I hear you. I’m not a fan of changing characters altogether for global appeal but Hollywood has done it many times in the other direction. Don’t get me started on Kahn Noonien Singh or The Ancient One. Holland is a fine actor and emotes well but is, well, tiny. Jackman as Wolverine had the opposite problem.
Reality is, a kid in high school in Queens NY in the 2010’s is going to have a more diverse group of friends than he would have had in 1962 for several reasons. But, I’m with you all the way on Flash. He stunk! I understand not wanting to take on a whole new reboot but we still need a little bit more of Peter’s backstory thrown in here and there, too.
The Spiderman movies will always feel just a bit off from the rest of the MCU. Why? Easy, Sony. They just do things differently. The Holland movies are a move in the right direction in look and feel. Try watching any of the other movies and notice how badly they are lit. You never escape fully into the story because you can see that everything is shot on a sound stage and it feels more like a TV show. Avengers suffered from this just a bit and Whedon changed more than just the aspect ratio for Age of Ultron after everybody responded positively to Winter Soldier’s grittier look and feel.
Big budget comic book movies need big worldwide box office receipts so they are going to continue to change characters for foreign markets. Just have a look at The Eternals cast. Sometimes it’s an availability game and the studio and fans are on the same page but an actor is unavailable and somebody steps into a role to keep a movie on track.
Yikes, now I’m ranting. I still enjoy them all. Well, almost all of them. That last Fantastic Four movie needs to just fade away from all of our memories.
I’m just chilling out for now enjoying WandaVision. I also have a question for anybody who wants to give their two cents. Theory Alert! I predict a post credit scene in the Black Widow movie of Cap getting her back when he returns the Soul Stone. A soul for a soul, no? And hey, couldn’t Gamora sacrifice her past self for the Gamora that learned to love her sister and Quill? Just curious. Wow, I could have mowed the lawn.