The Amazing Spider-Man
Now here is The Amazing Spider-Man, a reboot of the franchise just five years after the last sequel. Too soon? Most likely. Does the movie cover some of the same material that the first movie did? Undoubtedly. So, why did it have to be made, outside of the obvious reason that Columbia/Sony needed a big summer event back up just in case Men in Black III didn't click with audiences? Well, judging by the evidence up on the screen, they wanted to tell the story in a slightly more mature and emotional kind of way. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the original Spider-Man series. (Well, the first two in that series, anyway.) But it can't be denied that those films, entertaining though they may have been, veered on the side of goofiness a little too often. Under the direction of Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer), we get a Spider-Man movie that is a lot of fun, without resorting to camp or silly cameos. (But don't worry, true believers, Stan Lee still pops up here.) And, maybe it's just me, but I found myself caring about Peter Parker and his love interest, Gwen Stacy, more than I did the Parker and Mary Jane relationship in the originals.
Parker this time around is played by Andrew Garfield, who at the age of 28, is fooling nobody when he tries to pass himself off as a high school student. No matter. I found him to be quite likable - He seems more like the kind of guy who would take to life as a superhero, pulling off fantastic flying and leaping stunts, as even before he dons the mask, he's a bit of thrill seeker with his skateboard. The first hour or so of the movie will likely seem to be the most familiar, although the movie does change things up enough so it doesn't feel like a complete retread. We have Peter being bullied at school by Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka), we have him living with his loving Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), and we have him gaining access to a science lab, where he is bitten by a genetic-mutant spider, which gives him his powers. But, some of the details are different. This time, Peter goes to the lab to look for some information on his parents, who left him years ago, and were involved in some kind of experiment they would not elaborate on. This leads him to Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), who may hold some answers to Peter's past, and will play a big role in his life in the future.
One big change is the arrival of Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), who was Spider-Man's original girlfriend in the comics before Mary Jane came along. Yeah, they used the character in Spider-Man 3 (she was played by Bryce Dallas Howard in that one), but they did it all wrong that time. They fix their mistakes here by making Gwen a smart, capable young woman who not only has wonderful romantic chemistry with Peter, but proves to be more than a match for him when he becomes the web-crawling superhero. I personally was relieved to see that not once is Gwen treated as a damsel in distress in any of her scenes. She helps Peter out, and even fights alongside him once or twice. She even figures out that her new boyfriend is Spider-Man fairly quickly. Dating Gwen brings a lot of problems for Peter, as her father (Denis Leary) is the Police Captain, who doesn't like the idea of a masked superhero going around, doing the job that the cops are supposed to do, and wants to arrest him.
For a majority of its running time, The Amazing Spider-Man focuses on these different characters, and their relationships with each other, and is probably for the better for it. But, when the action sequences show up, the movie doesn't disappoint either. Remember Dr. Curt Connors? Well, not only did he work with Peter's dad on a secret experiment years ago, but he also recently has started an experiment with lizards to see if they can regrow lost limbs and skin tissue. He has a personal connection with the project, having lost one of his arms years ago. As often happens with scientists in comic book stories, the experiment goes wrong, and renders the previously good doctor completely insane. It also mutates him into a hulking lizard man, who likes to burst from the sewers and knock cars around with his massive tail. The effects used in the Spider-Man and Lizard battles are first rate. Both characters are obviously animated in a lot of their battles, but seem to have weight, and don't just fly around without boundaries.
Speaking of which, everything in this movie seems to have more weight than the previous entries. I cared more about the characters and what they were going through, and I was more involved in the fight sequences. There are a couple of great action sequences, such as when Spider-Man saves a kid from a dangling car, and a battle set within Peter's high school. I wouldn't call this movie darker or edgier, as it does still have a sense of humor about itself. But, it does feel a bit heavier than before. Credit the screenwriters, who obviously wanted to focus a bit more on the human side of the characters this time around. Not that the screenplay is perfect. I found the fact that the police seemed focused on arresting Spider-Man, when there is a mutant lizard threatening to unleash chemical warfare on Manhattan a bit hard to swallow. Someone needs to sit those officers down, and give them a long talk about priorities.
See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home