Andrew Garfield of "The Social Network" fame has donned the spandex for this film. He definitely looks better for the part considering Tobey Maguire already looked thirty years old when he was Spider-Man. Anyways, the film follows the plot of the first one fairly similarly. Peter Parker is raised by his aunt and uncle. He is in love with a girl, (Gwen Stacy, Emma Stone, the original comic book love interest and way better choice than Kirsten Dunst), who actually gives him the time of day BEFORE he gets superpowers. He gets his powers after being bitten by a spider, that is never explained to be anything that special, on a trip to Oscorp. Which if you remember from the first film is owned by Norman Osbourne, the eventual Green Goblin. Well, he gets his powers, uses them as a metaphor for puberty, his uncle is killed by a gunman, he decides to become a vigilante and then a big green villain threatens the city and Spider-Man has to save the day.
I'm going to talk up the movie's praises right now. The film is very well shot and the CGI doesn't look like a bunch of power rangers flying around the city. But the film's strength lies in the acting and Marc Webb's dance of relationships. Everyone is perfectly cast. Rhys Ifans is pretty creepy as Dr. Connors/Lizard. I especially loved Sally Fields and Martin Sheen as Aunt May and Uncle Ben. They were just wonderful. And Emma Stone is always a darling. The budding relationship between her and Garfield was both believable and fun to watch. Which is the main reason Hollywood got Marc Webb to direct because of his film "500 Days of Summer." When Uncle Ben died, I was heart broken. It was so sad.
Now let's discuss things that I didn't like. WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD.
The movie was touted as more faithful to the comic books and that's why it needed to be redone or whatever. But they really only changed two things, the love interest, and the web shooters. In the comic book, Peter Parker invents his own web shooters after discovering his powers. His first love interest is Gwen Stacy, not Mary Jane.
They stuck close to Gwen Stacy, that was accurate. But the web shooters? No. Peter Parker's "normal" power is that he is basically a science genius. In the comics he invents the web shooters. In the movie he just borrows them from Oscorp. As in he literally orders the web material from Oscorp and builds a device to shoot them. In like 5 minutes. You'd think someone from Oscorp would notice a guy shooting their super strong web material all over town that they freely advertise. When Green Goblin shows up he could just shut down production, whoops no more Spider-man, that was easy.
This isn't from the comics but it made me laugh. Dr. Connors needs like one formula to perfect his antidote for losing limbs or something. Peter just copies a formula from his dead dad's notebook and says it's his. For real? Not only is he not a genius, he's a plagiarizer.
There also is no wrestling scene. They replaced it with a convenience store scene where Peter refuses to stop a convenience store thief. Who kills Uncle Ben. Again, very unlike the comics. He also never catches the convenience store thief, which makes me think they might bring him back as a villain like they did in "Spider-Man 3" God forbid.
And my last irk in this otherwise fine summer entertainmentblockbuster is one that might be solved in the second film. Which could potentially be a genius character arc. In the end, the Lizard kills Gwen Stacy's dad, New York's police chief, who operated without backup like an idiot. But in his dying words he tells Peter to stay away from his daughter so she doesn't get hurt. Peter says yes, because hey, the man is dying, you can't say no to a dying man. He ignores Gwen, doesn't go to the funeral and acts all emo about it. She confronts him and asks him if "He made you promise, didn't he?" Somehow she figured it out. But then in English class, a teacher talks about broken promises, and Peter whispers to Gwen, "Those are the best kind." And she smiles.
Whoa, douchebag alert. But potential genius alert. And here is why. It's douchey if nothing comes of it. They fall in love and that is that. He broke the promise but it was fine. It is absolute GENIUS when the next film comes out if Gwen dies. In the comics, Spider-Man accidentally kills Gwen when he stops her fall too suddenly, snapping her neck. If this happens, it means that because Peter broke Mr. Stacy's promise, directly leading to the death of Gwen at his hands. I'm all giddy thinking about how potentially good the next film could be.
On the other hand it could be the same thing with more cheese.
So to recap, the new Spidey-boot is fun, well acted and serves its role as the summer movie tent pole. It's pretty cheesy at times but it's worth a view. But it's genius will have to be seen in subsequent sequels.
2 and a half out of 4 stars.
-Christopher O'Connell
P.S. Spider-Man tells so many people that he's actually Peter Parker. Except Aunt May who can't seem to figure it out despite her nephew coming home every day covered in bruises.
No reason to exist whatsoever, but it’s still a fun, superhero flick that’s being released at a perfect time. However, I kept on being reminded of the original series every single time the film would touch on a plot-point. Too distracting for me at times, but I still had fun none the less. Solid review Chris.
ReplyDeleteThanks man! I totally agree, fun but too similar and not quite as good
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