Monday, July 2, 2012

Open discussion Spoiler thread for The Amazing Spider-Man...

The first midnight shows should be letting out in about two hours, but I'm off to bed now.  So it's your turn to praise or condemn the Spider-Man reboot.  I'll add some thoughts tomorrow, either in the body of this text or in the comments section.  Did you like it?  How does it stack up with the first three films?  Did you see it in 2D, 3D, or IMAX 3D?  What were the crowd reactions?  I'll also be covering the initial midnight box office when those numbers come out tomorrow morning.  Until then, have at it, true believers!

Scott Mendelson
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4 comments:

corysims said...

The online geek contingent's frustration with this film is totally justified...if you're a lover of Raimi's first film. I can completely and totally understand their reaction to this film, considering how it was advertised. As bosef said a couple of days ago, Sony should be taken to task for how they marketed this film.

Because, make no mistake, while a reboot tonally of the character, this is an out and out remake of Raimi's first film. Plain and simple. Sony can never hide from that. And for that, it should be frowned upon. It should lose major points.

But, not with this viewer. No way. This is the film I wanted a decade ago and it's simply a matter of execution and tone. This is not the "dark and gritty" film that the online geek community/critics have labeled it as. It's simple a bit more grounded. You can buy certain aspects a bit more than Raimi's first film, yet while still being a comic book movie, through and through.

It just simply comes down to slight modifications to how they approached the characters and the world they built that completely and utterly won me over...and it starts with the Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.

I've never read the Spider-Man comics as a child or adult but I practically lived on the various cartoons in the 80's and 90's. Having said that, I don't want the story of Gwen and Peter to go where I know it's going to go because it's going to absolutely crush me.

Andrew and Emma are pure cinematic gold in this film. Just, wow. In 2 hours and 15 minutes, they completely made Tobey and Kirsten's story through THREE FILMS look completely childish. I can't describe it any other way. I arched hard for this couple. High marks for these two on all fronts.

The situation with Uncle Ben and how his death and reaction to the death has come under criticism and I can't really understand why. Webb uses the old "show, don't tell" when it comes to how the rest of that story plays out. Literally, the entire second half of this picture (after the bridge sequence) is Peter's acknowledgment and understanding of what his Uncle was trying to tell him...what his FATHER lived by.

In the way it's handled, yes, you feel like Peter/the film forgets about the situation with Uncle Ben...until you realize that Peter's actions are driven by guilt and driven by understanding what his Uncle was trying to say to him, thus making Uncle Ben's death have more weight than it ever had in the Raimi film because this film doesn't tell us. It just shows us.

Yes, the major flaw, like Raimi's, is the situation with the villain and logic of motivation and the plot mechanics. Technically, while Connors does what he does is in the film, it's just in the film very early. It's a stretch but it is there.

The crane sequence. Okay, we all know what this sequence is referencing and I wanted to hate it's inclusion because of what it was trying to do. But, I couldn't because unlike the bridge sequence in Raimi's original with the New Yorkers, this one comes out somewhat organically from the film. Personally, I probably would've dropped the sequence but by doing that, I would've skipped out on some of the best web swinging shots in all of the Spider-Man films. Just pure money shots...and especially knock out shots when viewed in 3D.

With all of that, I wish the film didn't do the world building that it did but, man, I want to continue. I do. I want this franchise, with this cast to be something special. Because, while a bit rocky in few places, this film is a knockout. I had more fun with this film than the Avengers, ten fold. It's not even up for debate.

And the final swing/final image....yeah, I teared up.

July 3, 2012 at 12:33 AM
Christian Grundner said...

Watched it last week in glorious 3D (in Austria). So far I´ve loved almost all of toe modern comic book movie adaptions. I even found good stuff in Green lantern and love Daredevil.

This was the first comic book movie that went on too long for my tastes. In the last 30 minutes I was checking my watch waiting for the end.

some of my biggest problems with the movie:
1) From the first minute on, I could not get over how old Peter and Gwen were. The actors looked like 40 year olds to me and had no place in a high school. I enjoy Emma Stones sarcastic way of acting, but it´s not something I see in a high schooler.
2) Peter was a bully and had no interest in science - later on he read Dr. Lizards book and faked knowledge. That was not the PP I grew up with.
3) I could not suspend disbelief for a second, when Peter fought Lizard in the sewers and dove away from the fight after getting deep slashes in the chest. There was NO mention in the movie of infections (yes spiders can get infections too) and no mention of the SMELL when he plodded down on Gwens couch.
4) In the end Peter gets shot in the leg but forgets that after two scenes.
5) In the beginning when Peter was bitten, the main power we were made aware of is the spider sense. That was as great an improvement over Raimi´s SM as the web throwers. But after that one scene Peter forgets about his spider sense and even gets SHOT.
6) In the end of the movie it looks like SM has almost no powers. I can understand "based in realism", but the end fight looked more like Kick Ass than Spiderman.
7) In 90% of the movie 3D was non existant.

All in all, this is going to be the first Marvel movie I´m not going to own on bluray.

Here´s hoping for Batman and for an extended cut of Avengers!

July 3, 2012 at 4:29 AM
Brandon Peters said...

I'm absolutely shocked that the theater ushers did not hand out cards saying "Capt Stacey will be killed in the final act of the movie"...i mean they went far enough to telegraph it, what's a little more?

July 8, 2012 at 4:37 PM
Jerika said...

I saw the film in 2D at the local drive-in. I enjoyed it a lot more than I ever thought I would. Why the low expectations? Spider-Man is my least favourite of the "major" superheroes, and I disliked Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3. Initially, it was the casting that won me over with this movie. Yes, Andrew Garfield is rather old to play a high-schooler (though, remember, Tobey Maguire was too), but I think he's really talented and made me like Peter Parker more than I ever have before. Emma Stone is always lovely, and the adult cast was great too. So, it was the cast that made me even consider seeing it, but it was the actual movie that made me like it. Maybe because I didn't like the original series, and see nothing wrong with them rebooting it at this point, I was more open to it. Yes, I felt the ending drag a bit, I was watching my clock at certain points, but overall, I left having enjoyed what I think was a pretty great film, and I'm really glad that I went to see it. I'll never be a fan of Spider-Man, I still can't click with him like I can with other superheroes, but I enjoyed this movie enough in general, that I hope to see more of the series with this cast.

July 9, 2012 at 11:33 AM

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