Spiderman: Homecoming -The Magic of Disney-Marvel

Neha Hooda: Assistant Professor

Centre for Post Production Skills

“With great power there must also come great responsibility” 

 Films are power and Disney – Marvel seems to live up to the responsibility well.

Let us talk about how some of the films and characters we  have loved so much and those  that  have evolved over the years. Peter Parker from Spiderman: Homecoming strikes a chord in this regard.

Stan Lee wrote the character of Spiderman somewhere in early 60’s and the first Spiderman comic came out in 1962.The original character was a super hero who had self-obsessions with rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness; something the young high school going everyday kid could identify with. The Spiderman of today is a changed person. Not merely a character, but a more real person; as the audience comes very close to the journey of this digital native who still has Aunt May to look after him, a girl he crushes on but finds difficult to speak to. He is smart and above all, a sense of larger purpose, restlessness, righteousness and the willingness to rise above his own mettle describes this new boy next door. This really is the new avatar of the young kids we see every day who want to do more and are more assured and assertive of what they want. The new Peter Parker exudes confidence, comes from a common man’s home, faces the question of the reason for existence.The way the character of Peter Parker spins out is not only organic in how it grows over the scope of the story, but also high on the aspirational and feel good factor or good vs evil, Kindness over violence. In an environment of seamless media consumption where violence and heavy VFX often seem to gross in the dollars, Parker stands out as the good boy we read about in Indian stories. He defeats the evil and then rescues the evil. Putting in sharp focus, “Hate the sin and not the sinner.”

It is endearing to see how humanity lives on in Peter’s heart and he goes on to save his opponent in the end. Keeping the possibilities of technologies aside, the film traces the journey of a young boy who is thrown in a tough situation of life and death with no one to rescue him except his will to pull through and stand up again for a higher goal of saving the common people. This young boy risks all he has for what he believes to be true and for people who are oblivious to his struggle. The ending becomes gratifying not just because order is restored and the Superman sits atop a building as always, seeing his work from a distance. It is beautiful to see how young Parker goes on to achieve what he wanted to and rejects it all. All the while he assumed he was being led by a materialistic goal of being part of the Avengers. On receiving the same honour, he listens to his inner voice and rejects it all for a much simpler life. Passing yet another test, he finds his true calling, true to it’s purpose. Parker’s heart and emotions resonate with a sense of kindness, love, affection and simplicity of silence. Much like what all memorable moments are made of in life, Parker brings to us the beautiful picture of a good soul with a large heart in as little as 2hrs 13 minutes. Much like the Spidey of the 60’s, Mr Parker of 2017 bring us a sense of identification, albeit on a different level. The scope of his personality presides not only over a story but over a larger expanse of what makes us who we are. This Parker is a beautifully written character and hopefully more inspiring for all than the pointless violence that sells. In the end, faith in humanity is restored. The goodness evolves and it does feel like a good day. http://bit.ly/2uuq4Ky

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Assistant Professor – Having worked with studios like FutureWorks, Prime Focus  to name a few; Neha’s expertise lies in post production. She has handled digital intermediate, editing, sound, VFX, stereoscopy for various international and domestic feature films. Some of the films she has worked on are ‘John Carter’ (2012), ‘Titanic 3D’ (2012), ‘Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’ (2013), ‘Cloud Atlas’ (2012), ‘Pixels’ (2015), ‘Rakhta Charitra’ (2010), Tamas (Restoration), ‘Ek Villain’ (2014), ‘Phantom’ (2015), ‘Yaan’ (2014) to name a few.