Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

[skalja]

I think I had so much trouble writing this review because almost every scene I adored in its own right, but I'm not sure how well the film as a whole fits together. Wonderful moment-to-moment characterization, nuanced performances from every single actor, great action scenes, and yet there's so much about the plot and pacing that was just sloppy

Comments

[htbthomas]

As I promised to say in my own review: THIS.

I tend to flesh out my opinions after thinking about them (and oddly, ficcing about them) over time. But I really like everything you said, and hope for a positive MJ interpretation in coming films. I wonder if they'll introduce her in the sequel or wait...

[skalja]

Ficcing is a time-honored way of working through your issues with the canon! I mean, heck, if there are no issues with the canon there's not much to fic, is there?

[angelophile]

I'm glad you loved the bridge scene as much as me, because it was the one scene in the movie that just felt pitch perfect. Unlike the Raimi movies, it gave a reason for Peter to be unmasked that was completely justifiable as a character moment, rather than a convenience to allow the audience to see the actor emote. And even when the mask was in place, Garfield still emoted his heart out

[skalja]

Andrew Garfield really is a full body actor and makes full use of that in the suit. (Although in fairness to Maguire I couldn't say if part of that is that the new suit makes emoting easier than the one he had to work with -- it never looked very comfortable to me.) You really could tell exactly what was on the charaacter's mind just from the way he moved. (I particularly liked the subway cobweb scene for that

[angelophile]

I guess I've missed the hype machine (or maybe contributed to it. Who knows?) so he wasn't spoiled for me in the same way, say, live action Loki has been ruined forever for me by Tom Hiddleston fans. But I know how that feels, sooo...

My memory of the movie's already a bit hazy, but, yes, I'd forgotten about the police station scene. There was also the fact that Peter jumped into action as soon as he heard about the chaos on the Brooklyn(?) Bridge and that his motivation to get involved was, presumably, intended to be general heroics on his part, but that's muddied by it turning out to be somewhat related to him after all.

By the way, did you stick around for the mid-credit sequence? Hints presumably at the big bad for the next movie, but I'm really hoping they reserve him for the third and keep him in a background role for now. Am I alone in thinking that Kraven could work really well as an antagonist in the next movie, if they lifted elements from Kraven's Last Hunt?

[skalja]

Yeah. Like, I don't want to rag on people's enthusiasm! But at the same time it's kind of exhausting just to watch.

I accidentally edited my mention of the mid-credits scene out of my review, whoops. I actually had this paragraph about how the Richard Parker drama should have been kept to the sequel instead of it dragging out into two movies, so that Peter's yearning to know his bio father could've built on his yearning for Uncle Ben, instead of taking away from it.

I guess it'd make more sense to have Norman as the third movie villain (if there is a third movie) instead of the second. Which means we might only get the one love interest because Gwen is not going to die before Norman shows up, obviously.

Now that you mention it, Kraven would be an excellent fit for these films, tonally! And he has no personal connections at all to Peter, which would be refreshing.

[mizzmarvel]

I agree with you on almost every single point. I actually find Spider-Man origin to be almost perfect in its simplicity, so while I usually have no problem shrugging and rolling with the punches when a movie tweaks a superhero backstory, this one seemed to really bog things down in complicatedness. I feel like if they'd cut back on the DADDY FEELINGS, it would have helped.

[skalja]

Preeeetty much. It managed to be an awkward rehash and a case of fixing what ain't broke at the exact same time.