Has it really only been only five years since the last Tobey McGuire Spider-Man movie? And so with this new Spider-Man film, we're just supposed like that whole series didn't even happen? OK. Disney, could you please repeat this with the Star Wars prequels and give us the TRUE origin of Darth Vader?
Yes, Disney thinks you are dumb. Half of The Amazing Spider-Man or more was just a rehash of the first McGuire movie. Don't get me wrong, Disney appears to know what it's doing when it comes to making Marvel movies. They are making a ton of money. They have sequel upon sequel coming out. They have The Avengers 2. Iron Man 3. Thor 2. Black Widow? Captain America 2. Just throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. But the thing about all these Marvel movies is that while you are watching them, they really are entertaining...but afterwards, when you really start thinking about the experience, you realize how dumb they really are. Is anyone going to care about any of these movies in 20 years? I doubt it.
But let's get back to Spider-Man. Peter Parker is a brilliant high school student played by the Hayden Christensen look alike Andrew Garfield who it appears has more acting chops than McGuire could ever dream of. In fact, he probably lays on the nerd schtick a little TOO thick. Apparently, his parents dumped him on the doorstep of his Uncle Ben and Aunt May's when he was a kid because their scientific research with radioactive spiders had put them in danger. Peter never saw them again. But when he finds an old briefcase containing his dad's research, he quickly links him to a geneticist named Curt Connors, who is currently working on cross species genetics. He even gives Dr. Connors a hand in moving his years long research to the next level, using lizard DNA to make 3 legged rats grow a new limb! Oh, and during the course of his visit, he also gets bitten by a radioactive spider AND plants the seeds for the movie's new villain, the Lizard!
Am I the only person in the world who just expresses a yawn over all the new Marvel movies? These characters are so old and worn out. Disney (also old and worn out) seems to think that just because you give Peter a touseled hairdo and some cool Nikes that it updates the character of Spider-Man. Peter also seemed to rely a little heavily on the internet to do his crime solving. Again, a pretty lame attempt at updating this 50 year old story.
Retreading the origin story again also was a little dull. But again, this movie was not for comic book fans. It was for the great unwashed masses who have never even touched a comic in their lives. Disney does not see Marvel comics as a money maker. Now, Marvel movies, that's a completely different proposition. They don't care about the dwindling numbers of readers of their overpriced books. They only see dollar signs in the movies that exploit the fans and the characters. Woe betide Star Wars.
Andrew Garfield does a pretty good job imitating that skinny dude that I hate from Scott Pilgrim and that other dorky dude from Zombie Land, (which also starred Emma Stone). And when called on to really act in this movie, he succeeds admirably. Emma Stone seems poorly miscast as the stockings skirted Gwen Stacy because she looks about 35 years old in this movie. Martin Sheen does a good imitation of the Martin Sheen that he's always been along with the chick from Smokey and the Bandit who fill in for kinda surrogate parents for Peter, but really have no emotional space to work in except to worry about Peter.
I will say that this film was an improvement over the Sam Raimi films, but I don't know if that's saying much. I for sure did not miss the goofiness that is so inherent in all of Sam's movies. I will definitely give the sequel to Amazing a shot, even though it will probably be the same villain origin-Spider Man fight to standoff-romantic complications-Big fight at end formula that is so true of all superhero movies these days. That's what made the second Batman Nolan movie so great. It worked at a very personal level, and wasn't so intent on the James Bondian destroy cities, take over the world mentality of other films of the costumed crimefighter ilk....Kickass would be another example of a comic movie done right.
My Grade: B
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