The Single Biggest Mistake Each MCU Film Has Made
12. Spider-Man: Homecoming: Flat Direction
The Movie:
Spider-Man: Homecoming is just lovely. An irresistibly charming high-school comedy and a vastly entertaining action movie backed by many incredible performances, this doesn't quite eclipse the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies but it's still a terrific ride.
One of the biggest criticisms of the MCU has been flat visuals, which isn't actually a very fair criticism since while the films have never been massively stylish (in the same way that, say, the DCEU films are), they're usually well-directed. There are exceptions though, including The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Ant-Man and this.
Spider-Man: Homecoming has disappointingly flat direction. Director Jon Watts had only worked on small independent films before this and he just seems out of his depth here. Despite being such a big blockbuster the visuals did look like those of a small TV movie.
This was particularly jarring considering how well-directed the other five Spider-Man movies were by Sam Raimi and Marc Webb. For example, with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, that isn't a particularly good film but the cinematography was incredible and really elevated the movie. Since we're used to great visuals in Spider-Man films the underwhelming direction here was disappointing.
Still, Peyton Reed did a similarly flat job with Ant-Man but then improved considerably in Ant-Man and the Wasp, so Jon Watts, now that he has a bit more experience, should be able to do better with Spider-Man: Far from Home.
Fix:
Hire a director with more experience in the blockbuster field.