The Amazing Spider-Man OFFICIAL Rate & Review the Amazing Spider-Man!

[Troy_Parker]

Okay here's my review, I've no doubt missed out a few things, but this is my first proper review.

The Amazing Spider-Man... a movie that lives up to it's name.

Some may say it's too soon, but I think this reboot is just what this character/franchise needed.

Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker is equally exciting as his Spider-Man is, something that I didn't really feel in the previous trilogy, with all due respect to Tobey Maguire. In the previous franchise I never really was that taken in by the Peter Parker side of the story as I was by the Spider-Man side, in this however, I was amazed by both. Andrew's Peter is cool and likeable, a little more emotionally charged than Tobey's. He already has the will and urge to do good before he even has powers as shown early in the movie, even though he's led off of this path for a short while after Ben's death. Personally, I couldn't like his transition into Spider-Man anymore if I tried. Emma Stone as Gwen is spunky and loveable, you can really see why Peter falls in love with her. Hell, I fell in love with her! Sally Field and Martin Sheen as aunt May and uncle Ben were inspired choices. Rhys Ifan's doctor Connors/Lizard could have been developed a little more, I didn't get an "Oh, so tragic!" vibe from Connors as much as I should have, but everything else about Rhys's performance was great.

The effects were top notch, no complaints here. Some of my gripes are about the POV scenes, like the one we saw at the end of the teaser. It was HORRIBLY cut down, it just felt disjointed. After seeing the final version with the new lighting/effects (which looked SO good) in some featurettes I was really looking forward to it... and yet... it went on for just barely 5 seconds. Didn't feel like Spider-Man at all. None of the POV scenes did this for me. I liked them, but they were far too short for me to feel anything.

Another gripe of mine is the score, it only stood out in a few scenes, like Ben's death, the police chase, rooftop kiss and the ending.

Arguably the definitive Spider-Man movie, 9/10 from me.

 

[raybia]

Whow, whow, whow, getting a little too carried away there, aren't ya bud! Nolans Dark Knight deserves major kuddos!

But other then that, I feel the exact same way you do!

A very emotional outing for spidey, and for me, the best one of them all. Garfield is amazing in this film!

The only kuddos that I will give Nolan is keep his Batman characters grounded in reality in spite of the fantastical and the "graphic novel" trilogy approach the studios seem to be doing now with this genre.

Of course Nolan did borrow his "grounded in reality" approach from Richard Donner's Superman.

 

[Spider Edge]

You really don't know what the word "respect" means don't you.

excuse me??

 

[kaijunexus]

That whole list of your "CONS" is almost laughable in my opinion. Jeez!

Okay. No need to be snarky here, buddy. We're discussing opinions on a film. Don't take it so personally.

[/B]You say the death of Uncle Ben held much less weight then that of Raimi's 2002 version! W_T_F, dude. Seriously!??? I felt nothing in the Raimi film in that regard, and I was almost to tears in Webbs version. It's all due to the handling of Bens and Peters bond in this film. Also Garfields amazing performance.

For me, this was a matter of pacing. I'll agree that their relationship was handled really well...in fact, that was one of the stronger points of the film.

However, after Ben's death, things seem to return to normal pretty quickly for Peter. He's upset that first night, pins Flash against a locker, and has some fun webbing up a crook. Then we don't really hear about it again. I'm not saying it was done poorly...just saying it was handled better in Raimi's film in my opinion.

The origin and the way he discovers his powers PALES in comparison to Raimi's Spiderman, you say!!? Dear God...

In Raimi's film, we see Peter slowly get a grip on his powers, clumsily working through them...and only after going through an obviously painful transformation.

In this film, he goes from getting bit to skillfully thrashing several thugs on a subway car. Then we see him doing skateboard tricks? I just didn't see a believable learning curve in this movie.

You say it's BIZARRE that the construction worker insisted on helping spidey in the end? Dude. Did you fall a sleep during this film or what? It's pretty simple. Spidey saves his kid on the bridge. He felt in debt to him. Not because he had to, but because he wanted too! Besides, they all knew that if Spidey didn't stop Lizard the whole town would be ****ed anyways. Bizarre you say? I think you're kinda bizzare dude, sorry.

Yes. It was absolutely bizarre and ridiculous.

There just happened to be cranes on the tops of every building down a certain street? All of the crane operators just happened to know Spidey would be coming down that street? They also just happened to know he would need help swinging? Oh, and he needed help swinging at all even though he's been using buildings just fine the whole movie?

It made no sense and was shoehorned in for emotional impact. I can see your point in some of your other arguments, but this one is just indefensible.

And I don't think you wanna start up with plot holes. Every movie has them, and Raimi's spidey 1 has TONS, so just drop it.

Just drop it? Honestly, why are you taking my opinions about this film so personally?

Last but not least, you have a problem with Peters finishing line about Broken promises being the best kind?... Whatever dude. I thought it was very original, and also a cute, subtle way of him telling Gwen between the lines that he weren't gonna give her up... But, opinion, opinion I guess.

It makes Peter look like a selfish A-hole. How can you defend that?

Captain Stacy explained that he understood Spider-Man was necessary and he's a force for good. He also explained to Peter that he will make enemies and doesn't want Gwen to get hurt as a result. This was completely logical reasoning that Peter acknowledged and understood. He even promised the dying man that he would keep Gwen safe by staying away from her. It was the RESPONSIBLE decision...the ultimate end to Peter's arc of learning responsibility.

So what do we do with this? We throw it all away and say to hell with a dead man's final and reasonable dying wish because Peter has the hots for Gwen!

At the end of the movie, we basically find that Peter is a lying, selfish, and lustful teenager who cares about nothing but his own desires.

What a great moral theme...

 

[cobrastatus]

It makes Peter look like a selfish A-hole. How can you defend that?

It is selfish of him but,
It's a set up for what's to come in the sequel

Spoiler

death of Gwen Stacy

 

[X Knight]

it did come across as dickish and selfish for Peter to sarcastically remark to Gwen that he was going to break the promise.

also, what Capt. Stacy made Peter promise in the movie was OPPOSITE what he made Peter promise in the comics!!!

 

[raybia]

it did come across as dickish and selfish for Peter to sarcastically remark to Gwen that he was going to break the promise.

also, what Capt. Stacy made Peter promise in the movie was OPPOSITE what he made Peter promise in the comics!!!

I personally didn't take it sarcastically nor did he directly tell her that he was going to break it. He was being cute and it was implied.

It came across to me not as being a dick and selfish but as a high school teenage boy who is in love.

That is whole irony of the character of Spider-Man.

He is a boy suddenly thrown into adult responsibilities. Of course he is going to falter.

In fact this trilogy is Peter's rite of passage, right up to the climax of the 3rd movie.

 

[Infinity9999x]

So, after seeing the film, I have to say I was very content.

Is this a great film? No. Is it very good? I think so. I actually felt very much the same way I did after watching the first Spider-man film. It did a lot of things right, and some wrong. However, the big difference with this film is that I think this series has much more potential.

To start off, I think most people know (who've read my previous posts) that I wasn't a huge fan of the previous Raimi films. I didn't hate them. I actually think they were very well made films. (SM3 isn't as bad as most make it out to be.) I will go as far to say that SM2 was a very, very good film. However, it was never the spider-man film I wanted to see. It wasn't a proper spider-man film to me.

Raimi got a lot right, but the thing he mishandled, (and to me, it was a big thing) was the characterization of Peter. He focused all on the awkward nerdiness of Pete, but we didn't get to see the fully realized Peter I wanted. Raimi's Spider-man never had a personality, and the relationship between Pete and MJ was horrid. TASM fixes those issues for me. Peter's characterization is nearly perfect, and Gwen is written hundreds of times better then MJ ever was in the previous series. That alone made this my favorite Spider-man film BY FAR compared to the old series. The action is filmed very well, I enjoyed the use of practical SFX, and advancements in technology in general help the Spider-man sequences.

However, this film does have some negatives. The biggest being:

1.) The Origin.

We did not need to see the origin again. It simply wasn't needed. We easily could have started this with him having become Spider-man fairly recently, and I think the movie would have benefitted from it. All of my major complaints stem from the fact that the film has to use about an hour setting up the origin.

To begin with, The Lizard/Connors didn't get enough screen time to build up his character and establish his relationship with Peter. Sure, the relationship is established, but we don't have much that makes you care about him. We needed a scene in this like in SM2 where Pete is talking to Doc Ock and his wife (ironic, because that was a scene that SHOULD have belonged to Connors. Doc Ock is not a nice family man who would have told Peter about Poetry. But that's another issue.)
We needed Connors to be developed more. He wasn't bad (what we got) we just didn't get enough. And we would have had more time to do that IF WE HADN'T DONE THE ORIGIN.

Captain Stacy: Same thing as Connors. We just needed more to really care about the character. I was very disappointed in this because I was really hoping to see more of a mentor relationship develop. I do think killing him off this early was too soon, but it could have been more impactful if we had more scenes establishing his relationship with Peter. I was really hoping that could have happened in the dinner scene. Think of how interesting it would have been if they had added this exchange.
"Maybe he's doing something the Police can't."
"Can't? The police don't need the help of a vigilante."
"The police didn't stop my uncle from getting murdered."

Or something to that effect. Again, what we got was good, but it just wasn't enough. And we would have had more time had we ditched the origin setup.

Really, those are my biggest drawbacks of the film. It's still easily my favorite Spider-man movie that has been made. Also, I think it's setting up the sequels perfectly. I can't wait to see a possible Death of Gwen Stacy story done, because you like Gwen so much. It could be truly heartbreaking when and if they do it.

Do I think this was a perfect film? Not by any means, but I'm definitely much more content with this then I was with any of the Raimi films. It could have been better, but I'm happy with what we got.

 

[Boom]

I liked it well enough. It's far from perfect, and should have been much better, but what can I say? It was entertaining.

7/10

 

[Stringer]

Didn't think that much of it honestly. Too many plot holes and absurd character choices. Garfield was great though.

 

[Infinity9999x]

I liked it well enough. It's far from perfect, and should have been much better, but what can I say? It was entertaining.

7/10

I'd probably have it right around a 7 to 8 out of 10 as well. Far and away my favorite Spider-man film. But it definitely could have been better.

 

[Boom]

I'd say it's my third favorite. Spider-Man 2 still takes the crown for me, and Spider-Man was much more consistent of a film.

It's much better than Spider-Man 3, though.

 

[Picard Sisko]

I think TASM2 has a better chance of being one of the best Spider-Man movies.

 

[Infinity9999x]

I'd say it's my third favorite. Spider-Man 2 still takes the crown for me, and Spider-Man was much more consistent of a film.

It's much better than Spider-Man 3, though.

I will say I think SM2 is a cleaner film and ties it's themes and plots together better.

However, as a Spider-man film, it's almost as hard for me to sit through SM2 as it is with SM3. In some cases, harder. It was more frustrating for me to see a good film get made, but one that handled the character of PP/Spider-man and MJ so poorly.

 

[Picard Sisko]

Spider-Man 2 is just a great movie on its own. Its so unbelievably well balanced, and has great character development, action, comedy, drama, horror, romance and adventure all rolled into one. It gave us the feeling of what it would be like to live the life of a superhero.

 

[Infinity9999x]

I think TASM2 has a better chance of being one of the best Spider-Man movies.

I said this in my initial review. TASM had me feeling similar to SM1 in the fact that, overall, I thought them both good. However, they both had things they handled poorly.

However, I think TASM has set up a series to have much greater potential then the Raimi films did.

 

[Infinity9999x]

Spider-Man 2 is just a great movie on its own. Its so unbelievably well balanced, and has great character development, action, comedy, drama, horror, romance and adventure all rolled into one. It gave us the feeling of what it would be like to live the life of a superhero.

I think it's a very good film. But I don't view it as a good Spider-man film. I've never really liked it much to be honest. They mishandled too many things I love about the character.

I still recognize it's a very good film, but the comic fan in me has never enjoyed it.

 

[Picard Sisko]

I understand why some comic book fans would dislike SM2, but really overall its just a great movie. While TASM isn't as good as SM1 IMO, it has more potential to actually go somewhere in the sequels.

 

[cobrastatus]

Is it weird that while watching tasm I got that feeling inside about the overall tone and feel of the film that I used to get while reading the comics as a youngin?

 

[Infinity9999x]

I understand why some comic book fans would dislike SM2, but really overall its just a great movie. While TASM isn't as good as SM1 IMO, it has more potential to actually go somewhere in the sequels.

Oh, if I wasn't such a diehard Spider-man fan I would probably have really enjoyed SM2. Unfortunately, I was.

Really, I don't mind if you make changes to source material, what gets me is when you change the core of the characters. As long as the characters stay true to their originals, I'm okay with it. SM2 changed that. MJ wasn't even close to acting like Mary Jane, Dock Ock wasn't Doc Ock, he was given an arc that clearly should have been the Lizards, and Raimi never really got the Peter/SM dynamic all that well.

So I was never a fan. I usually try to seperate my book and movie nerd when I watch films. For example, I love Jurassic Park and the Bourne films. I've also read all of the respective books. In both cases, the films and the movies are very, very different. But I love them both.

But I've been a Spidey fan since I was 4, so some things are harder for me to enjoy. SM2 was one of those.

 

[Infinity9999x]

Is it weird that while watching tasm I got that feeling inside I used to get about the overall tone and feel of the film that I used to get while reading the comics as a youngin?

It felt much more in the spirit with the comics I grew up reading as well.

 

[chaseter]

It's generic in your opinion. I think enough people have said otherwise that one can say that's only an opinion, not a fact

Look at the post right above the one you just quoted : /

 

[chaseter]

For those who seem to have a problem with Peter skateboarding, you seem to not understand teenage culture these days. Peter may be a nerd, but he's a nerd in the modern context of one, he's not walking around in a white button-up shirt and thick glasses, he's wearing jeans and he's using contacts. Peter still is the same character you've known for as long as he's existed, but he's not a 60's stereotype.

I didn't need a montage of his upped Tony Hawk skillz. It was pointless.

 

[raybia]

I didn't need a montage of his upped Tony Hawk skillz. It was pointless.

You may not have seen the need for it but it did have a point.

 

[Stringer]

I really didn't like how they made Peter a Bruce Wayne type "man on a mission." He didn't have any moments where hes learning on the fly how to be a hero. He's one from the start of the movie.