Spunking

Rating: Null/10 (18 October 2016)

Marvel has repeatedly toyed with ways to riff on their overblown antics. They had Ant Man last year where he shrunk and all that and the all important fight to save the world took place among toys. They had Tony Stark in the last Iron Man as screwy actor struggling with superhero machinery that blew up in his face. The first Thor of course, with the savior hero washing down in 'real life' from his astral world above and shown to be a big jock.
That's what they do here, a superhero narrator plowing his way through the superhero plot while commenting on the absurdity of tropes. It's mostly matter of engineering gags from that point. He's hideous looking, rides to the big showdown in a taxi. He has only 12 bullets, misses a few times in close range then gets a miraculous shot. He's only incidentally fighting against evil and would rather chew his own hand out of a bear trap than join the goody-two-shoe X-Men. He's basically this snarky dude who was plopped inside a Marvel movie and is fighting his way out of being a superhero (but meanwhile enjoys the mischief possible with playing the part).
Far from novel but they decided to keep the kids out this time so we have a bit of personality, a stoner imagination. His flatmate slash sidekick is an old lady and they get to toke together. Unlike an Avengers Walmart, you don't get the sense that it's corporate wash aimed at everyone and no one in particular.
My favorite bit was probably the relationship with the girlfriend. Love as unabashedly chasing each other outside norms. It's not as easy to seduce that twinkle in the eye out of actors as it looks.