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Saw it last night. It's actually pretty great. Spoilers below:
Andrew Garfield is a superior Spiderman, and a far worse Peter Parker. As Spidey he's wise-cracking, cocky, and has the swagger about him that really sells that branch of the character, plus he just seems to feel more natural for the suit. When he's Peter Parker, it doesn't work. They try way too hard to make him cool, and it kind of derails the point of making him brilliant. As a fashionable skateboarding punk, who's gonna buy that he's a genius? The only times it's implied he's got major brain skills are the first time he chimes in on cross-species genetics and when he's making the suit. We don't get to see the transformation into Spider-Man, mentally. He just sort of is like "this is pretty badass."
His best moments as Peter Parker are when he's with his Aunt May, but otherwise he falls short, especially when Gwen Stacy is involved.
She does fine, and so does Curt Connors/The Lizard. It all makes for a pretty decent summer action movie, but the main reason I couldn't say this one's better than the first one is...
...this one has absolutely no integrity behind it. The movie starts off with Peter playing hide and seek with his dad, which immediately made me think of Batman Begins, and not in a good way. They waste a lot of time right out of the gates trying to show Peter's relationship with his father, then trying to show that relationship with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May...it all falls flat. Martin Sheen is a solid Uncle Ben, but it felt like he was half-acting the same part he was playing in The Departed. None of the wisdom he tries to impart to Peter feels genuine to either side. I love Sally Field as Aunt May (4000% less campy than Rosemary Harris), but we don't get to know ANY of them! There's zero character development, zero. Peter doesn't even seem that upset that Ben died. Sure he cries when he finds his body, but there's no rage. Tobey Maguire had that part locked in - the anger and malice behind why he fights crime are evident. It doesn't feel that way at all with Garfield. He just seems to do it because he feels obligated to, and it's fun.
The Gwen Stacy relationship just kind of falls into Peter's lap, but it doesn't feel inconceivable since he looks like a goddamn model. I feel no sympathy for Spider-Man at all; the fun-loving soul of the 2002 movie was so sorely missed.
My ultimate conclusion was that this film would've been far better served had their been no antagonist other than the guy who kills Uncle Ben. They sacrifice impractical amounts of time on The Lizard, and his descent into madness happens almost immediately. All I felt when I watched him up there was, "this was done to sell toys." I wish they would've spent the film entirely focused on the relationships of Peter and Gwen, his aunt and especially his uncle, all the while he's learning to become spider-man and becoming famous around the city.
Anyway, my overall feeling? The 2012 version was not better than the 2002, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a fun summer flick or a solid overall film.
If you're wondering why this one was made so soon after the 2002 version, it's because SONY was going to lose the rights to the series if they didn't make another movie, and the 3rd Raimi Spider-Man fell flatter than hammered shit. There's already a lot of really pissed off people at SONY about the movie, and while they've already announced a sequel, they've completely replaced the writing team and will probably dump Webb as director.
_________________ Quote: When it comes to the Bears, America is just a slobbering shitwagon. Every single opinion of his regarding this team is the most pristine of doomsday horseshit.
Last edited by Dewskie on Fri Jul 06, 2012 7:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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