Director: Marc Webb
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifan, Sally Field, Martin Sheen, Dennis Leary
Run Time: 2hr. 16 min.
Run Time: 2hr. 16 min.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG13 for Sequences of Action and Violence
It seems like only yesterday I was gathering at the cinema as a young 8 year old kid to see what I believed at the time to be one of the most awesome movies ever made in Sam Raimi's "Spiderman". The film is seen as sort of a milestone in the cinema world as it issued in a new world of superhero movies that ranged from the Christopher Nolan Batman films to the X-Men Film Series. Ten years following that film and a pretty stellar Spiderman trilogy (Forget Spider-Man 3), Sony decided to go ahead and reboot Spider-Man 5 years following Spider-Man 3. While most people would argue that it is not enough time to really start a new Spider-Man trilogy, I am in the minority that will take any superhero film I can get and came into this film with high expectations and look forward to the more dark and gritty take on the film franchise following the embarrassing Spider-Man 3.
STORY:
When look at the movie as a whole, I honestly believe that the story of the film is what weakened it the most. With this being the first film in the franchise, we have to learn the origin story again with it still fresh on our mind from the 2002 film. I know that this is a necessity when having to create the film, but I just would have wished that the director would have took more of a risk at giving a twist on the story so that I didn't feel like a rehash of the original film and the big moments in the origin would have packed more of an emotional punch than the did. This film did dig deeper into Peter Parker's childhood with his parents, which is a subject that the original trilogy ignored, and I liked the mystery that it added to the overall story. The main thing this film intended to do was give more of a realistic feel to the Spider-Man story and I felt that it worked a lot better in its favor. Seeing what Peter does when he first gets his abilities is what you'd expect a teenager to do when they first received abilities such as these, and we even got to see the creation of the suit which was also a welcomed little bonus to the film. The main part where the film fell apart was the villain, Lizard. The buildup of Curt Connors becoming Lizard, was good and I liked the personal story they tried to tell with a man who just wanted to be normal, but things quickly fell apart once he became the beast. He delved into a lot of superhero film cliches with believing humans to be insignificant, and trying to destroy New York City which seems like a destination all superhero villains like to destroy. I also found the master plan of Lizard to be a little weird and generic. It didn't stand out like Joker trying to break Gotham's spirit in Dark Knight or the villain of Iron Man trying to create the perfect terrorist weapon. If they would have given a little bit more screen time to Curt Conors as Lizard and tried to humanize him a little more, than it would have worked a lot better. There is a scene during the credits that I really liked and I am honestly looking forward to see where they go that they now have the main parts of the origin story out of the way.
SCORE: 3/5
When look at the movie as a whole, I honestly believe that the story of the film is what weakened it the most. With this being the first film in the franchise, we have to learn the origin story again with it still fresh on our mind from the 2002 film. I know that this is a necessity when having to create the film, but I just would have wished that the director would have took more of a risk at giving a twist on the story so that I didn't feel like a rehash of the original film and the big moments in the origin would have packed more of an emotional punch than the did. This film did dig deeper into Peter Parker's childhood with his parents, which is a subject that the original trilogy ignored, and I liked the mystery that it added to the overall story. The main thing this film intended to do was give more of a realistic feel to the Spider-Man story and I felt that it worked a lot better in its favor. Seeing what Peter does when he first gets his abilities is what you'd expect a teenager to do when they first received abilities such as these, and we even got to see the creation of the suit which was also a welcomed little bonus to the film. The main part where the film fell apart was the villain, Lizard. The buildup of Curt Connors becoming Lizard, was good and I liked the personal story they tried to tell with a man who just wanted to be normal, but things quickly fell apart once he became the beast. He delved into a lot of superhero film cliches with believing humans to be insignificant, and trying to destroy New York City which seems like a destination all superhero villains like to destroy. I also found the master plan of Lizard to be a little weird and generic. It didn't stand out like Joker trying to break Gotham's spirit in Dark Knight or the villain of Iron Man trying to create the perfect terrorist weapon. If they would have given a little bit more screen time to Curt Conors as Lizard and tried to humanize him a little more, than it would have worked a lot better. There is a scene during the credits that I really liked and I am honestly looking forward to see where they go that they now have the main parts of the origin story out of the way.
SCORE: 3/5
ACTING:
When Andrew Garfield was casted as Peter Parker back in 2010, it was met with a lot of controversy. People didn't like the thought of a GQ model playing Peter Parker as well as a guy who is 28 years old playing a 17 year old high schooler. While it did play my thoughts of believability at seeing this guy play the outcasted nerd, he did an incredible job at playing Peter Parker. The realism and pain he brought to the role was better than anything Toby Maguire brought to the original Spiderman trilogy. He made you believe every emotion that came across in the story from the humor while dressed as Spider-Man and the pain when he witnesses the death of someone close to him. Garfield is definitely someone I can get behind as the Spider-Man of the future. The role of love interest this time was changed from Mary Jane to Gwen Stacy and Emma Stone (Easy A, Zombieland), was the one to portray her. Having the character of Gwen Stacy was a much needed change I felt the film needed as she is a more positive influence and a real equal to Peter and Emma Stone portrayed that character just as well as Garfield did with his portrayal. Their chemistry was believable and I look forward to see where the character goes. As read above, my biggest complaint with the film was the underdevelopment of Lizard. The character is portrayed by Rhys Ifan (Harry Potter) and the moments on screen he got to play both sides, he made you feel that this was a man forced into a life he created by accident and gives the moments when he is Lizard more of an impact then they should of had. The supporting cast also works pretty well together, a few of them sit into character cliches but with their limited screen time its not that big of a deal with them.
Score: 4.5/5
When Andrew Garfield was casted as Peter Parker back in 2010, it was met with a lot of controversy. People didn't like the thought of a GQ model playing Peter Parker as well as a guy who is 28 years old playing a 17 year old high schooler. While it did play my thoughts of believability at seeing this guy play the outcasted nerd, he did an incredible job at playing Peter Parker. The realism and pain he brought to the role was better than anything Toby Maguire brought to the original Spiderman trilogy. He made you believe every emotion that came across in the story from the humor while dressed as Spider-Man and the pain when he witnesses the death of someone close to him. Garfield is definitely someone I can get behind as the Spider-Man of the future. The role of love interest this time was changed from Mary Jane to Gwen Stacy and Emma Stone (Easy A, Zombieland), was the one to portray her. Having the character of Gwen Stacy was a much needed change I felt the film needed as she is a more positive influence and a real equal to Peter and Emma Stone portrayed that character just as well as Garfield did with his portrayal. Their chemistry was believable and I look forward to see where the character goes. As read above, my biggest complaint with the film was the underdevelopment of Lizard. The character is portrayed by Rhys Ifan (Harry Potter) and the moments on screen he got to play both sides, he made you feel that this was a man forced into a life he created by accident and gives the moments when he is Lizard more of an impact then they should of had. The supporting cast also works pretty well together, a few of them sit into character cliches but with their limited screen time its not that big of a deal with them.
Score: 4.5/5
DIRECTING/VISUAL REPRESENTATION:
This is the mainstream directorial debut of Marc Webb whose only previous directing credits to this film was 2009's "500 Days of Summer" and numerous music videos over the last decade and his involvement in the franchise was also met with a lot of questions (as with a lot of things with pre-production to this film). I felt that his previous credit only dealing with the independent film market, helped him get a better feel for these characters and the reason I believe Peter and Gwen felt more real than the romances in superhero films. He also worked on finding a deep human side to the characters which goes in with working in independent films. While being able to bring a human side to the film, he was also able to entertain with big budgeted special effects. The entire film was shot in 3D, which is someone I am actually behind and the film looks incredible when witnessed in 3D. The shots were you swing across New York City from Spider-Man's point of view are really good shots. The fight scenes were also pretty good as the visual effects in them, especially the final fight made them that more thrilling. The only complaint I will have with the directing was to much focus on the origin story. The origin story takes about over half the movie to filter out and it ends up pushing a few things out in favor of it. Also the look of the Lizard was not my favorite as I believe he looked way too big and to much like a rip-off of the Killer Croc from the Batman stories. The 3D of the film was also a little over used like when a normal building is popping out when there is no action going on its just sitting there, than we really don't need it then but thats just a small complaint in the wonderful 3D the film had.
Score: 4/5
This is the mainstream directorial debut of Marc Webb whose only previous directing credits to this film was 2009's "500 Days of Summer" and numerous music videos over the last decade and his involvement in the franchise was also met with a lot of questions (as with a lot of things with pre-production to this film). I felt that his previous credit only dealing with the independent film market, helped him get a better feel for these characters and the reason I believe Peter and Gwen felt more real than the romances in superhero films. He also worked on finding a deep human side to the characters which goes in with working in independent films. While being able to bring a human side to the film, he was also able to entertain with big budgeted special effects. The entire film was shot in 3D, which is someone I am actually behind and the film looks incredible when witnessed in 3D. The shots were you swing across New York City from Spider-Man's point of view are really good shots. The fight scenes were also pretty good as the visual effects in them, especially the final fight made them that more thrilling. The only complaint I will have with the directing was to much focus on the origin story. The origin story takes about over half the movie to filter out and it ends up pushing a few things out in favor of it. Also the look of the Lizard was not my favorite as I believe he looked way too big and to much like a rip-off of the Killer Croc from the Batman stories. The 3D of the film was also a little over used like when a normal building is popping out when there is no action going on its just sitting there, than we really don't need it then but thats just a small complaint in the wonderful 3D the film had.
Score: 4/5
REWATCHABILITY:
The film was coming in with extremely high expectations being sandwiched in between Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. While I believed the film would be good, I just didn't have the highest of expectations in the film, but I was surprised with this film. This film was shoehorned by a great cast, visual effects, and an alright story ontop of it. If this film is any indications of what's to come, then I welcome this new Spider-Man franchise with open arms and I cannot wait to see were it goes next. This film definitely has rewatchability and I recommend sometime during this 4th of July Week and Weekend, that you go and see this movie or you could just go see the Katy Perry concert in 3D. This film has a lot of rewatchability and I will definitely be buying it once it comes out on Blu Ray.
Score: 3.5/5
ACTING: (4.5 Stars out of 5)
DIRECTING: (4 Stars out of 5)
VISUAL REPRESENTATION: ( 4 Stars out of 5)
STORY: (3 Stars out of 5)
REWATCHABILITY: (3.5 Stars out of 5)
Total: (3.8 Stars out of 5)
Final Grade: B+
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