140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
I don’t know what reaction they were hoping for from long-time fans, but I’m betting it wasn’t “Ehh, it was fine, I guess”. Exactly average.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Amazing Spider-Man:
(#140RVW published 8/1/2013; full review published May 1, 2014)
Do you remember your first thoughts when they announced that they were rebooting Spidey? I’ll bet it was similar to everyone else’s: “Already?”
The Amazing Spider-Man is exactly what you feared it would be: an ok movie whose greatest flaw is its complete lack of necessity. They very simply didn’t need to make this movie. It was way too soon to reboot, and the only reason they were rebooting is because Spider-Man 4 fell apart.
They wanted to keep the franchise going, but after the train wreck that was Spider-Man 3, that became hard to do. Interestingly enough, the fact that Spidey 3 was so awful didn’t actually kill the series, a la Batman and Robin. They still went quite far on the next sequel; they had re-signed the director and stars, set a release date for 2011, written several versions of a script, and even cast the villains (John Malkovich as Vulture, Dylan Baker as Lizard) and Anne Hathaway as Felicia Hardy (Black Cat, although evidently she wouldn’t have been Black Cat but instead some new character called Vultress – that’s how bad things were going). But fortunately common sense prevailed – when Sam Raimi backed out because he hated the story, plans for the film were scrapped and attention turned to starting over.
So from those underwhelming beginnings, how did the reboot fare? Well, it’s certainly not bad, and I’d go as far as to say it’s good. It really just doesn’t break any ground or do anything to distinguish itself. Two and a half hours is a long time to spend just setting up the sequel. The movie feels like every origin story superhero movie, and shares a common characteristic: me sitting in the dark bored waiting for a new story to begin. We’ve already done all this stuff; you don’t need to show Bruce’s parents getting shot or Peter being stung by a spider or Clark landing in Kansas. Operate on the assumption that everyone knows the origin, has seen at least one version of it before now and lets get going, already…
One of the reasons that the movie felt like a bit of a letdown is because they hyped the fact that “secrets would be revealed” and “the untold story”, etc., and instead it was just vapor. They told the exact same type of story we’ve seen a hundred times and answered no questions, even if you could think of any you’d need answers to after 50 years of comics.
I do like the idea of trying to create this concept of Oscorp as being central to all these weird things that happen in the Marvel Universe. It’s a good idea, provided they don’t take it too far – I’d hate to see things too orderly.
The cast is pretty good; despite my usual complaint that the high-schoolers look anything but, Andrew Garfield & Emma Stone are great as Peter & Gwen. Rhys Ifans makes a good Dr. Connors, but the decision to use his unaltered voice for the Lizard makes the character seem a little (more) ridiculous. My only objection to Martin Sheen & Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May is that they are simply too well-known and you can’t really forget you’re watching Martin Sheen & Sally Field. Denis Leary is perfect as Captain Stacy. (Very minor spoiler: Did you know that the father who is grateful to Spidey and organizes the cranes to be moved to help him is C. Thomas Howell?)
As for the look of the film, you can keep it. (Side note: It’s unfortunate that you really don’t get any points for doing good work in these type of films anymore, since we all expect them to look a certain way and they NEVER fail to do so. There’s no reward for competence, only blame for perceived bad ideas.) The CG is overdone, even though they deserve praise for scaling it back as much as possible, using lots of practical effects and wire work. But the deliberate shots made for 3D are gimmicky and almost as garish as all of the blatant product placement.
I certainly don’t want to bash the movie – Spider-Man is one of my favorite comic characters and I did enjoy The Amazing Spider-Man and look forward to the sequels. It’s just hard to hide the ennui that has crept in from over-saturation of comic-book movies.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass, barely
The Representation Test Score: B (8 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Andrew Garfield Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Emma Stone Gwen Stacy, Rhys Ifans The Lizard/Dr. Curt Connors, Irrfan Khan Rajit Ratha |
| Rating | PG-13 |
| Release Date | Tue 03 Jul 2012 UTC |
| Director | Marc Webb |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Fantasy |
| Plot | Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared when he was young. His path puts him on a collision course with Dr. Curt Connors, his father’s former partner. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 136 |
| Tagline | The untold story begins. |
| Writers | James Vanderbilt (screenplay) and, Alvin Sargent (screenplay) … |
| Year | 2012 |
