The Amazing Spider-Man

WHAT’S DOIN

For months I’ve been hearing criticism about how Spider-Man didn’t need a reboot, especially since the most recent franchise, which ended only a few years ago, made so much money at the box office. I disrespectfully disagree. The Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy was terrible. The only watchable parts of any of the Raimi Spider-Man movies were the acting performances by Alfred Molina, Rosemary Harris, Cliff Robertson and J.K. Simmons. The rest was an insufferable mix of bad casting, bad acting, bad CG and bad writing.

From the first trailer it was clear Marc Webb captured something that escaped Raimi.

GOOD TIMES

The casting in Spider-Man was great. Tobey Maguire was pretending to be Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield is Spider-Man. The casting is made even more important when you consider the chemistry that’s supposed to exist between Peter Parker and Mary Jane/Gwen Stacy. In the Raimi trilogy, almost all of the interaction between Maguire and Kirsten Dunst was uncomfortably awkward, including the famed upside-down kiss in the rain. Contrast that with Garfield and Emma Stone, who you’d swear were a couple off-screen based on their respective performances. Pick any scene between Maguire and Dunst in which he’s telling her they can’t be together and set that next to the scene in the end of Spider-Man in which Garfield tells Stone it’s over between them. There’s no comparison.

Spider-Man’s movements seemed more organic in this movie than in the Raimi trilogy, and I think it had something to do with the influence of Parkour. There was something it’s hard to put my finger on that felt more true to Spider-Man’s mannerisms in the comics. I also enjoyed the first-person web-slinging that was showcased in the first Spider-Man teaser trailer.

Rhys Ifans’ performance as the villain was right up there with Molina. I was expecting to hate the CG on The Lizard but was pleasantly surprised.

*****SPOILERS*****

I loved the subtle change in the traditional cause of Uncle Ben’s death and how that motivated Peter to become Spider-Man. I also enjoyed how Peter’s need for revenge didn’t take over the story, and how Webb left that aspect of Spider-Man’s saga unresolved.

*****SPOILERS*****

NOT SO GOOD TIMES

The only thing I didn’t like about Spider-Man was the corny manner in which the city seemed to rally around Spider-Man during his big showdown with The Lizard,  but even that didn’t bother me as much as it usually does.

RANDOM MUSINGS

Every time one of these superhero movies comes out one of the first things I do is re-rank my top superhero movies. Here is my current top three:

1. The Dark Knight

2. The Amazing Spider-Man

3. Iron Man