Manic Expression

Poster Made by: Columbia Pictures

Courtesy of: Wikipedia

In-between The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises is this film, lost in the hype because it is a film that is relaunching a franchise that A) Still had a successful yet not well liked third installment (Unlike Hulk to The Incredible Hulk where that didn’t succeed and was more polarizing), B) five years after that installment and C) The whole series is still fresh in people’s minds.  I felt it was too soon as well, but I was definitely curious how the man who gave us one of the better romantic movies of the past decade would take on the world’s most well-known Marvel hero as his second project, not to mention everyone giving it an angle that does something new with the character.

As a result well… as I put it on my Twitter :

“#TheAmazingSpiderMan treds some new ground, but at the same time retreads fresh old ones and disappointingly veers off from some of the new.” – July 12th, 2012 9:29 PM

What I meant by that is, they definitely add new intriguing elements, adding a mystique about Peter’s (Andrew Garfield) parents being one of them, having a much more interesting take on him discovering his powers is an aspect I thought was actually done better than it was in the first Spider-Man.  I definitely like them approaching the romance angle from a much better view than just a crush on the girl next door, and Gwen (Emma Stone) shows much more of an active role this time rather than just be the girl Peter has to save like Mary Jane or be as vacant as the previously unimportant Gwen in 3.  It is also nice to see Spidey pull off some of his quips, oh how I missed them so much though he doesn’t do a lot after the “my weakness small knives” scene.  The movie also has a sympathetic villain in terms of Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) a man wanting to cure the world but pressured to act, it’s a way of not wanting him to fall into The Lizard madness as he does.  The visuals and stunts are a definite high point of the movie, looking much more physical than some of the more cartoonish effects of the Raimi trilogy could tell a lot of care and attention was paid to these scenes.

Now for the retreading fresh ones, some of what is explored here is sadly echoing the Raimi trilogy.  Little bits and pieces feel all too familiar and it makes me wonder if the trilogy was fresh in the writers minds as well that it affected their work.  Hard to say without spoiling much, but they are definitely nagging for a film that tells the “untold story.”  One major difference too is the prevalence of Aunt May (Sally Field) and I got to say I wish there was more of her seems like a waste of a great actress.   James Horner also may blare a lot of horns, the score is more generic than even Danny Elfman's somewhat decent score from the first movie.

Now as far as the “disappointingly veers off from some of the new”, let’s just say one of the most vital origin components concerning Uncle Ben’s killer is dropped half-way through.  While there is bigger fish to fry near the mid-point the way it is dropped feels jarring and I wish they had brought some semblance back to it in the second half of the film.  I’d only imagine it’d set up for something in a sequel, but it doesn’t make it any less jarring.

Curtis Connors’ transition from noble scientist to extremist with the Lizard formula isn’t pulled off convincingly for me.  They did very little to establish his sudden personality change, and while part of it may due to growing scales, his sudden shift in plans is not built up very well.  At the very least Norman’s trip to insanity in the first Raimi film was explained early on as a side effect of the serum, I don’t get any of that sudden shift with Connors.

As well there are a lot of threads (forgive the pun) that are just left open which I have to say doesn’t make the film as complete as it could have been.  At the same time it feels stuck in the past and trying to push hard to be different, and it will remain to be seen if there will be a follow-up that can improve upon it.  And hey Spider-Man 2 was able to expand upon the foundations of the first and succeed much better, so could be the case with Amazing.

As it stands though, I don’t quite find this as the major reboot kick like Batman Begins was, I don’t know if I like it as much as even the first Spider-Man but definitely stands above 3 and has some ground on its own.  This is definitely leaning more on the side of GOOD, even more so than Brave I think :

Oh and there is a mid-credits scene, but it unfortunately isn’t very interesting and has already been spoiled by a lot of trailers, I won’t mind if you skip it.

End of Rant