Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man
Damned River
TrailerAddict: Jack Reacher
Here Comes the Boom
DVD Sales Chart: June 19, 2012
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You are correct about the Gwen Stacy vs. Mary Jane. I meant to write that Gwen was Parker’s first love which was skipped in the Rami films. Other than that, the differences are little between the reboot and Rami films. Not sure how this is going to work out over the next two films.
Best wishes
The Amazing Spiderman was a decent film–not great and not bad. It was about the same as the first two Sam Rami movies. The difference in this film is that the producers are using more of the original storyline in the comic books. For instance, Peter Parker falls in love with Gwen Stacy, not MaryJane; Spiderman shoots web from a web shooter he wears instead of shooting web from pores in his wrists; and we see a different villain, the Lizard. There is also a story arc that is introduced at the beginning of this film involving the disappearance of Peter Parker’s parents that will be continued in the next two films.
What is the same is everything else. The film is very much a mirror of the first Spiderman film. Been there, done that.
I don’t begrudge Sony for rebooting this franchise but lacking anything that could make this film much better than the first three films, why make it all? I like many superhero films. The ones that do well are aimed at older audiences. They can develop the characters and rich story lines that have been around for decades. They can treat the comic universe like a drama without insulting the intelligence of anyone over the ago of nine.
Sadly, too many studios (Marvel Studios the exception) tend to take a superhero and plan one film at a time. After a few films they drop the series or have to reboot with all new actors, as was the case with Spiderman. This lack of continuity, for me, is irritating.
Sony has rebooted Spiderman with an actor in his late twenties playing a character who is in high school. How much longer is Andrew Garfield going to look like a teenager? If Sony was smart, they would have found an actor who was about 20 years old and signed him up for nine or ten films. The stories have already been written in the comics, all they need to do is write the scripts and film several films back-to-back which is cheaper in the long-run.
Currently, Warner Brothers is looking at making a Justice League movie comprised of several of the DC Comics superheroes. Unfortunately, Warner Brothers will not have the same success in that endeavor as Marvel has had with the Avengers because Warner Brothers has been slapping mediocre films together without any connectivity. A Justice League film is likely to have different actors portraying the heroes that audiences want to see.
Marvel was smart. They signed actors to multi-film contracts, planned a series of interconnected movies leading to a big ensemble film (Avengers). I wish Marvel Studios was making the Spiderman films because they probably would be a notch better than what we have already seen from Sony.
I liked Raimi’s version a little better (but as I’ve said before there’s a lot of this Marc Webb version that got left on the cutting room floor). As far as following the comic better, maybe, but it’s not a better adaption. Raimi takes everything from the comic, just at different points. Spidey does fall in love with Mary Jane in the comics and even marries her. He does develop natural web spinners and ditches his mechanical ones. Raimi and Koepp did a great job of adapting the comics to the big screen. Regardless of the changes though, they are too small to really call different. Mechanical web spinners vs natural web spinners – neither are really explored to their fullest extent in either film (which is good because who cares?). Love interests don’t make a difference and let’s be honest, the only difference between any of these films are the villains. I’ve always said if you want to make a superhero movie, pick your superhero and then your villain and you’re set to go.
DC vs Marvel – Justice League vs The Avenger – couldn’t agree with you more. We’ve expressed these exact sentiments over and over again on the show. Warners is going for a cash grab here, which while that should be part of the motivation to make a studio picture, it needs to be done with love. When it’s not you get Batman Forever, Batman and Robin and Green Lantern (yes Jason, we know you like them anyhow). I’m also glad that Nolan has said no to the Justice League flick as he’s far to dark for that sort of an ensemble piece. I also think he’d have an issue with getting all those characters into his massive set stunt pieces and have any room left over for story. A Nolan Justice League would be five hours for certain.