But I just Saw “The Amazing Spider-Man” today and kind of wanted to review it while it’s fresh in my mind. I’ll try and leave it as spoiler free as I can, but there may be some minor spoilers below. Be warned.
The Amazing Spider-Man
Let’s just say I went into the theater not really sure what to except, for one thing the original “Spider-Man” was in my opinion one of the best superhero movies ever. In fact it’s in part because of Spider-Man that I got into the superhero genre. Nevertheless, I made sure to keep an open mind when I went into the theater to see the new take on the web spinning hero. Boy was I surprised, from the very beginning of the movie of was hooked or more accurately webbed (:B). It begins with peter as a small boy, apparently playing hide and seek. Then he finds his dad’s office sabotaged. After this his parents leave him in the care of his loving Aunt May and Uncle Ben, played wonderfully by Sally Field and Martin Sheen. But the real actor who stole the show IMO was in fact Pater Parker himself, played flawlessly by Andrew Garfield. Now I loved Toby Maguire’s performance in the originals (save Spidey 3). But Andrew may actually be the better Peter. He comes across as soft spoken, and sometimes awkward, but very witty and is actually the main source of comic relief in the movie, with quirky one-liners, and shy attempts at wooing his high school crush, Gwen Stacy (played by Emma Stone). The best thing about him, is you can feel what he’s going through just by his body language, or small gestures. You know he’s just a good person, if somewhat conflicted and lost over not knowing what happened to his parents or why they left him.
Now to Emma stone. I loved her in her role, she was witty and mature, and also very pretty as Gwen Stacy and only added more heart to the movie. Rhy Ifans plays the villain The Lizard, and Dr. Curt Conners (who is missing arm BTW). He does a fine job as well, but he seemed a bit familiar, a little to close to the Green Goblen in the original. Now for the visuals. They really were amazing. The camera flowed and kind of danced across the scenes like a spinning web. Made it feel very stylish, some of the scenery itself was quite dazzling and there was also a big 1960s retro feel to the film; the score especially (which was great also, although I’m not sure if it could top the original theme), emphasized this. And when he swung across buildings you could almost feel the sensation of flying through the air. I also had the pleasure of seeing it in 3D. Some of the scenes did actually pop out of the screen, although there was a relatively small amount of action sequences and many scenes had almost no 3D at all to them (which is fine), so it’s probably almost just as enjoyable in 2D. The only big issue I had was a lot of the movie was very similar to the first Spider-Man. But most of the similar issues were well portrayed- some even better; it definitely had more emotional depth, at least on a personal level. Of course I seem to be comparing it to the first Spider-Man a lot, but I guess it’s kind of hard not to. I mean it did only come out 10 years ago. So, yes, overall it wasn’t only a solid re-imaging, but possibly one of the best superhero movies to date. I loved it. Go see “The Amazing Spider-Man”.
Excellent review Alex!
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