Shocker: Spider-Man is amazing.
We were complaining that no new movies have opened in the last two weeks. (We saw Prometheus thrice.) Then today all the theatres started showing The Amazing Spider-Man and nothing else. Then we watched it because we had no choice. Then we shut up.
Holy crap The Amazing Spider-Man IS amazing.
1. We thought it was too soon after the Sam Raimis. We thought there were too many superhero movies. And we walked out on director Marc Webb’s previous movie 500 Days of Summer (Too sweet). Therefore it is useful to have Zero Expectations.
2. Andrew Garfield is brilliant. He’s about half the circumference of Chris Hemsworth’s wrist but he carries this movie on his skinny ass and rubber lips.
Interesting that in his two highest-profile roles Garfield knows a vital algorithm.
3. Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy is the first superhero girlfriend we would hang out with. Most of them we just want to slap. We especially like how she doesn’t get melodramatic about the turn of events.
4. The narrative is coherent and the characters are recognizable human beings. In the superhero universe, Spider-Man is the one who must constantly pay the human cost of possessing special powers. The people he loves keep dying on him or leaving. The movie gets this.
5. Instead of having Uncle Ben and Aunt May deliver dramatic monologues about Peter’s behavior, the director shows us the behavior that they interpret as teen rebellion. Too many filmmakers forget that their job is to show, not tell, and by ‘show’ we don’t mean ‘show how big your dick is’.
6. No one says that line about how great power comes with great responsibility, but it is understood. We like how they snuck in the other catchphrase, “Who am I?” Very clever, writers.
7. The dialogue is cheese-free and there is great chemistry between the leads. When tragedy strikes the movie delivers an emotional wallop without wallowing in cheap sentimentality.
8. Geographically-sound action scenes and solid interior logic. We have to see it again in IMAX 3D.
9. This movie makes Christopher Nolan look like Michael Bay with talent. It is ambitious but not self-important.
10. Marc Webb can claim that it is his destiny to make Spider-Man.
Enthusiastically recommended.
P.S.
– Campbell Scott. Come back to the movies, we miss you! (Yeah, we had a Singles fixation.)
– Heyyy Rhys Ifans can be handsome.
– Is that C. Thomas Howell?? It’s C. Thomas Howell!
– Good role for Dennis Leary.
– They go to a science high school, yay!
– It’s Stan. Wave at Stan! He helped to raise us. (We should file a class suit haha.)
Breaking news: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are divorcing. The search committee will meet shortly.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 29th, 2012 at 23:21
Huh, seriously? Wow. I had absolutely no intention of seeing this movie, as it seemed from the trailer that it was adding some weird stuff to Spider-Man’s backstory, but this rave review may have convinced me that I need to see it. Very interesting, that you were so impressed.
June 30th, 2012 at 00:12
Muchas gracias, Reina Jessica! I am in your debts for this very persuasive and excellent review!
June 30th, 2012 at 01:01
Ooooh. Exciting. :)
June 30th, 2012 at 06:25
Watched this last night in 3D-Imax and it truly was amazing! Went there, just like you did, with zero expectations (not a big fan of superhero movies) but was highly entertained by the movie. Like you said, I enthusiastically recommend this!
June 30th, 2012 at 13:34
Oh, hello, Campbell Scott! (And I love Singles to bits.)
Topic: I still think it’s too soon after the Sam Raimi movies, but I might give this one a go instead of The Dark Knight Rises because Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are both so darned likable.
June 30th, 2012 at 16:53
I also have no plans of seeing Spidey (cos feeling ko namiscast si Emma Stone) but after reading this….I just might.
Anyway, Magic Mike in two weeks!
July 1st, 2012 at 08:39
I watched this last night mostly just wanting to see Emma Stone (that girl will one day find the cure for cancer). I too thought a reboot of the franchise is too soon, but was also surprised to welcome the change from Raimi’s comic book feel. Plus Tobey Maguire was getting beefy around the last installment that it was getting less believable He could still swing around THAT well.
Also Emma Stone >>> Bryce Dallas Howard any day of the week.
July 1st, 2012 at 16:14
Andrew Garfield made me eat crow.
July 2nd, 2012 at 10:36
Nice review, Madam Jessica. @TomKat divorce, blame Scientology!
July 2nd, 2012 at 11:13
Rhys Ifans looks like a young James Spader!
July 2nd, 2012 at 14:00
Why is it that when British actors adopt an American accent, they do so with more ease and facility than when American actors affect a British accent? Examples: Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Catherine Zeta Jones, Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine, and perhaps the best of the bunch, Hugh Laurie. And now Andrew Garfield, who sounded so quintessentially British in Never Let Me Go, and effortlessly American in this and The Social Network.
July 2nd, 2012 at 17:13
Haha, apparently Rhys Ifans was Hugh Grant’s roommate in Notting Hill, the one who wears funny shirts. I was floored.
July 2nd, 2012 at 20:01
Dominic West in The Wire and Damien Lewis in Band of Brothers/Homeland.
Are you mocking Keanu Reeves?! Come home Keanu, we don’t care if you can’t act.
July 2nd, 2012 at 23:11
Haha. I swear I wasn’t thinking of Keanu Reeves at all. Is he the worst offender? (Am thinking of Brad Pitt’s attempt at Irish in The Devil’s Own; and Ben Affleck’s barely-there British in Shakespeare in Love).
Back to Andrew Garfield, he is great in this interview, as are Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8GjDJ6cfvs&feature=related
July 3rd, 2012 at 13:08
Andrew Garfield is way better in this interview
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-27-2012/andrew-garfield
July 3rd, 2012 at 22:26
Love it in IMAX but hate how dark the 3D is making the film.
July 8th, 2012 at 15:16
Okay, this is a late reaction, but I was out of town when Spidey opened, and I only got to watch it yesterday on IMAX.
Having liked Tobey Maguire’s Spidey series (okay, not “Spiderman 3” – but “Spiderman 2” was awesome), I was prepared to be at most lukewarm about the reboot. I thought Andrew Garfield was a miscast, and I was iffy about the Lizard when we still had the likes of Vulture, Mysterio, Electro, and Kraven untouched. Only Emma Stone, whom I adore, was a plus for me.
Well, it’s great that I was wrong. I see now why Garfield was cast – he actually has more of the lanky build that Spidey has in the comics and looks more like a nerd (I mean that in a good way).
And what I appreciate most is that his Spidey has more of the quippy humor and witty one-liners akin to the comic Spidey than the Maguire Spidey ever had.
It is, however, rightly pointed out that the plot of this film is pretty much similar to that of “Spiderman 2.”
Regardless, it was a very good effort, and I loved it. I can’t wait for the sequel, which I can almost bet will be titled “The Spectacular Spiderman.”