GENRE: Action/Adventure
RATING: PG-13 for scenes of violence
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 16 minutes
STARRING: Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)
Emma Stone (Easy A, Crazy Stupid Love), Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill)
DIRECTOR: Mark Webb (500 Days of Summer)
WRITERS: James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, The Rundown)
Alvin Sargent (Spiderman 2 & 3), Steve Kloves (Harry Potter series)
PLOT: Peter Parker gets bitten by a spider while looking into his missing father’s former partner who has an obsession with lizards.
FIVE OBSERVATIONS:
1 The film isn’t awful but I also don’t think the Spiderman movies were in need of a reboot. There are some entertaining parts but it just seemed too emo for me. Sam Raimi’s trilogy was packed full of fun even if the third one faltered a bit. The story elements are very similar with slight variations however the bad guy still has really loud voices in his head.
2 I will say that this film is shot incredibly well. John Schwartzman (The Rock, Pearl Harbor) does a great job making certain scenes epic and other intimate. Also, nice job of swinging through the streets, even though this film had ten more years to perfect Raimi’s already stellar job of webslinging. Interesting to do some of it as first person, which I guess is awesome if you watch it in 3D (I didn’t.).
3 Emma Stone gives an awesome performance as Gwen Stacy. She’s the bright shiny light in this story. Actually Denis Leary also does a great job as Captain Stacy. I didn’t like the Stacys in Spiderman 3 but in this film they are golden. Martin Sheen is dependable as Uncle Ben but Sally Field seems misplaced as Aunt May, she looks too young. Points go to Raimi for the casting of Rosemary Harris.
4 Andrew Garfield does a commendable job of playing a teenager in highschool even though he’s 29 years old. He stumbles nicely and has the look of an emo kid. Unfortunately, I didn’t like him as Spiderman; his quips are a little too cocky and void of true fun. Tobey Maguire may not have had the look but he definitely had the right attitude when he donned the mask.
5 Speaking of masks. Leave the frickin’ mask on! What’s the point in making a mask if you take it off all the time? Does it itch or something? Or is the actor so vain that he needs more facetime on screen? Is it meant to be symbolic? We get it! You’re human. Leave the mask on!
RECOMMENDATION: Theatre for action, DVD for emo
UPCOMING REVIEWS: The Dark Knight Rises
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