Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 2017)

Official Australian release date: 6/7/17. Viewed: 7/7/17.

Director: Jon Watts

Actors: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Jon Favreau

Genre: Action / Adventure

Rating: M

‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ (or Spider-Man 6, technically) is Sony and Marvel finally playing nice and bringing Marvel’s most popular comic book character into the MCU – will be interesting to see how he’s involved in the upcoming Infinity War. A lot of people will ask “do we need another Spider-Man film?” The answer is, clearly “yes”! This is just as good as each of the other first Spider-Man films, and is different in that it’s not an “origin story” – there’s no Uncle Ben – and we’ve already seen Peter Parker (Holland) with his powers in ‘Captain America: Civil War’, so the film starts with a lot of momentum, where Peter’s trying to impress Iron Man (Downey Jr.). Also, excellent use of the Ramones!

This is the most age-appropriate Spider-Man so far – Tobey Maguire was 26 when ‘Spider-Man’ came out in 2002, Andrew Garfield was 29 when ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ came out in 2012 and Tom Holland has just turned 21 – which lends a fair bit of authenticity to Peter being a high school kid with teenage problems. There is an actual homecoming dance, so plenty of teenage awkwardness, but it’s all very watchable, due to Holland’s charm and enthusiasm. He’s helped by his best friend Ned (Batalon), who gets a lot of great lines and there’s other comedic relief from the coach (Buress), the debate team teacher (Starr) and, surprisingly, the PSA’s from Captain America (Evans)! The plot is all about stopping the Vulture (Keaton), who’s constantly stealing alien technology left over from Avengers battles. His wing-suit is pretty great to watch and he makes for a suitable villain.

The film differs a bit from the comics, with no (thankfully, at this stage!) Norman or Harry Osborn, Mary-Jane Watson, or Gwen Stacy. However, there is Flash Thompson (Revolori) and Aunt May (Tomei), as well as Tony Stark, Pepper Potts (Paltrow) and Happy Hogan (Favreau) – and a multitude of references to other MCU happenings – to link it all together. Peter’s suit was cool, but probably a bit too Iron Man-ish for my liking. Still, it’s great to see Spider-Man still learning his powers (especially trying to web-sling through suburban backyards with no skyscrapers) and there’s plenty of great action scenes. It’s not quite the best of the Spider-Man films – a little long and sometimes a bit listless – but it has a satisfying ending and a lead actor who I hope to see play Spider-Man for quite a few films to come.

Overall: Worthwhile reboot – fun, exciting and different enough.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Baby Driver (July 2017)

Official Australian release date: 13/7/17. Viewed: 5/7/17.

Director: Edgar Wright

Actors: Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm

Genre: Action

Rating: MA

Edgar Wright’s first film that hasn’t been styled as a comedy (and his first since ‘The World’s End’), ‘Baby Driver’ is a fast-paced crime caper, with plenty of car chases, action, gun fights and a great soundtrack. There’s almost no score – basically every scene is set to a song, starting with the first robbery (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion), “Tequila”, T. Rex, The Damned, “Easy” and Baby (Elgort)’s own mixes. Music is so important to him, as he has tinnitus and uses an iPod to drown it out – and help him focus on his getaway driving.

Baby is helping criminals get away with robberies to pay back crime boss Doc (Spacey – always good), and the first crew is Buddy (Hamm – great as the criminal with an almost-conscience), Darling (Gonzalez – mostly just eye candy) and Griff (Bernthal – gruff). Then he falls in love with Debora (James – cute), a waiter at an Atlanta diner and needs to extricate himself from this shady world. This is made harder when Bats (Foxx – crazy) gets involved and doesn’t like Baby always wearing earplugs.

The car chases are filmed/edited magnificently, with the music adding urgency and tone where needed. Nowhere is this more evident than the final scene, with Queen’s “Brighton Rock” (one of their less famous songs) seamlessly complementing the visual. The stakes are high for the final 30min and the ending is appropriate and not corny. There’s plenty of style, but also substance, here.

Overall: Excellent heist/action film.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

The House (June 2017)

Official Australian release date: 29/6/17. Viewed: 29/6/17.

Director: Andrew Cohen

Actors: Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas, Ryan Simpkins

Genre: Comedy

Rating: MA

From the director who wrote ‘Bad Neighbours’ (which actually wasn’t bad) comes ‘The House’, a film based on a similarly flimsy premise that seems more suited to a 20min sketch, rather than a full 90min film. This time, two parents – Scott (Ferrell) & Kate (Poehler) – can’t afford to send their daughter, Alex (Simpkins) to college, so they decide – with some help from best friend Frank (Mantzoukas) – to start an underground casino.

While there’s definitely a few chuckles throughout, it’s all very predictable and quite blasé, with both Ferell and Poehler being OK, but seeming to just skate through most scenes without appearing to try. There’s no real character development, and no investment (pun!) in anything at all. At least it gets an MA rating here, although it’s for one semi-shocking/out-of-the-blue scene, not all the language.

Like a lot of recent comedies, it’s really the support cast that makes this above-pedestrian – it’s especially great to see Mantzoukas & his manic energy on the big screen, after his great efforts on ‘The League’ & ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’. Other ‘The League’ alumni include Rob Huebel as the cop & Nick Kroll as the councilor, both with some great moments.Not much else to say really – it’s not a horrible film, but it’s nothing distinct or especially funny.

Overall: Just passable simplistic comedy.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.

Wonder Woman (June 2017)

Official Australian release date: 1/6/17. Viewed: 4/6/17.

Director: Patty Jenkins

Actors: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Danny Huston

Genre: Action / Adventure

Rating: M

‘Wonder Woman’ is the first good DC film of their attempt to create an extended universe to rival Marvel. It certainly has a livelier and less somber tone than ‘Man of Steel’ and ‘Batman Vs Superman’, and works better as an introduction to the character than either of those films. Most of this is down to Gadot, who plays Diana with innocence, as well as integrity and passion. Also, doesn’t hurt that she’s extremely beautiful. The film does a good job of introducing the Amazons and how their island-home, Themyscira, is hidden from the world.

Diana’s mum, Queen Hippolyta (Nielsen) has kept her sheltered for her whole life (not certain if the Amazons are immortal, or not…), but this changes when World War I finds them, via Captain Trevor (Pine). Then, Diana’s off to the real world to help mankind in their battle against Ares, God of War (a substitute for the Central Powers in WWI). There’s plenty of funny moments as Diana is introduced to London in the early 20^th century and especially with Trevor, since she’s never met a male before. We quickly meet Trevor’s rag-tag team and suddenly we’re off to Belgium where the action begins and we get to see Wonder Woman in full flight/fight.

Ludendorff (Huston) is good as the evil German general, but there’s a few similarities with ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, as he is basically a “Red Skull”-substitute, has an offsider who develops weapons of mass destruction, gets super-strength, and then has to fight someone super-strong wearing red and blue. The main difference is that Wonder Woman’ is set WWI, but both comic book characters were created in 1941 during WWII. Still, it doesn’t really detract for the film, with plenty of great hand-to-hand combat, as well as full-on war scenes. Pretty satisfying conclusion, with Diana’s purpose, humour, powers and morals all being set-up nicely for ‘Justice League’, but works well as a standalone film.

Overall: Great origin story and fun to watch.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

John Wick: Chapter 2 (May 2017)

Official Australian release date: 18/5/17. Viewed: 20/5/17.

Director: Chad Stahelski

Actors: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane, Common

Genre: Action / Thriller

Rating: MA

‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ is a sequel I didn’t think they were going to make, but it is actually better than the first, if only because they now know what to do more and less of. It starts directly after the first film, but Wick (Reeves) now has a new dog. The initial car chase scene in New York is a pretty great way to start the film. Wick’s still the same – brooding, wearing a suit, saying maybe 100 words in the whole 2 hours and killing people left, right and centre.

The plot, as much as there is one, is that Santino D’Antonio (Scamarcio) – some Italian mafia guy – wants Wick to kill his sister, so he’s off to Rome to mess stuff up. This starts a long-running battle with fellow hitman Cassian (Common), which has some funny moments and some good fights.

I liked that there’s a sort of ‘Kingsman’-like global hitmen underground, but it does seem a little far-fetched most of the time, especially since there’s apparently hundreds of them! The film definitely needed to use Fishburne, McShane and Leguizamo more. But Reeves carries it, running around and killing at least 50 bad guys. The scene at the end in the museum is really well done too. Nothing new or exceptional, but well-made.

Overall: Fast and violent fun

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Alien: Covenant (May 2017)

Official Australian release date: 11/5/17. Viewed: 11/5/17.

Director: Ridley Scott

Actors: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterson, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride

Genre: Sci-Fi / Horror

Rating: MA

‘Alien: Covenant’ is number 6 or 8 in the franchise, depending if you count the ‘Alien Vs Predator’ films, or not. It’s a sequel to ‘Prometheus’, but a prequel to the original four ‘Alien’ films. Confusing? It doesn’t matter too much, but Fassbender as the cyborg, Walter, links this film to ‘Prometheus’, where he was David. As such, he plays a large role in the plot, which is similar to all that has gone before – in the 22^nd century, the crew is awoken from their “hyper-sleep” early by a mini-disaster and decide to stop on a nearby plant. What could possibly go wrong?

I’m not really sure what Ridley Scott was going for here (only his third film in the franchise) – a mix of ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’, since it involves a bit of action on a planet, but also the final scenes trapped on a ship. Unfortunately, it’s not done as well as either of those films. It takes over 40min for anything to happen, but because there’s 15 characters, we don’t get to learn much about them – just that Oram (Crudup) is the captain, Daniels (Waterson) his second-in-command and Tennessee (McBride) is the comic relief, that doesn’t get any jokes – and that it’s unlikely more than 20% of them will survive.

The film could’ve done more to explore the “Creators” that were set-up in ‘Prometheus’, but it’s only alluded to a little, with a slight twist being revealed. Both “twists” aren’t that shocking, and while there’s some good gore, there’s no truly scary or tense moments. I almost wish they went a little less serious with it. I thought the finished about three times before it did end, and left me asking if it was necessary?

Overall: Can’t give it too low a score, because we still get to see Aliens killing humans, but not great either.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (April 2017)

Official Australian release date: 27/4/17. Viewed: 24/4/17.

Director: James Gunn

Actors: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2’ is the highly-anticipated sequel to one of Marvel’s surprise hits – and it doesn’t disappoint. Sure, it’s not as novel or zesty as the original, but it’s still one of the best sequels in a long time. It still looks – and sounds – great: vibrant colours, plenty of action, both in space and on strange planets and another killer soundtrack that will grow on people as well. Great use of Fleetwood Mac and Cat Stevens, in particular.

Peter/Star Lord (Pratt) is back with his rag-tag friends/family – Gamora (Saldana), the almost-love-interest; Drax (Bautista) who’s both endearingly stupid and means well; Rocket (Cooper), the alienated racoon and Groot (Diesel), in ultra-cute baby-tree form. Yondu (Rooker), Peter’s adopted father and Nebula (Gillan), Gamora’s sister, are dragged back into the fray, as Peter’s father finally appears – Ego (Bridges, charming as ever). There’s some great cameos – Hasselhoff, Stallone, and, as always, Stan Lee (+ The Watchers) – and some good development of Mantis (Klementieff) and Kraglin (Gunn).

The main plot is all about family – Peter and his new-found father, as well as his odd relationship with Yondu (and Gamora); Gamora’s love/hate relationship with Nebula; Rocket being lonely and struggling to accept that he cares for others; and them all looking after Baby Groot (excellent post-credits scene too). Obviously, a great final battle scene and plenty of laughs throughout.

Overall: Still a bright spark in the MCU.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.