Let me start off by saying that I am a fan of the Raimi Spider-Man series especially the first film. A lot of people like Spider-Man 2 the best (while Spider-Man 3 is universally criticized) but I only watch it for the action scenes which are incredible considering when the movie was made.
Let me start the review. First of all, The Amazing Spider-Man is the best Spider-Man movie to date. TASM is much more of an origin story than the '02 version and is closer to the comic book origin in some ways. Peter Parker is in high school for the entirety of this film which is cool considering he is high school during the early comic stories. Some of you may recall that PP graduates from high school after about 2/5ths of the '02 version. Keeping PP in high school allowed them to do some really cool things with the plot of the story especially with one really cool action sequence that happens there (keep your eyes peeled for the Stan Lee cameo).
The plot is pretty simple. Peter Parker is an orphan whose parents left him with his aunt and uncle when he was very young. However, even though his parents are not physically present they do play a large part in the movie. Peter also has to deal with the school bully, Flash Thompson, the girl he likes, Gwen Stacy, and a scientist who used to know his father, Curt Connors. Peter gets bitten by a spider and the movie takes off from there.
Andrew Garfield is fantastic as Peter Parker, if I had not known he was British, I would have thought he was American. The most impressive thing about his performance was how he physically approached the role. His ability to express how Peter is feeling just by titling his head a certain way or by looking uncomfortable was great. Plus he did is own stunts which is always a bonus.
Emma Stone was great as Gwen Stacy, who I liked much for than Mary-Jane from the previous series although my dislike of MJ has more to do with how the character was utilized than Kirsten Dunst's performance. There is one bad thing about Emma Stone playing Gwen Stacy. Most of you don't know this but Gwen Stacy dies in the comics. And doesn't come back. EVER. I personally have no desire to see Emma Stone die, so I am hoping that if they decide to kill her character in a future film, they will cast another actress to die in her stead. OR they can die her hair red and let her play Mary Jane when they introduce her to the story. That's my best case scenario.
The rest of the cast is pretty good, and I liked Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May better than their previous counter parts. The action is really great and Spider-Man is extremely creative with all of the different ways he can use his webbing. The only thing that didn't wow me was the music. I didn't dislike the music, but it wasn't nearly as memorable as the score for the previous series. Despite that little nitpick, I really liked the movie and I am eagerly anticipating seeing it again.
My score is currently a 8.5/10 for the first showing but I will update the score after I see it again. In my opinion, this is definite must see.
No comments:
Post a Comment