Tom Holland is Spiderman!!

After months of speculation, false-guesses and Atlanta screen tests, the Marvel Cinematic Universe have finally found the actor who will play their version of Peter Parker in a trilogy of solo films on top of numerous MCU appearances.

The announcement on Marvel's website was as follows:

Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios are proud to announce that after a full worldwide casting search, Tom Holland will play Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the next Spider-Man film, in theaters in IMAX and 3D on July 28, 2017.  The film will be directed by Jon Watts, director of "Cop Car," the upcoming thriller that made its debut earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

Marvel and Sony Pictures, and producers Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal conducted an extensive search for both the actor and the director.  The studios and producers were impressed by Holland’s performances in "The Impossible," “Wolf Hall,” and the upcoming "In the Heart of the Sea," and by a series of complex screen tests.  Following Marvel’s tradition of working with the brightest next wave of directors, Watts also went through multiple meetings with Feige, Pascal, and the studio, before winning the job.


After a casting search which seemed to take an age, the new Marvel/Sony agreement finally found their web-slinger in the form of 18 year old Brit Tom Holland. When it came down to the final list of candidates it was clear that both studios were looking for young talent willing to be locked down on a contract which will see him appear in a minimum of 6 movies within the next 7 years. Fan favourites Dylan O'Brien and Logan Lerman were nowhere to be seen, and Asa Butterfield became the new favourite to the point where only confirmation was needed. The deal fell through, and the role has been given to Holland.

This news is music to my ears. We've known since early February that Spiderman was going to appear in the MCU alongside characters like Captain America and Iron Man, but only now does this feel like a proper reality to me as I can finally put a face to the MCU's Peter Parker. The reason why I am more overjoyed with that and not the actual casting is because the only thing I have ever seen him in was Locke, and that was a voice performance (by the way Locke is a severely under-rated film you must see). I haven't seen Wolf Hall and the Impossible came out around 2012/13 awards season and I missed it. I have no idea what he is like as a performer, but I trust in Marvel that they have found the right guy.

Kevin Feige as gone on record saying that his vision for Spiderman will be the most wise-cracking, joke-making, witty Spiderman we have ever seen. My only concern with this casting (which would've been exactly the same for any other young actor they could've cast) is whether Holland can deliver on the comedic side of the character. Can he immerse himself into the comedy and bring to life the Peter Parker from the comic books we haven't truly seen yet? If Marvel believes in him, then so do I and I hope he absolutely crushes it.

On top of this announcement was the signing on of Jon Watts as the director of Spiderman's first solo outing, scheduled for a July 28th 2017 release date, chronologically fitting in after Guardians 2 and before Thor: Ragnarok. The situation I have here is exactly the same as with Tom Holland, I have never seen any of Jon Watt's previous work. Therefore I can't make a fair and an informed judgement. But, I had the same situation with both the Russo brothers who went on to direct Captain America: The Winter Soldier and James Gunn who gave us Guardians. Marvel has a track record of hiring directors who are up-and-coming with huge amounts of talent. They tend not to go for the obvious star directors as they need people who will happily comply with their overall vision but who will also give their all when it comes to creating a solid and enjoyable film.

What this casting also confirms to me is that we will be seeing Spiderman in Captain America Civil War. I doubt his role will be as it is in the comics, that role I think will be given to Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther. Instead, I believe that Spiderman's role will be small but by the end of the film he will be Tony Stark's new protégé, leading on to his solo adventure.

What do you think of the casting choice as well as the choice of director? How do you think he will be integrated into the MCU during Civil War? And, what villain do you want to see Spiderman come up against during his first solo movie? My choice would be between Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk (a man can dream), Mysterio or Doctor Octopus.


Thanks for reading,
Matt

Jurassic World Movie Review

Finally, I was able to go out and see Jurassic World as my summer exams are finally over. I am not a die-hard fan of the original Jurassic Park movie, but whenever I watch it I am still in awe at some of its greatness. Before I dive into a very negative review for Jurassic World, the franchise's fourth instalment, I want you to bare in mind that the reason I am hating on this movie is not because I am comparing it to the original, its because it didn't entertain me or satisfy my needs as a summer blockbuster.

 

Jurassic World is directed by Colin Trevorrow and stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. Taking place 22 years after the disaster of the first Jurassic Park film, John Hammond's vision has come to fruition with Jurassic World being a multi-national, successful theme park whereby people can interact with dinosaurs. However, according to the business assholes who run the park, dinosaurs just aren't that exciting to people anymore. Therefore, they decide to genetically create a dinosaur known as the Indominus Rex, and once it breaks free from it's cage all hell breaks loose.

Jurassic World as a film draws a lot of similarities to the Indominus Rex, the movie's monstrous villain; it's cold, sterile and an abomination. Much like the scientists who genetically engineered the creature, the formula which made the first film so successful, this constant sense of wonder and adventure, had just been tinkered with way too much by the director and the rest of the filmmaking crew, and the result was an absolute disaster.

The biggest issue I have with Jurassic World is that it doesn't properly grasp human emotion. Films like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Mad Max: Fury Road which came out earlier this summer knew how to blend action with drama and with comedy. This film tries to unnaturally mesh them all together which creates a film with an incredibly wavering, un-focused and inconsistent tone. For example, during a scene where Chris Pratt is riding on a motorcycle with velociraptors surrounding him, the focus should have been on the intensity of that one action scene. However, we immediately cut back to Bryce Dallas Howard's character and her 2 bland, generic and uninteresting nephews who say "wow, your boyfriend's a badass". Its moments like this where humour is so forced. There will be other scenes where one actor decides to break down crying in a moment which doesn't even remotely merit that much drama, and then all of a sudden someone's trying to pull some banter. It's immensely frustrating.

The movie also has pacing issues in that it drags on for so long with characters which simply aren't that interesting. At times, the slow pace drags the movie down. Instead of watching the Indominus Rex eat something, we have to watch the older nephew creepily stare at girls and the younger one crying about their parents getting a divorce. This subplot by the way, is only eluded to once in a scene which sticks out like a sore thumb as the script trying to flesh out the boys in some way. It doesn't have any acknowledgment or resolution towards the film's final scenes. The film has many other subplots which majorly detracted from my enjoyment of the film.

One of which was the "military" subplot. To summarise, Vincent D'Onofrio's character wants to use the velociraptors for military purposes. I don't know what's worse, the stupidity of this idea or the fact they wasted such a talented actor on such a generic and atrocious character arc.

The other major problem I have on top of the inconsistent tone, the slow pace, the lack of human understanding on an emotional level and the forced subplots, are the characters. Bryce Dallas Howard plays Claire, an up-tight business woman who is obsessed with her job, has no understanding of how to interact with a human being and who runs away from T-Rex's wearing high heels. She's not an interesting character at all, and neither are her 2 nephews who the film decides to spend most of the opening half an hour on and keeps on jumping back to them. The 2 boy's relationship doesn't work because they simply don't have one, and when they tried to force in the whole "our parents are getting a divorce" subplot, I didn't buy into it.

With the exception of Chris Pratt, every other character in this film is a moron. The reason why everyone is praising Chris Pratt above every other actor in the movie is because he is the only one who is likeable, charismatic and who has a sniff of logic and common sense. The rest of the characters make some really stupid decisions which, if you're like me, will make your head hurt. For example, after the Indominus has freed itself from its confinement, the park security decide that they should go after it and take it down.... with tasers. I'm sorry, but something which is as powerful as a T-Rex, as smart as a raptor and something which can camouflage into it's surrounding environment will not be stopped by a fucking taser. Almost every character in this film is a moron, and with the exception of Chris Pratt, I wanted to see die horrifically.

The film doesn't have the same feeling of wonder as the first one did, and is rather a monster film, which they make perfectly clear. The beast itself has a cool design and at times is very intimidating. However, during a monster film you should want the human characters to survive, which only escalates the tension making it a more effective film. While sometimes the cinematography and editing does make the Indominus Rex an imposing creature, I felt that they should have spent more time on these particular scenes with the intention of making it more intimidating. There were a few intense scenes, but they could've been magnified to the level the filmmakers were envisaging with better cinematography and of course characters who don't have a combined IQ of a cheese string.

Chris Pratt was enjoyable to watch in this film and I bought into how he could control the raptors and his relationship with them. In fact, the best relationship between any characters in this film is with Chris Pratt and a CGI dinosaur. The rest of the human relationships and interaction they try to develop are just awful, emotionally all over the place. Pratt is a naturally funny man with great charisma and star power, and I enjoyed watching his character who actually had a shred of common sense.

The fight scene at the end was the best "summer movie scene" of the entire film, enjoyable in the most guilty of ways. However, my favourite scene in the entire film was when Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard were nursing a Brachiosaurus to death after the Indominus Rex had killed it for sport. The use of animatronics and not CGI (which by the way is worse than what they used in the original 22 years ago) made for an emotionally impactful scene, the one and only time the movie understood how to illustrate drama and emotion.

There were some aspects of Jurassic World I admittedly enjoyed, but from an acting, script, directing and character standpoint this movie failed miserably. It didn't give me interesting characters I could route for and even when I was starting to get invested into some of this movie's scenes, which mainly revolved around Chris Pratt, the film would just shoot itself in the foot again with its incoherent emotional tone. I go to summer films to have a good time, and the worst thing I can say about Jurassic World is that I was bored throughout the vast majority of it. And for people that will argue that you're just supposed to turn your brain off and enjoy it, I respectfully disagree. No matter what time of year or genre of film being released, if you don't have compelling characters, a good handle on human emotion or an interesting story, then I won't be invested in your film and I won't enjoy myself. Jurassic World was one big mess.


Rating - D+

No hate pls


Thanks for reading,
Matt