HeroClix World - Review: Amazing Spider-Man

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Review: Amazing Spider-Man

Eric Schaen (07/05/2012)

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Webb Spins a Tale that Energizes a Franchise.

Amazing Spider-Man Review by Eric Schaen
Director: Marc Webb.
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans.
Rating: PG-13 for sequences of action and violence.

Ah, the Hollywood re-boot, so needless, or are they? Re-boots of popular franchises seem to be met with masses of hostility at their mere mention. Yet, Batman Begins did wonders for the Batman franchise, 2008’s the Incredible Hulk was a much more enjoyable movie than its 2003 predecessor and Casino Royale was just the shot in the arm the Bond franchise needed. Now it’s Spidey’s turn.

The Amazing Spider-Man isn’t really a reinvention of the character, but more of an altered take on the origin with more focus on Peter’s early days and his journey becoming the hero known as Spider-Man. The film’s director Marc Webb, previously known for directing the quirky comedy “500 Days of Summer,” establishes that he is very capable handling a much more ambitious project. Webb creates a world that feels very real or at least as real as it could be given the subject matter.

The film opens with a preadolescent Peter Parker living with his parents. When Peter discovers that his father’s office has been ransacked, his parents bring Peter to the home of his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). His parents explain to Peter that he will be staying here for a while before leaving that night and are never heard from again. Now attending high school Peter (Andrew Garfield) struggles to fit in and seeks to discover the mystery of his parent’s disappearance.

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Your Comments:

@ Spudeus

He dodged a lot of the lizards attacks, botht the lizard and the green goblin are amped up beyond human, they are going to be a little harder to dodge than a standard human. Withou his spider sense he may have been hit a lot more.

Posted by: WhoME on 7/11/2012 10:34:30 AM

@ Tetravenix: so that power works against a scrub like Flash, but not the Lizard? Just like it was useless against the Green Goblin in 2000. . . I guess it's just no fun unless the hero is ambushed!

Posted by: Spudeus on 7/10/2012 6:02:01 PM

@ Rikshare

out of your mind the swinging effects looked awesome!!! Perhaps you need glasses, lol.

Posted by: Who-Mw?! on 7/9/2012 12:59:12 PM

"The special effects are also updated and feel superior to the original films. Audiences really get a sense of what a rush it would be to swing through the towering skyscrapers of the city. Even Spider-Man’s movements and combat-style mimic the comic book even more tightly than before."

Um, no. the web swinging was way more clunky than its predecessors. Amazing Spidey could barely swing in a straight line and the 360 camera spins in the middle of a slo-mo loop/flip jerked you out of any hope of fluid motion. I'll give you the better fighting/spidey moves with the quick dodges and web wraps, but the web swinging scenes were just bad.

Posted by: Riksheare on 7/8/2012 9:01:19 AM

I really liked the movie. I think I liked it better than the original three Spidey movies. I personally think Garfield portrayed Peter Parker better than MacGuire did. I liked MacGuire, but I think Garfield did a little better. The beginning of the movie was a little... familiar lol, but after the first 30 or so minutes, I liked it.
I agree with Boelabaal, I really like Emma Stone and she is a great Gwen, but I know they are going to kill her off sooner or later.

Posted by: Daniel on 7/7/2012 2:16:57 PM

He had his spider senses. Remember when he closed his eyes and kept the ball away from flash thompson?

Posted by: Tetravenix on 7/7/2012 11:54:27 AM

Overall I thought the film was very good. I think the only problem was that we all know the origin story and the first half of the film covered that. Looking forward to the next one to see where it goes.

Posted by: Dr. Silly on 7/6/2012 7:36:03 AM

My biggest problem with the movie is that I really like Gwen. In the comics they killed her off 3 years before I was born, so to me she was always Peter's past. For the first time I have felt something for the character and that has filled me with a sense of dread.

Posted by: Boelabaal on 7/6/2012 4:57:06 AM

This movie seems pretty polarizing.

I saw it yesterday and I definitely didn't come away with the same impression. I agree that the supporting cast was excellent, but I didn't think Garfield turned out that much better of a performance. Just an adequate one and certainly not one of the high caliber ones that carries a movie on its shoulders (Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man or Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner).

In fact, that's how I saw most of this movie. Just adequate. Partway through, I remember thinking to myself "This movie feels like it's borrowing from a hundred different movies" and it's not bringing anything new to the table" (and in many cases in watered down fashion). Even the ending felt like it was borrowed but dilluted but what really hit me the most was that Peter seemed more like "semi-cool retro teen" rather than "turbo nerd" before getting his powers, so what happens when he gets them just had less impact.

When it was all done, I came away from the movie, not regretting going to see it, but just slightly disappointed, hoping that this one was just testing the waters since Raimi's version also started out slow.

Posted by: matlockheed on 7/6/2012 3:58:54 AM

Just saw it as well and basically agree - not only does Garfield shine, but the entire supporting cast is excellent, better chemistry than the Raimi films overall. Action sequences are well-done, although I thought the Lizard looked a little too . . human (?).

Dislikes: Ben's death seems abbreviated (again); Spidey has fast reflexes but still no discernible spider-sense; CG still doesn't quite mesh with live action; not even a cameo for JJJ?

Posted by: spudeus on 7/5/2012 11:02:29 AM


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