Heroes of the East

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Heroes of the East

Film discussion and banter


    The Amazing Spider-man (2012: Marc Webb)

    Masterofoneinchpunch
    Masterofoneinchpunch


    Posts : 401
    Join date : 2011-02-16
    Location : Modesto, CA

    The Amazing Spider-man (2012: Marc Webb) Empty The Amazing Spider-man (2012: Marc Webb)

    Post  Masterofoneinchpunch Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:23 pm

    Do you ever get into the movie line with a few minutes to go for the trailers to start (you have ten to fifteen minutes before the actual film starts) and one person is holding up the line? I already have my gift certificate at hand, only third person in line and yet an older male seems to be asking question after question. This seems to happen more than I would like. Finally I get in and after a detour to the restroom (best advice you can give to a novice filmgoer is that you should always start the movie on an empty bladder) and low and behold I get a good seat in the back towards the middle. I made the first trailer, but unfortunately I avoided the anthropomorphic bags spawned by Satan and the liquid crank commercial. So I was in a good mood. However, all good moods will eventually be extinguished. The theater was somewhat full (it is the largest screen and has the most chairs in the complex), but plenty of space for newcomers. There was a couple further down in the back row, so there was enough space. However, a group of four noisy twenty-somethings had to sit in-between that space. Looking down at several empty rows, I was reminded of an analogy that no matter where you are using the urinal, someone has to use the one closest to you.

    Good and horrific trailers stick with you. The mediocre ones do not and certainly do not get you excited about seeing the film even if you can remember them. I do wonder if the funniest part of the upcoming The Watch will be when they shoot the alien over and over again as shown in the trailer. Now what the heck were the other trailers I saw or was I just upset at the overly talkative caffeine-stimulated young "adults" near me?

    While I enjoyed this film, I am still not convinced that a reboot was really necessary. Of course the box office take has already made this point moot as it has passed the US 200 million dollar mark. But was there really as much difference between this and the 2002 version? I do not care that he created his web shooters in the new version versus the organic nature of the earlier film (which technically as in the later comics). Can you believe there are debates on this? I also do not care if one or another is more faithful to the comic book. I judge it as a film, not as a faithful adaptation of a different medium. But rambling rant aside; you can compare the particulars of both films quite easily because both are origin stories and both use very similar plot structures. The CGI is definitely better in the newer one, but I am not sure I would state that anything else is. Compare the transformation from nerd to superhero. It seems too easy in this one compared to the first. I liked the nerdish Tobey Maguire's performance more than the brooding Andrew Garfield who while being too old for the part (28 years old looking like he belongs in 21 Jump Street), his acting was quite good as Peter Parker, but a little underwhelming as his alter ego (stop taking off your damn mask everywhere). I am definitely interested in rewatching the Raimi directed film to draft a better comparison between the two as my current memories might just be a combination of nostalgia and old age.

    Instead of the Green Goblin we get Dr. Curt Conners (Rhys Ifans) as the villain of the film. A scientist who has ties to the death of Parker's parents as well as an imminent scientist whose loss of one arm has led him to a lifetime of monomania on cross-species genetics so he can grow his arm back first and then later solve many conditions and diseases. With inadvertent help from Parker, he creates a formula which turns him into The Lizard which is almost impossible to kill and looks like a combination of Randy Couture and Kurt Angle. Luckily Parker accidently got bit by a radioactive spider which gave him spider like powers. But I think we all knew this.

    Where Marc Webb is strongest in the film is when he is dealing with relationships and multifaceted characters such as Dr. Curt Conners and the bully Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka). Though I was somewhat underwhelmed with the main relationship between Parker and Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). I did not think he was particularly sublime with the action, sometimes teetering on goodness like with the basketball scene though he completely destroys it with that dunk (as often in films in which the dunk is completely overdone and appears ridiculous.) I felt underwhelmed with the ending as well.

    Ultimately I found this a fun enough film to recommend, especially to comic book movie fans. There is enough action and storyline that kept me interested throughout. I liked it more than Spider-man 3, but not as much as the first two in that series.

    Random notes: yes there is a Stan Lee cameo and there is an additional scene after the first set of credits which leads to the answer of a sequel, but nothing after the end of the credits.

    http://geekout.blogs...shooter-debate/

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