I could leave it at that, but, of course, I won't. First off, Andrew Garfield, as Peter Parker/Spiderman, does a good job. He's not playing the character much differently than Toby McGuire did, but the later Spiderman movies were so dark, it was refreshing to see a lighter hearted attempt at the character.
Emma Stone is also good as Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's unattainable love object. I don't remember my Spiderman history as well as I should (really, I should remember Spiderman history?), but I seem to remember in the comic books, Gwen and Peter being in high school. The earlier series of movies featured Peter in college, with Mary Jane. Added note: I wasn't going to do this but I read the Wikipedia article. Peter met Gwen in college. If you want to know what happens to her you can read it here.
In a movie like this you don't let yourself get bothered by mutant spiders, radioactive spiders or the transference of 'spider strength' by a bite. You might as well stay home. By extension, a super-high tech genetics lab located in a New York skyscraper with a high schooler having some sort of authority there needs to just be accepted. A serum that grows back a man's arm but then turns him into a giant lizard man? What's the problem.
My only real beef with the movie was the reboot concept. How many people have played James Bond over the years without any apparent need to reboot the series? Just because they have a new actor in the Peter Parker role, I don't think justifies a reboot. The problem is that the whole first half of the movie is a story you already know. Don't get too satisfied with Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben.
I have a little beef with the CG effects, as well, mainly the lizard man. It's hard to describe, but it just looks too much like CG.
There's also a human story going on here. Parker coming to grips with his father's disappearance long ago, dealing with getting to kiss the most beautiful girl in school, his Uncle's death (which you wll know was directly caused by Parker's non-action), and trying not to scare Aunt Mae to death. I thought all this was done pretty well.
2 comments:
I saw this this weekend in an attempt to beat the heat. If those Tobey Maguire movies didn't exist, I would consider this a great movie, but they do, so I couldn't get over the fact that it seemed like a totally unnecessary exercise designed strictly to remove cash from my wallet. And I also totally agree about the lizard, the thing was way too far into the uncanny valley for me.
Totally unnecessary re-boot, but it was still very fun and entertaining. Also, Garfield was a nice choice for Peter Parker even if I do miss Tobey Maguire just a tad bit. Just a tad, though. Good review.
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