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| Peter Parker (Richard Garfield) and Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) |
The reboot of Spider-man and an origin story closer to the original comics was much better than I anticipated. A great mix of Stan Lee's original Spider-man and Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-man story lines. A lot of fans (myself included) were a little worried with the reboot idea, I have made a point of stating how much I disliked McGuire as Spider-man, but also I liked how Raimi portrayed Spider-man....Mostly.
The movie does balance out the amazing and fun action scenes and the small emotional character explanations rather well, the only real issue here is that Flash Thompson, Peter's "frenemy", goes from hating Parker, to being all buddy buddy with no explanation what so ever. Gwen Stacy was introduced well and they really showed Parker's adolescent awkwardness well.
The plot was rather predictable, but it was written much better than the Raimi Spider-man, I would almost say it was executed rather beautifully in all of the relationships of the characters, Parker getting his Spider-like abilities and even the hilariousness of Parker discovering how strong he is (I won't spoil it for you, but when you see it you will laugh like a mad person).
The Lizard is animated near perfectly and I'm happy they went with more of a humanoid lizard look, over the comics crocodile humanoid look. This could have had the "make or break" for the movie and it really did make the movie that much better. The only issue with the story of The Lizard is it felt like they dumbed it down for the audience, explaining The Lizard's nefarious plan when we all know what was going on from the start. I can't explain it without a spoiler, so I will leave it at that.
This is no mere re-telling of the story though, rather this is a refitted and upgraded version of what has come before and does not disappoint at all. Parker still has his camera but is not a photographer for the Daily Bugle, the red haired Mary-Jane has been traded in (upgraded IMHO) for the Smart and sexy Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), the web-shooters are no longer genetic, but mechanical (thank goodness) and the new suit make over really worked well.
All in all a solid film that does not focus too much on action, Marvel really left the huge fight scene until the end of the film (just like all the other Marvel movies, really). No Bruce Campbell was a little sad, that guy should be in everything, however Martin Sheen (Ben Parker) and Denis Leary (Captain Stacy) really made up for that a little. Stan Lee' Cameo is fantastic and laugh out loud funny.
Stay until after the credits for a little surprise /winkyface.
I strongly suggest you go see this movie, it's not as good as The Avengers, but man is it a great film.
7.5/10 Spider bites
Nice review Al. This movie definitely had plenty of fun and exciting moments and characters that we could feel something for. For some reason though, I just kept on thinking about the Sam Raimi original movies and yes, I know they aren't masterpieces by any means, but I still loved them and it just seemed like this whole film was unnecessary, but fun.
ReplyDeleteHi Dan, as much as I hate Tobey, the first and 2nd Raimi films were decent. I think for a lot of people, myself included, the 1st Raimi film was fun and had more comedy. Who will ever forget Mucho Man Randy Savage? Not I.
DeleteIs this topic connected with your professional field or maybe is it mostly about your hobbies and free time?
ReplyDeleteFree time. We moved over to www.tgeeknd.com :)
ReplyDelete