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| I totally stole the headline, it was too good not to. |
I enjoyed this movie, so I’ll get my criticism out of the
way first.
The Amazing Spider-Man
is an origin story, like the original Spider-Man
in 2002. However, in order to distance itself from the original film and avoid
hitting the same plot points, this film went so far out of its way that the
first half is a bit of a mess. I LOVE the characters in this movie, something
that the first series was lacking, but the plot is seriously weak. Maybe it’s forgivable
to repeat a few of the things that worked from the original film and not throw
the baby out with the bathwater. The moral of this character, “with great power
comes great responsibility,” took the greatest hit, robbing this movie of a
strong theme that might have made a cool movie a great one.
I felt like something else was missing too. It seemed like
there was a story that the makers of this film wanted to tell about Peter
Parker's parents, but were either unable to or they ditched it halfway through.
This is a really interesting and untold aspect of Peter Parker, and frankly
what the trailer led me to expect. The tease without resolution was a big
let-down, and contributed to the confusion that this film calls exposition.
Director Marc Webb (a very talented guy, but I hope he was
hired based on his name) and the writers of The
Amazing Spider-Man also missed out on answering a question that has always
confused me: Is Peter the first and ONLY person to walk into this completely
unguarded room full of super-spiders? Perhaps there should just be a sign on
the door saying “Free Super Powers.” I had heard that the reason Peter Parker
is a special case was part of the lost back-story with his parents, so the
reason there aren’t dozens of spider-powered janitors running around Manhattan
may well be on the cutting room floor.
Alright, now the good stuff. What this movie gets right, it
REALLY gets right.
While Peter Parker was a little murky, this was the best
Spider-Man we’ve ever seen on film. It celebrated all of the physical traits
that make this character unique, and for the first time there wasn’t a horribly
obvious shift between the actor and the CGI character. Every web-slinging
sequence had speed, weight, and grace (and showed that the web has to actually
attach to something, making swinging in straight lines nearly impossible). Spider-Man
looked, moved, fought, and talked differently from all the other cookie-cutter
heroes that we’re forced to put up with, and that is a massive achievement for
this genre.
A massive achievement for 3D as well. This film was
obviously planned for that format, and the extreme vertigo of Spider-Man’s
world is the perfect environment for it. I saw it in 2D (we write this blog for
free you know) but I could tell how amazing it would have been had I shelled
out the extra three dollars.
Thank God (in this universe, Stan Lee is lord and creator)
that there is some actual sexual chemistry between Peter and Gwen! This is a
first for the Spider-Man series, and
is more important than any of the technological advances (which are many) that
we see in this film. I really, REALLY
wanted them to get together. Moreover, I wanted
to get together with Emma Stone. And have spider powers.
I would suggest going out to see this movie, but it’s
already leaving theatres. My bad. I’ll try to get on these reviews before
everyone else has already moved on. In any case, this flawed but exciting movie
bodes well for the future and is a perfect palate cleanser after 2007's shockingly awful Spider-Man 3.
PS: Unfortunately I missed the tag after the credits. I
walked out of the theatre sure that there wouldn’t be an Avengers style teaser,
but I suppose that has just become part of the super hero genre. I hear it had
to do with Norman Osborn? Please comment and fill me in.
