Now, I'll admit that I have not gone to many movies recently. I have seen quite a few at home, and through Youtube. But going to the movies was starting to be a rarity, until I saw The Grand Budapest Hotel last month. And yesterday, I was to supposed to take my son to a birthday party in a movie theater (sounds like a good idea!) to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
I had not seen the first one, and wondered if it would have been better to have seen that first. But, having only found out about this the day before, and having the chance for a discounted ticket ($6.50), the decision was essentially made for me.
Let me just say this: it said on the internet that this movie was 2 hours. It felt more like 3, in all honesty.
No, I am not saying that it is a terrible movie, or anything. The best way that I can probably compare it with something is to say that this would be the equivalent of the recent Batman movies being replaced by those directed by Tim Burton in the eighties. This one is more similar to the comic books, with simpler characters with simpler problems. The one where Tobey Maguire plays Spider-Man/Peter Parker is a bit more friendly, if you will, to a more mature audience.
That said, this movie, like the third installment of Spider-Man that came out in 2007, sees Spidey at some point fighting three different villains. The main one is Electro, and this character is absolutely nothing like the Electro that I remember from my own childhood, reading the comics. No spandex, flashy green and gold outfit with thunderbolts sticking out of it. This one looks and sounds much creepier, although at times, with his glowing eyes and black hoodie over his head, not to mention the lightning that comes from his hands at will, he reminds me of Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars. They did a good job with this villain, because he is a pretty scary bad guy.
The other two major villains that make a short appearance? Harry Oswald begins his career as the Green Goblin, and he is the obvious mind behind the other bad guys, as well, as Oscorp has funded many projects for strange new potential weapons, including the last villain that we see in the movie - the Rhino. So that, presumably, would explain all of these weird bad guys that come into the picture with weird powers, as they did in the original Marvel comics. We get a very brief glimpse of Dr. Octopus, for example. One bad guy that I would love to see done in a major movie like this would be Mysterio, who was my favorite villain when growing up and reading the comics. We'll see if they do that.
It is a super hero movie, and so the creators of the film will, of course, be prone to exaggeration. But admittedly, I think it went too far this time around. So far, in fact, that it began to detract from the movie (I'm speaking only for me).
Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker and the webslinger, while Emma Stone plays his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. They are both good in their roles, and the chemistry between them, as they try to guide their way through a troubled, on again off again relationship, is well done. There is something that happens during the movie between them which was surprising, although I do not want to mention what that exactly is. But I'll admit that I did not think the filmmakers would insert such a scene in there.
Ultimately, this movie was just one more installment of the seemingly endless (at least these days) super hero movies, particularly Marvel. Again, I'll admit that my preference is still for the franchise with Tobey Maguire and Kirtsten Dunst as Mary Jane Parker, the long time girlfriend to Parker in the movies. I will admit to not fully knowing who Gwen Stacy was prior to this movie, but in the absence of Mary Jane, Emma Stone filled in admirable for Parker's love interest.
Overall, a decent movie, especially if you are going to bring your children. Just don't expect to get quite as much into it as the franchise that came before it. But I was discussing this with one of the other fathers in attendance, and he revealed to me that Sony just lost the rights to Spider-Man, and other Marvel comics, and so they are trying desperately to squeeze in as many movies as possible while the opportunity is open to them. So, that is why this whole new Spider-Man series right on the heels of the previous one.
No comments:
Post a Comment