This movie (plus small segments in Captain America: Civil War) represents the third depiction of Marvel's flagship hero Spider-Man in fifteen years. The first, starting in 2002, was Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3. Andrew Garfield rebooted the role in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Now Tom Holland takes up the webslinging role. Unlike the prior two incarnations, this version of Spider-Man doesn't bother us with the origin story. In that, I think the movie does depend on the viewer having [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Captain America: Civil War
May 10, 2016 By 1 Comment
Shortest review: Damn good Marvel movie. If you've liked the other Marvel movies, this is one of the best. Still short, no spoilers: While drawing basic inspiration from the comic-book "Civil War" storyline, this movie makes the conflict more personal for the characters, in all directions. As others have noted, while it's titled "Captain America", to a great extent this is the third Avengers movie, picking up a relatively short time after "Age of Ultron". The trailers haven't been too deceptive, though as usual there's a [ Continue reading... ]
Just For Fun: My Top Ten Heroes
May 9, 2014 By Leave a Comment
For long-term readers of mine, this list may be as notable for who isn't on it as for who is. The decisionmaking process on this was… difficult, to say the least. In the end, I had to go with my immediate gut reactions and leave out many, many heroes who certainly rank high in my personal pantheon. Do not take the absence of a character to mean I don't appreciate them as a great hero and example; there are many such who simply don't quite reach this top ten… or who might reach it on a different day. #10: [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Spider-Man
October 25, 2013 By 4 Comments
"With great power comes great responsibility." As I've mentioned before, my first major exposure to comics occurred at the age of 18, when I was living in my first apartment with two other guys, Steve Reed and Ed Lord. Steve was the SF book collector of the pair, while Ed Lord was the comic collector. It was in his collection that I first encountered the Amazing Spider-Man. His basic origin is known to virtually everyone these days, given that there've been two movies in the last decade or so which [ Continue reading... ]
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