Tom Holland for Spider-Man?We all know that eventually the superhero bubble will burst. But until then, they will dominate cinema. Still, even in their new golden age of popularity, there is a growing semi-intangible resistance out there to caring about each and every one of the films. I've been feeling that about Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice especially and it's a little strange that the Fantastic Four reboot has been so non-buzzy since the internet loves talking superheroes like little else. (Both films recently got new trailers, t'was time to discuss)
Spider-Man
Not that this indifference or in some cases outright hostility affects the box office mind you. Everyone seemed to hate The Amazing Spider-Man 2 last summer but it didn't stop the movie from making $708 million globally and it certainly hasn't dampened enthusiasm at Sony or Marvel for Spider-Man as a cash cow. They're already busy recasting Spider-man for the third time in less than 14 years. They've supposedly narrowed it down to five actors... They're all between the ages of 18-20 to insure that Spidey goes younger but not too young because you can't work child actors too many hours. Asa Butterfeld (Hugo, Ender's Game) and Nat Woolf (The Fault In Our Stars) have gotten the most press from their names coming up, but the list also includes Liam James (The Way Way Back), Timothée Chalamet (a brief role as the son in Interstellar) and Tom Holland. Of that batch, I'm unquestionably rooting for Tom Holland who was so special in and so ably carried The Impossible (2012). Plus he has significant dance training (one of the Billys from Billy Elliott: The Musical) so the lithe physicality of Spider-Man shouldn't be a problem and you should never underestimate an actor's physical gifts when casting these roles. Stunt men shouldn't have to do everything.
Well, I'm rooting for Holland when I'm not feeling indifferent to the whole thing that is.
Batman v Superman (Or, our preferred title Batman ♥ Superman)
When Man of Steel (2013) it was greeted with polite applause and mucho box office. But not so slowly there was a coalescing aggravation and then outright disdain for its characterization of Super-Man as less noble and far more violent than he'd been in the past. But that didn't stop the movie from making $668 million worldwide. It's doubtful that the general grumpiness online surrounding Batman v Superman whether its due to the Ben Affleck or Gal Gadot castings or the exhaustion with "dark" superheroes or Zach Snyder himself, will translate into anything other than free publicity. The movie will surely be huge even if it seems hard to find people who are enthusiastically optimistic about it. But how are you feeling after watching the trailer?
That my biggest takeaway was "oooh, that's Holly Hunter's voice!" says less about the trailer than it doesn't about me but that was my biggest Yes. My biggest no was that prolongued shot of Ben Affleck emoting by which I could tell I was supposed to be feeling something ("the fever. the rage" ?) but I was getting more of that from the new furrowed brow of the Batman costume than from Affleck. Bring Your Own "Yes No Maybe So" in the comments won'cha?
Fantastic Four
Well... it looks infinitely better than the first big screen go at these characters. Low bar, but still...