Monday, July 10, 2017

I tried to spot Easter Eggs for you in Spider-man Homecoming which is a great film by the way.

As movies go, Spiderman: Homecoming was one of the best I'd seen in a while. It certainly is up there with the first Avengers and Captain America: Winter Soldier or Captain America: Civil War. One of the things that really worked for me was the absence of Peter Parker's origin story. I think that's been done to death, and obviously the makers of the movie agreed that it shouldn't be told again on film.

Another thing that I love about these movies are the (SPOILER ALERT) Easter Eggs. So I'll go over a few of these that I managed to remember (and spot) from the film when I went and viewed it with my best bud, Brad Habegger.

First off, when the Marvel logo thing starts spinning, you hear the usual musical refrain associated with Marvel replaced with the "Spiderman...spiderman" theme from decades ago. That was really fun. Then you also get to see "Damage Control" in action, which is a corporation in the comics that cleans up sites of alien invasion (because all that strange tech needs to be cataloged and kept out of the hands of bad people like Hydra). Of course, you know it never works out that way or else there'd be no more good stories.

Then there's the reveal that a character named "Michelle" actually goes by M.J. Hmm? Coincidence? These kind of things rarely are. You only find out about "M.J." right before the credits roll. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this character, it is one of the many love interests in Peter Parker's storied history (a pretty significant one). Of course there's always Black Cat and Gwen Stacey to name a few others, but it seems like the creative team with Marvel will be incorporating M.J. over those two.

We also get to see Shocker in the movie, but he gets disintegrated by the Vulture. However, you'll notice that the yellow shirt he's wearing has a diamond pattern on it. This is obviously an homage of sorts to the comic book character. I doubt Shocker will ever make an appearance in the Disney/Marvel outings because he was used to bad effect in the second Amazing Spider-man movie.

There's also the guy that plays in "Better Call Saul" as the character "Nacho." In Spiderman: Homecoming, he plays a fairly insignificant role, but he shows up in the stinger with a scorpion tattoo on his neck. I think this means that he's going to be "The Scorpion" in a future Spider-man movie (which is also the significance of the stinger if you must know). He's probably going to become some part of the Sinister Six (a group of Spider-Man villains that are pretty destructive because they are all working together).

That's all the Easter Eggs I managed to spot.

Individual musings: I read somewhere that the film team destroyed fifteen Lego Death Stars to get the right shot. It makes my inner nerd weep. I also wonder what the iron suit that Iron Man made for Peter Parker does that the other one in the film doesn't. Bonus, the skin-tight look of the suit on Tom Holland's body is over the top great. The second stinger at the end of the long credits isn't really worth waiting for. It's just a public service message from Captain America. It's kinda/sorta funny but not really.

Things that are cool about Tom Holland, the actor that plays Spiderman. Check out this video below (which premiered on MTV's lip sync battles by L.L. Cool J.). It starts at about 1:47 with "Singing in the Rain," and he frickin' crushes it.

10 comments:

  1. Caught MJ right away. She was in the movie too much to be just a generic character anyway.
    I wonder how much they paid someone to put the Death Star together multiple times?
    Heard that Holland can't keep a secret, either. For Civil War, they only let him have the part of the script with his scenes in it.

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    1. I had no idea that Holland is a blabbermouth. That's so funny!

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  2. I'll have to watch it at some point.

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  3. I just learned about Easter Eggs the other night while watching Guardians of the Galaxy #1. I took my daughter to see #2 on Friday and I thought it was awesome.

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  4. Saw it this weekend and was extremely disappointed. The plot was muddled and the action and dialogue were tedious.

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  5. I'm not so much into Spiderman (loved Wonder Woman), but I've read good things about it. I'm always impressed with the athleticism in these flicks.

    And I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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  6. I was hoping for more wise cracking naivety like we saw in Civil War but they decided to go with a less sure/ less competent Spidey in this movie. It makes sense given the overall storyline and I enjoyed it. Was it just me or did Zendaya steal every scene? Can't wait to see her as MJ in the next one.

    I loved the second post credit segment. Fans expectations have grown bigger on these with every MCU movie and I loved the fact they trolled us hard. Sometimes patience leads to disappointment. So true.

    The most fun easter egg for me was Karen, the suit lady. I recognized the voice but couldn't place the name of the actress as I watched the movie. I looked it up afterward and found it was Jennifer Connally, who played Bruce Banner's girlfriend in the first Hulk movie but also the real life wife of Paul Bettany who voiced Jarvis, the 'Suit man' for Iron Man and who now plays Vision.

    It was good to see Donald Glover get a part in the movie after his public/controversial attempt to get the title role for the first reboot. That went to Andrew Garfield instead but the controversy raised by some fans helped Marvel to go against the grain (I love them for these types of things) and create Miles Morales, a black kid Spider-Man who takes over for Peter Parker. Glover makes an comment in the movie about his nephew who is in fact, Miles Morales. I'm not sure if we will ever see a Miles Morales Spider-Man down the line but it was a nice hat tip to Glover, who has also voiced Spider-Man in some of the cartoons.

    I was pretty surprised to see Gwyneth Paltow get fifth billing in the movie but it was nice to see Pepper Potts again. In her one scene, the camera panned between her, Jon Favreau, and Robert Downey Jr. that felt a little over the top and gratuitous. I suspect Downey is part of the reason. He has always insisted on roles for both of them in his MCU movies and with good cause. Without Favreau's direction/vision for the first Iron Man along with the chemistry between Downey and Paltrow, the MCU might not exist. Getting a easy payday for two people that did so much to create the today's comic book juggernaut was a nice touch. Doing it on Sony's dime is just icing on the cake for Disney.

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  7. Oh yea, no origin story. I'm so tired of origin stories.

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  8. That was Electro in Amazing 2, not Shocker.
    And I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing the Shocker again, the guy who took his place, since it seems pretty clear they're heading toward a Sinister Six story. They had three of that team in this movie, after all.

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