This movie has an infamously bad reputation, but it’s not entirely warranted. The premise is great and in a few choice parts the execution is as well. But there are just so many bafflingly terrible plot, character, and directoral decisions that it bring down the good parts, making them fewer and further between as the movie goes on.
Closest comparison: It’s like Army of the Dead (2021) by way of Justice League (2017).
Setting: Disaster Action
Plot: Super Hero
Tone: Action Comedy
This show takes the Spider-Man high school drama, combines it with a broader Avengers-style narrative, and wraps it all up in the gore that is much more realistic to the physics at work. The story isn’t as clever as it thinks it is, but it keeps the audience sufficiently curious and pays it off decently well in the end. It certainly lags in the middle and a few of the main side characters are insufferable, but they’re not a big enough part to ruin it completely. If you can stomach the extreme gore, it’s a fascinating watch.
Content warning: extreme violence, extreme blood, extreme gore
Closest comparison: It’s like Spider-Man by way of Kick-Ass with a Dexter (2006) plot woven in.
Setting: Marvel-Adjacent Super Heroes
Plot: Super Hero Origin
Tone: Brutal Action
This is actually being rather generous. It's really a 2.5 but I had to pick a direction. The fight scenes are ok but uninspired and the writing is really really bad, especially in the dialogue. Everything is oversexualized and the way it's edited shows Joss Whedon tried to minimize that aspect as much as possible when he took over directing in the last month or so of film production. On the plus side it's colorful and the Flash has some funny lines with good delivery. Mostly a dud, but not a dumpster fire like Batman v Superman.
Full disclosure, we saw this movie last week but accidentally missed the first 30 minutes and didn't realize it until we got out and it wasn't as late as it should have been. We re-watched it today and my opinion of it actually didn't change that much. If it were a made for TV movie or a 90's direct to video special I would have said it wasn't too bad. But as it's a $300 million blockbuster it's hard to imagine how nobody on the production team threw up the red flag before it was released.
The visual effects are great, so if you are going for them or you're already a Harry Potter fan then definitely go see this movie; I'm sure you'll love it. For me, there were several things that didn't work plot-wise and each spell they cast really only raises more questions, like "Why didn't they do this sooner?" or "Why don't they do this all the time?". I didn't really like any of the characters except one. He was fantastic and definitely put the movie up to a 3 for me.
