Spider-Man: Homecoming was as good, if not better than I expected. Good story, good pacing, and believable characters keep the movie going and worth watching.
As the second or third reboot in the last couple of decades (anyone counting?), the writers wisely decided against rehashing the origin story, but at the same time, they were able to catch much of the spirit of an origin story. Peter Parker is already the Spider-Man, but is a young teenager with the usual problems. He knows he has powers, but doesn't know how to use them. He should really be going to school, and dating girls, etc., but he wants to be an Avenger and catch the bad guys. The first thirty minutes demonstrate what happens as he hilariously botches several hero attempts.
Tony Stark makes an appearance to remind Peter he just needs to chill and grow up a little, but Peter comes to learn something big is going down, and no one will listen to him.
The title "Homecoming" has several meanings: the movie somewhat centers around the high school's homecoming dance, and this movie celebrates SONY finally working out a way to have Spider-Man join the rest of the Marvel universe.
Michael Keaton plays an interesting bad guy -- someone who is only taking advantage of an opportunity that lands in his lap. He just wants to make money, but he is willing to hurt people who get in his way. In a sense, his lack of insanity sets him apart from other villains we've seen before. Some may find this boring, but hey ... not everyone can be Heath Ledger.
The effects were decent -- some scenes looked fake when Spider-Man went swinging between buildings, but I didn't care much. I think it added to the quirkiness of the film. When it got to the big action, some of the in-your-face scenes were dark and confusing to follow. Perhaps that was intentional as well.
It was a lot of fun, and I suggest catching this while it's still in theaters.
War for the Planet of the Apes was another fun movie. I had seen the first movie ("Rise"), skipped the second ("Dawn"), and after being lost for a few minutes, I felt like I was quickly caught up and was able to enjoy the majority of this third movie.
Caesar and his band of intelligent apes have established a home in the forests north of San Francisco. When humans come to fight and destroy them all, Caesar learns that they must flee elsewhere in hopes of finding a place of safety.
After the "Colonel" (played by Woody Harrelson) infiltrates and kills many of the apes, Caesar leaves his group to fulfill a vendetta, in many ways becoming like Koba from the second movie. Others join him to keep him in check. Along the way, they pick up a girl who can't speak, and ... well ... it sets up the stage for plenty of fun action and drama. Harrelson does a good job playing the desperate Colonel who is only trying to do whatever it takes to save the human race.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie, I found it interesting that the plot seemed to rely both on deus ex machina (where something comes out of the blue to save the day) and diabolus ex machina (where something comes out of the blue to wreck the day). In other words, too many coincidences.
Still, there were some awesome scenes, and it was all worth watching. I highly recommend catching this in the theater as well.
