Spider-Man: Far From Home
With the future of Tom Holland’s Disney-made Spider-Man films hanging in the balance, we can at least take comfort in the fact that his second (or possibly third depending on how you count Civil War) take on the character is just as sharp, exciting and heartwarming as his first. Portraying a superhero who is essentially an innocent child can present a specific challenge to actors and screenwriters: making it serious when it needs to be and not too immature in its humour that it alienates older audiences. Earlier films have portrayed Parker as a young man either having graduated from high school or entering university, which makes things easier to present in terms of believability. Spider-Man: Homecoming balanced well all the new elements along with the things fans of the character and general audience members wanted to see, particularly in shaping Michael Keaton’s villain, Vulture.
Much like its predecessor, Far From Home’s great strength lies in its characters and their chemistry. The romance – or should I say possible romance – between MJ and Peter is performed beautifully and subtly becomes the primary concern, and that’s no bad thing. Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio has the same flare as Keaton and the changing of his outlandish comic book origins to a more grounded motivation works wonderfully for the plot. The globe-trotting quality is utilised well for the purposes of glamour in a similar fashion to the Bond films, with the scenes in Venice being amongst the most exciting. What is quite impressive is that it succeeds in delivering satisfaction on all levels after the rollercoaster ride that was Endgame. Something that’s not easy to follow on from by any means.
A real joyous experience, and unlike the last two Spider-Man franchises, this sequel leaves everyone hankering for more… much more!
3.5/4
Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw
Right … where to begin. Well, it’s interesting look at the state of this Point-Break-with-cars franchise now, compared to when the series started back in 2001. The way it has evolved into one of the biggest money-making (if utterly vacuous) film series in recent years is quite amazing. If you grew up in the early noughties as I did, you’ll remember them as being something of a joke, that were perhaps mildly entertaining, at the very best.
By the time Tokyo Drift came around, everyone was understandably done with them. It wasn’t until the fourth or fifth instalment where the franchise hit on a formula that worked very well, seeing the original cast returning along with the introduction of the Hobbs character. Rather than being Point Break with street racing, the series became Michael Mann’s Heat with muscle cars and bigger stunts. Interestingly, Hobbs and Shaw owes more to superhero films than it does to anything else before in the franchise. It comes across as being more star-driven than car-driven (no pun intended but I’ll take it) in a similar fashion to Mission: Impossible. Iris Elba is easily one of the daftest of the villains and the testosterone-fuelled dialogue that is delivered by Johnson or Statham is just a little bit too silly for my taste, but that’s probably the point.
A little like Marvel, Bond and Mission: Impossible, it’s difficult to judge these films objectively and you have to look at them in comparison to their predecessors as they count as a very small sub-genre themselves, rather than merely being another franchise.
With that in mind it has everything you’d expect and the trailers, which everyone has doubtless seen, give away most of the crucial moments and funny set-pieces. In comparison to some of the other F&F films it’s not as God-awful as 2Fast 2Furious or Tokyo Drift, but it’s pretty easy to skip or just forget despite being harmless loud noise.
2/4
Coming Soon
Itsy Bitsy
Something for arachnophobes to stay away from! A family move into a house that has been haunted by a malevolent demon which takes the form of something truest ghastly that we’ve all encountered. Get your postcards and glasses ready for this crawling chiller!
Rambo V
Possibly the coolest looking trailer in a while, the Rambo franchise which started in 1982 with First Blood, puts a revisionist-western take on the formula but still promises everything we loved from the original and its three follow-ups.
Judy
