July 3, 2012, - 3:34 pm
New “Amazing Spider-Man” Movie Not Bad
The Spiderman reboot, “The Amazing Spider-Man” is in theaters today. And it’s not bad. There’s nothing offensive about it (except that Spidey’s aunt and uncle–who look like his grandparents–are uber-liberals Martin Sheen and Sally Field), and it’s fine to take your kids and whole family to see it. It’s far better than the last Spiderman movie, in which Spiderman does a ridiculous dance at a night club (read my review). It’s entertaining and what you’d expect and have already seen: a guy gets bitten by a spider and soon has amazing powers to shoot webs and velcro himself to tall buildings. It’s not the greatest superhero movie, but it was workmanlike, and I enjoyed it most of the time.
In this movie, he–Peter Parker–is Andrew Garfield, of whom I’m not normally a fan because he’s kind of dull. But he is fine here, and I like him better than the previous Spiderman, Tobey Maguire. I like his love interest, played by Emma Stone, far better than the proud pothead actress dullard, Kirsten Dunst, who played the love interest in the previous Spiderman movie.
Peter Parker is a high school nerd who gets bitten by a spider in the basement and soon discovers he has these amazing powers: super tactile strength and the ability to shoot webs and climb all over the place. He beats up the high school bully and starts to romance the New York police chief’s daughter, Stone. In the meantime, he’s still trying to get over and wrap his head around the plane crash that took his parents after they mysteriously packed up and left him with his aunt and uncle when he was little. He wants to know why they left in a hurry. While searching the Internet, he finds a doctor who was a colleague of his father’s, and is now working for a corporation that bio-engineers the DNA of spiders and other beings. The doctor is missing an arm and desperately wants to find a way to grow a new one the way that lizards grow new tails. But there are no human trials, and his boss at the corporation pressures him.
Soon there is a giant lizard-like villain versus Spiderman. But the lizard looks and acts a little too much like the Hulk, to me. That’s where things got a little messy and too much. But it’s overall a good forumulaic superhero movie. It isn’t spectacular. But it’s pretty good for what it’s trying to do–reboot a franchise that went silly and stale. The sets and lighting are a lot darker than the last Spiderman, too.
This was missing some of the magic and spark I expect from a good superhero movie. But compared to the many crappy, raunchy, silly movies I’ve seen coming out of Hollywood, this summer, this one looks like a masterpiece. It’s not too violent and there’s no sex. I saw this in 3-D, but you won’t miss anything if you just see it in regular 2-D.
TWO REAGANS
Watch the trailer . . .
Tags: Amazing Spider-Man, Amazing Spiderman, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Kirsten Dunst, Spiderman, Spiderman movie, Spidey, Spidey sense, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Amazing Spiderman, Tobey Maguire
Sounds like I have to see it soon :). I thought Andrew would definitely be a bitter Spidey then Toby though, thanks for the heads-up on the new one Debbie.
John B. Martyn on July 3, 2012 at 4:02 pm