The Amazing Spider-Man came out on DVD and Blu-Ray this past week and I was able to finally watch what I didn’t feel obliged to watch in the movie theaters.  After only 5 years, it’s pretty absurd to get another reboot, with other reboots of such short range only being [in my knowledge] Sweden’s 2008 Let the Right One In and America’s 2010 adaptation Let Me In or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Swedish and America’s version in 2009 and 2011 versions, respectively. But in all honesty, rebooting foreign films is somewhat understandable versus the Sony reboot with totally different cast and director.  So this was definitely an interesting watch.  Balancing whether or not it stands in itself from the original trilogy starting in 2002 or if it’s better or worse doesn’t necessarily matter, because it already made loads of money and sequels are on the way.  This new series will eventually overshadow the original whether it’s better or worse simply because it’s more contemporary.  However, I still find it interesting to write about as the new direction they took is definitely worth writing about.

You all know Spider-Man’s story.  Peter Parker is a textbook nerd with a descent heart and gets bitten by a mutative spider.  Director Marc Webb [500 Days of Summer] took a darker approach to the film with more realistic [but still fairly absurd considering the source material] storylines and better chemistry between leads Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone [in my opinion] than Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.  But let’s get into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Spoilers Away!

The Good

Emma Stone is Adorable

Ben asked me how The Amazing Spider-Man was, and the first thing I said was, “Emma Stone was adorable”.  And she is.  After watching it, it was only her who was zipping around in my head and not the masked superhero.  I’m going to take this section as time to talk about the chemistry between the two leads.  Andrew Garfield plays Parker well as an awkward teenage nerd who plays not-so-smooth-Steve around Emma Stone which shows some of the most adorable and realistic moments in the movie, primarily because Stone reciprocates so well in a sarcastic fashion, with subtle facial movements proving she’s definitely invested in her role.  Stone is 7/7 on the roles I’ve seen her in.  She could play a Regina George type role and I would still fall in love with her.

The School Fight Scene was Incredibly Fun to Watch

10 years later, special effects have certainly gotten better.  My favorite scene in the movie might have to be the school fight [complete with the awesome Stan Lee cameo].  Compared to the other Spider-Man the fights included some stellar choreography [with great praise to the Doc-Ock train fight], and this movie took it even further with dizzying cameras and great use of Spider-Man’s web powers.  There was a lot of use of the ‘web’ that was both clever and simply awesome.  Trapping Lizard Man like a legitimate spider traps a prey was probably my favorite scene within my favorite scene.

The Different Take on Spider-Man/Parker Persona Piqued My Interest in Spider-Man Mythlore

I’m a Batman kind of man.  And being a Batman man makes me sort of a DC man.  My ‘love’ for Marvel only goes as far as the movie portrayals [which isn’t very far], but I like to think true fans are those who actually dive into the legitimate mythlore of series they claim they love.  This movie certainly had a different take on who Peter Parker was and who Spider-Man was and from my understanding they stood closer to the actual comic mythlore.  This alone might be enough for me to try to jump into the series, so we’ll see.

The Bad

Lizard Man Wasn’t a Convincing Enough Villain

A one armed genius scientist would seem like a more reasonable villain.  However I found his motivations a little unconvincing.  He appeared to be a reasonable man of principle who wanted the sincere best for the world, descended into madness by injecting himself with the reptillian genes on impulse, became a crazy monster, wanted to sincerely kill Peter Parker, somehow retained the idea of having the ‘best for the world’ but misconstruing it to make everyone as monstrous as him, returns back to a man of principle and saves Peter Parker.  Meh.  It’s a tad too inconsistent for me.

The film sincerely did try to characterize him and give him some background to be a likable character turned to darkness, but I found his villain motives to be not as great as the actual character himself.  I can’t really put my finger on it why.  Not my strongest argument I’ll admit.

Still an Unnecessary Reboot

It’s not dumb to reboot this franchise.  Rather it would be dumb to not reboot this franchise.  One of the highest money making franchises out there, rebooting the Spider-Man franchise could purely be for monetary reasons rather than actually believing the public ‘needs another Spider-Man’.  So I’m not going to say, ‘the idea of rebooting this franchise after such a short time is so dumb’, but rather that it highlights another instance of how Hollywood is seriously running low on originality.  This movie treads so closely on the original Spider-Man that the story isn’t necessarily fresh or innovative rather than slapping a few new faces.

He Still Has the Freaking Spider?!

A movie plot point that concerned me was when he showed Gwen Stacy the spider that bit him.  Still having that spider is incredibly dangerous and could completely be irresponsible in the hands of a teenager, especially one in love.  He could let Gwen be bit, or someone could accidentally break it and it could get loose.  Parker has the ability to give anyone Spidey powers and probably has millions dollars of research and development in the palm of his hand.

The kids I knew in high school [including me] were dumb and irresponsible as hell.  If one of them had Spider-Man powers, it’d be bad enough, but having the ability to give anyone else he desired powers is even worse.

Super-Powered Parker is Kind of a Douche

Messing with Flash in the name of that painter, being angsty to his aunt and uncle when he was in the wrong, throwing a football hard enough to bend a field goal post?  Are you kidding?  1) How are people not noticing that human beings can’t jump that high or throw that hard? 2) He forgets to pick up his aunt in the middle of the night and he’s the one that gets mad and his uncle and aunt?  3) Bullying bullies doesn’t solve problems.  I didn’t really like super hero Parker.  It was funny at times, but in real life, that guy is definitely a douche.

The Ugly

How Are They Not Catching Him?

How does a teenager acquire Oscorp military grade string, spray it literally all over New York and the investigators not catch him.  If I were a detective, I would say, oh look, Oscorp grade string, find anyone in the city who has recently bought this in large quantities.  Trace suspects fitting the description, and boom, you caught your Spider-Man.  The same goes for spandex.  Paper trails are so easily left and it’s incredibly easy to track down people these days.  Bruce Wayne embezzled massive amounts of funds to make sure his tracks were covered when assembling his costume.  Peter Parker buys [with what money?  He’s a jobless teenager in New York] military grade string and spandex and can get away with it.  Are you kidding me?

Overall

The movie is fun.  That’s about it.  It doesn’t deliver much else to add to an already tried and true franchise.  Seeing 4 Spider-Man’s at this point all of which revolve on relatively thin and generic superhero plots gets a little bit old.  Emma Stone spices things up for me because…Emma Stone.  Technically, it’s pretty neat.  Technology sure is a beautiful thing simply because the special effects in this movie were top notch and exciting.   That’s all I got.

yes, you, forever you, a thousand times you.