When Cop Car debuted at the Sundance film festival back in January, it was warmly received and seen as a minor breakthrough for writer-director Jon Watts. It wasn't the sort of film that would set the world alight, but it was a smart, low-budget genre movie that was expertly handled and augured great things. Yet before it even went into general release, the film already felt like a footnote of Watts' career, since he was tapped to direct the next Spider-Man reboot not long after Cop Car played in Park City. While that doesn't have much of a bearing on the film itself, it does alter the general perception of it. What once was a sharp and neatly put together genre exercise starts to look a little too much like a calling card, or Watts' gateway to franchise filmmaking.