Major Actors: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Denis Leary, Sally Field, Martin Sheen, Rhys Ifans
Rating: PG-13
Best Audience: Even though it's PG-13, I would say young children (especially young boys) would still enjoy it. So really anyone from around age 5 to adults would enjoy this.
Review:
I must admit, I was one of those people that was highly confused when I saw the trailer for this movie. I believe thinking "Why are they remaking a movie that just came out 10 years ago?" is a completely normal reaction. However, this Spiderman is truly better than the three predecessors of this past decade.
This movie had more of Peter Parker's back story than the other movies had. It may be confusing to the casual movie-goer, but the girlfriend played by Emma Stone is not the same character Kristen Dunst played. Kristen Dunst played Mary Jane. Emma Stone in this new movie plays Gwen Stacey. Both of these characters were in the comics but Gwen Stacey was his first girlfiend.
I really liked Andrew Garfield (who was in The Social Network) as Spiderman. He was very endearing and relatable. I thought the dynamics between he and Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard (Rhys Ifans) were excellent scenes. The complex relationship between Gwen Stacey's father and Peter Parker was also an interesting dynamic to watch. However, I'm going to guess most people will enjoy the action sequences in this movie, which are quite captivating.
This movie irks me. On one hand, they did things really well with the Peter Parker origin. On the other, things just felt a little rushed. Does Curt Conners have bipolar disorder? One minute he's very sympathetic and realistic, but literally makes the quickest Face Heel Turn to become a Snidely Whiplash "muahahaha"-villain, only to once again make a turn back to good and save Peter towards the end for no reason. I get it though, it's implied that the shit that makes him The Lizard is affecting his mind, much like the Goblin serum is corrupting Willem Defoe, but unlike Defoe's Green Goblin, there is no descent into madness with The Lizard. He just decides to be an evil git, and then decides randomly to be good again.
ReplyDeleteThe same thing goes for Captain Stacy. One minute he's like, "I HATE SPIDERMAN" and then he's like, "I HELP SPIDERMAN!" Unlike the relationship between Batman and Gordon in the new Batman films, in which Gordon trusted the Bat from the beginning, it should have taken a lot more for Captain Stacy to trust Parker, especially since throughout the entire movie he's spouting cop jargin propoganda against Spiderman. Other than these minor gripes, the movie was good, but it doesn't beat Spiderman 2 for me.