‘Avengers: Endgame’ had the biggest global opening of all time in April this year. The Marvel film series has been making a lot of money for its creators. My boys and I went to see our first, post-Avengers Marvel creation today, to discover if Spider-Man could provide the bridge from the world threatened by Thanos to the fresh Marvel universe.
This movie easily surpassed the Wittertainment five-laugh test. There were several moments when my loud laughter punctuated the quiet in the very small audience watching alongside us. So much so, that it is clear that the humour had been included at times to suit my more adult generation, and at others specifically to provide joy to the ‘playlist-download’ generation. The Happy Aunt May plot line provided clever lighter moments, whilst enabling the injection of wistfulness sometimes in Stark contrast to developing events. However, my biggest issue with the film stems from the likelihood that my generation is not conceived as its primary audience. The ‘road trip’ movie, particularly in its American-teenager school-trip format, is no longer a theme to which I am drawn. This is, I know, a matter of personal taste. Perhaps it is because I am presently subject to adolescent angst at home. I did not warm to the clumsy, out-of-touch teacher jokes. The film is also not improved by some unfortunate dialogue that may play well in its origin country, America, but less well in Europe given the current political climate: the assertion by two batchelor boys planning a school-trip romance that all ‘Europeans love Americans’ grated somewhat.
The central Spider-Man:Mysterio relationship built in the first part of the film works very well as Holland and Gyllenhaal affectingly exaggerate their age difference and Spider-Man stumbles across a seemingly substitute mentor. The battle for identity, first love, pursuit of a replacement father figure, and remaining young whilst developing into encroaching adulthood are all struggles that resonate for the teenagers that mostly comprised my fellow audience-membership. On the flip side, I am starting to find Holland’s perpetual ‘I am only 16’ breathlessness rather annoying.
The CGI is handled fine. It has now reached the point that it is such an expected part of this superhero world, that in writing these words, it almost didn’t even occur to me to mention it when thinking back about a Marvel film.
I know she is an actress, but the youthfulness that Zendaya played after the older portrayal in ‘The Greatest Showman’ was astonishing. She seemed to have lost 10 years, if not more.
Marisa Tomei and Jon Favreau continue to prove their worth in solid supporting roles. Samuel L Jackson has perfected crotchety, grumpy old man (close to my own heart), bemoaning how (like the traditional teenage-family father figure) he has been pushed out post-Blip, and no longer knows what is going on around him. Every parent whose child ignores their calls and/or texts will relate to his Fury. Even when not directly involved, Robert Downey Junior still shadows the entire proceedings. And the in-credits twist was rather nice, possibly even stirring enough interest in me such that I bother to watch how the next episode pans out. This was a typical popcorn movie - mildly diverting whilst consumed, almost immediately forgotten but full afterwards.