It was only 5 years ago that Sam Raimi’s
Spider-Man franchise came to an end, resulting in a separation between Raimi and
Sony Pictures. Yes, the much maligned 3rd
movie had its share of problems both on and behind the screen. As a friend pointed out to me recently,
“think about it... Forman was Venom!”.
Five years later, and I’m still trying to digest it. Preposterous!
Well, Sony, not one to back down on the possibility of bags and bags of
money, made the genius decision to reboot the franchise. Now, under the helm of Marc Webb, the untold
story begins anew.
The Amazing Spider-Man tells the untold
origin story, again, of the titular web-swinging hero. This time around, they add slightly more to
the context behind his parents, with his father being a scientist alongside Dr.
Curt Connors. After what is seemingly an
accident involving the death of his parents, Peter Parker moves in with his
Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Parker, now
grown up, discovers some of his father’s research papers and works, and seeks
to continue his research by aiding Curt Connors at Oscorp. After sneaking into one of Oscorp’s
laboratories, Parker is bit by a radioactive spider, and well, you know the
rest. Connors now able to continue his
research on human regeneration, experiments on himself, only to ultimately
become the infamous “The Lizard”... (snoutless). Connors, although with good intentions, seeks
to eliminate the physical weakness in the human species, but fails to see the
consequence of enacting his plan (i.e. his serum makes you EVIL!). And of course, it’s up to Spider-Man to stop
him.
Of all the superhero releases this summer,
the Amazing Spider-Man clearly had the least clout. The hype around the other superhero releases
overshadowed the young web swinger. It
didn’t help that the movie is a reboot of a very recent franchise, leaving many
wondering ‘huh?’. On top of that, the
marketing campaign behind it wasn’t exactly inspired, with the focus on “seeing
the untold story”. Really? Because we saw it 10 years ago. But as a geek, I’m behooved to see any movie
with Spider-Man in it. And you know,
despite all this preamble, I enjoyed it.
Which surprised me most of all, because most of the trailers leading up
to it, I thought were kinda shitty and boring.
Now, it is nowhere as good as Raimi’s Spider-Man 1 and 2 (of which 2 is
nearly the perfect sequel and probably one of my favourite action movies), but
it is leaps better than 3.
Going in, I had doubts about Marc Webb in
the director’s seat as he’s not typically known as an action movie kind of guy,
but he really nails down the fun in this.
Webb, known more for scripts and stories involving relationships
integrates his forte into ASM. The
strength of the movie is on the relationships Peter Parker has with all the
people surrounding his life. Action and
set pieces are not the focus here. That
said, sometimes when the scenes got mushy, the dialogue got extra cheesy. I’m quite sure at one point I was the only
person in the auditorium that laughed out loud at the cheesiness of the
dialogue, triggering a chain reaction of laughter and slaps on foreheads in the
theater. Well, I hope they were laughing
with me.
I thought all the main players were great
in the movie. I mean Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as Parker and Gwen Stacy
respectively were good, but I really loved all the side players like Martin
Sheen as Uncle Ben, Sally Field as Aunt May and Dennis Leary as Captain Stacy. It’s more of Garfield’s interaction with each
character that I enjoyed watching, especially with Sheen. He seems like he could be everybody’s uncle.
Of what I can recall, I only have two
gripes with the movie.
The first has to do with the decision making
of one Peter Parker. Now, I can believe
that a teenager bit by a radioactive spider could gain superhuman powers and
become a hero to New York City. But I
CANNOT believe that a teenager would use BING.COM as a search engine!!! As soon as I saw that, it took me out of the
fantasy and reminded me that it was all fake and that I was watching a
movie. I can only suspend so much
belief. But maybe the kids these days
ARE using BING.COM. And if that’s the
case, it brings about the question: what’s in our milk?
The second has to do with the score. And this can actually be a knock against the
original Spider-Man trilogy… or heck, ALL Marvel based films. What each of them has lacked is a memorable
or iconic score. The music is so
generic. There’s nothing with the music
that connects me to the superhero, unlike that of Batman or Superman. With those two franchises, I feel like the
music adds to the theme and creates an emotional experience during viewings. I haven’t yet felt the same with any of the
Marvel films.
On a very minor note, and not really a
gripe, is the snoutless The Lizard. I
didn’t really like the look or design of The Lizard in the movie. I don’t know if the snout would have helped,
but I think they could have done more to lizard him. Movements and what not. He seemed very generic as a villain, with a
tail as an added feature. Still,
although sort of generic looking, he did seem menacing as Spider-Man’s rival,
and that’s why this is reduced as a minor gripe. And part of me cries inside, because I was
hoping to see Dylan Baker eventually become The Lizard in the original trilogy
of Spider-Man.
But these are only minor gripes (although
that BING.COM…), and doesn’t necessarily detract from the overall
experience. It is definitely worth a
viewing, and now that everyone’s filling in the auditoriums to see Batman, it’s
the perfect time. Til then, later geeks!
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