they had at their disposal.
This film is an achievement unto itself. Unlike any other marvel movie, this deserves to be praised for bringing around 25+ popular characters and putting them all in a cohesive narrative thats unlike anything that came before it. At least 20 movies filled with characters and storyline nuances were successfully kept intact here yet the main character was the villain that had barely had any screentime previously, yet was written in a way that you could empathise with him and tied him into prior events like the new york invasion.
The movie itself is structured perfectly, from the perspective of Thanos putting him in a heroes journey making him go to different locations to collect the stones from different heroes weve come to know, and pairing different combinations of heroes in an insanely well written way so every character stood out and had an iconic moment to shine. All in all the scope of this film is beyond anything that has come before it and even more so than Endgame, but they kept the narrative grounded and paced it perfectly. And the ending of the movie is one of the best endings ever. The best superhero/ comic book film of all time after The Dark Knight.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) is based on one of the more obscure Marvel Comics to get the big screen treatment, but everything about the film suggests a filmmaker trying to recapture the sense of energy and color and sheer fun of Star Wars and the pop space opera. Gunn does make the journey a lot of fun, with an oddball cast of renegades who, tossed together in a deep space prison, team up to escape and wind up staying together because it suits their purposes, but really because it sucks to be alone. These guys are all outlaws, but they are not villains, and in the right place at the right time, that makes them heroes. The script is tossed through with entertaining banter, the action sequences are spirited and filled with inventive imagery, and the spirit of the whole enterprise is bright and energized, right down to the bouncy jukebox of seventies tunes that Peter carries around as his personal soundtrack.
Chris Pratt is shaggily charming as the rogue-for-hire with a souped-up space ship and a soft spot for underdog causes, Zoe Saldana is Gamora, the butt-kicking, green-skinned assassin who wants revenge against her adoptive father, wrestling star Dave Bautista is the muscular and very literal-minded Drax the Destroyer (again, on a mission of vengeance), Bradley Cooper voices the gun-toting, wise-cracking Rocket Raccoon, and Vin Diesel is the heart of the team as Groot, a walking tree of few words. Three, in fact, but they manage to pack in a lot of different meanings.