Though he has only a pair of independent films to his name, director Jon Watts (Clown, Cop Car) sure knows his way around a friendly neighborhood Spider-man. The product of a team-up between Sony and Marvel Studios, Spider-man: Homecoming places the iconic webslinger in high school. This choice dictates many aspects of the film, from the story and characters all the way down to the sense of humor and the overarching themes of growing into one’s responsibilities. At the very least, it certainly establishes Watts’s version of Spider-man as different, which is absolutely crucial given that this is the third iteration of Peter Parker in the last 15 years.
Tag: Jon Favreau
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Though Disney’s live-action adaptations of their traditional animated stories have been a mixed bag so far, Jon Favreau and company have delivered a surprising gem in The Jungle Book. Like other adaptations, this film is certainly a re-make of the original and contains many of the same thematic elements, but some unique nuances add a great deal to the overall quality of the film. Though the movie is not without its faults, it is vastly superior to the animated version from 1967 in almost every way: it has a stronger sense of character development, a more coherent plot-theme, and even sports higher-quality animation. This is hands-down the best of Disney’s recent live-action adaptations.
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One of the biggest surprises of Disney’s D23 convention was the trailer for Jon Favreau’s live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book. Finally, we get to see the official trailer for this film, which is essentially what everyone at D23 already saw (though the trailer shown there was slightly different, based on descriptions from people who saw it at D23). Pay close attention to the tone of this trailer, and especially the multiple fades to black, as it makes the film look far darker than the familiar animated feature from the late ‘60s:
Plot and Theme 