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Amazing Spider-Man : July 3rd, 2012 (1 Viewer)

Jose Martinez

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From Robbie Collin's review of The Amazing Spider-Man:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/9340774/The-Amazing-Spider-Man-the-first-review.html

"Though it still packs plenty of testosterone, Marc Webb's new Spider-Man is the superhero film for the Twilight generation, writes Robbie Collin."

The fucking Twilight generation??!?!?!?!?

That's the deal breaker! Definitely NOT going to watch it!
 

TravisR

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He also gave it 4 out of 5 stars but it must be terrible because he compares it to Twilight. Something tells me that the similarities to Twilight are superficial (pretty young people are the leads) and comparing the two is just lazy film criticism & done only to grab website hits because it'll piss off anyone who isn't a Twilight fan.
 

Jerome Grate

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I wasn't on board with a prequel from the start, however it has been done a couple of times in the animated series. Based on my son's devotion to Spiderman and his excitement I will be watching this one. I hope the 4 stars in the previous article does not fall in line with Twilight, that would be disappointing.
 

Carlo_M

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To be fair, the sentence as it reads above doesn't necessarily compare the film to Twilight, rather it makes a reference to the Twilight Generation being the primary audience who will be watching the film (which is probably going to be true).
We can all hope, right?
 

Bryan^H

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I'm confused by the review. It states that this is a "radically different" take on the Lee/Ditko Spiderman comic book, but in his description, it sounds even closer tonally to the original source materiel.
I'm a life long Spiderman fanatic. I started reading Marvel Tales(reprints of the original Spiderman comic books) starting with issue #137 when I was 11 years old. I became obsessed with Spiderman, and read every issue up to the mid 300's. I can tell you that Peter Parker was a very introverted sort. He was always on the outside looking in, and this is in fact what made the comic book so great. There was always a certain sadness to him that some writers of the series loved to exploit(Len Wein for example). No matter how normal his life seemed, there were always a number of problems he dealt with keeping him isolated from happiness. Constant problems(most bigger than what a normal human is burdened with).
When Peter Parker changed into Spiderman is when his burdens were lifted. He wise cracked bad guys, and became much more light hearted swinging through the city. He seemed more comfortable as Spiderman than in his own skin....escapist quality for sure. In fact I remember Pete thinking he needed to web swing to realx, or clear his head.
Peter Parker also had a quick trigger. He would lose his cool on many occasions most times at friends and loved ones. Was it the stress? I'm not sure, but he wasn't perfect, and he was hardly a ray of sunshine in most of the comic book series, but his moral compass was always in perfect alignment. You won't find a more blue collar self sacrificing hero in the Marvel world. I can't wait to watch the movie.
 

Greg_S_H

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The Spider-Man I remember from my youth cracked wise while fighting, both to keep his enemies distracted and to cover his own nervousness. But, he was usually a pretty serious guy in his own head. The way he is written in current comics, he is a clown without an off switch. It always used to drive me nuts that Robin Williams could never be serious even for a second in interviews--it was like there was something wrong with him, that he was living in his own reality apart from whatever was going on around him (that sounds a little more dramatic than intended in print). That's how Peter/Spider-Man seems to me now. I haven't studied the trailers for The Amazing Spider-Man, but it does seem to circle back to the older way he was presented. Of course, Tobey Spider-Man was not very jokey even as Spider-Man. . . .
 

Vaughan Odendaal

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Check out this review :
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-amazing-spiderman-early-reviews-critics-20120621,0,5011800.story?track=rss
 

Patrick Sun

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"The Amazing Spider-Man" had a decent first act, a bit slow, ok mid-section, but that third act was so choppy and had terrible flow and momentum.
The script is a bit of a mess with getting from one action set piece to the next one with very little "webbing" to connect the scenes together. The script also leaves some dangling plotlines to be addressed in sequels, I guess. The after-the-first-end-credits-section scene was sort of lame, but at least you don't have to wait to the very end (no scene at the very end). Yes, it's a little on the emo side when it comes to Peter's emotions in spots.
I did appreciate the action camerawork, and the use of real stuntmen to do some of the web-swinging, though later on, it's a lot of CGI during the fight scenes between Spider-Man and the Lizard. Marc Webb's direction is not quite there for a full-blown film, and I wasn't as immersed with the 3D, as the depth of field seemed very deep with the camera lens choices, makes for somewhat boring movie-making.
I give it 2.66 stars or a grade of C+/B-, probably sleep on it for a final grade,
 

Colin Jacobson

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Originally Posted by Bryan^H /t/254830/spider-man-4-july-3rd-2012/510#post_3940850
I'm confused by the review. It states that this is a "radically different" take on the Lee/Ditko Spiderman comic book, but in his description, it sounds even closer tonally to the original source materiel.

I don't think the movie's "tonally close" AT ALL. It's basically "Peter Parker as sullen loner". The original Peter was Most Likely to Win a Nobel Prize - this one's Most Likely to Go Columbine on His Classmates...
 

Bryan^H

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Colin Jacobson said:
I don't think the movie's "tonally close" AT ALL.  It's basically "Peter Parker as sullen loner".  The original Peter was Most Likely to Win a Nobel Prize - this one's Most Likely to Go Columbine on His Classmates...:td:
Yeah, I know. What the reviewer wrote and what I watched are two different things.
An overly long "origin story". Disappointed. I won't be there for the sequel.
 

Sean Bryan

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I thought it was really great.
Looking forward to the next one!
 

Simon Massey

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As someone who only liked Spiderman 2 from Raimi's trilogy, I thought this was a much better origin story than the Spiderman film with the Green Goblin, though I have to say I haven't read any of the comics so I can't really comment on how close it matches that. As a film though I still think Spiderman 2 is the high watermark for the series. That said given this was essentially the origin story again, I have high hopes that the next in the series will be better. I especially thought the action sequences were far more interesting with the camerawork. There were some strange moments in the film though were it felt cuts had been made to some sequences.
7 out of 10
 

JonZ

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Originally Posted by Greg_S_H /t/254830/spider-man-4-july-3rd-2012/510#post_3940862
The Spider-Man I remember from my youth cracked wise while fighting, both to keep his enemies distracted and to cover his own nervousness. But, he was usually a pretty serious guy in his own head. The way he is written in current comics, he is a clown without an off switch. It always used to drive me nuts that Robin Williams could never be serious even for a second in interviews--it was like there was something wrong with him, that he was living in his own reality apart from whatever was going on around him (that sounds a little more dramatic than intended in print). That's how Peter/Spider-Man seems to me now. I haven't studied the trailers for The Amazing Spider-Man, but it does seem to circle back to the older way he was presented. Of course, Tobey Spider-Man was not very jokey even as Spider-Man. . . .
I used to argue this at SHH. A film isnt a comic book - and I cant think of anything that would kill tension of a character joking constantly when he should be fighting for his life.

IMHO Raimi balanced this perfectly with lines like "Here's you change!" from SM2. They were brief, and paid the homage.

I have to agree with James Bs opinion about the origin story. I havent seen this and wont based on principle alone. I guess ill catch it on cable on day, but HATE the fact that this franchise is being rebooted already. You dont hit the restart button every time you hit a bump. Can you imagine in James Bond did this every time the franchise had a stinker. Learn from you r mistakes and move forward.

I dont want to see Spiderman, or Superman or Batmans origin again.
 

Greg_S_H

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Since you quoted me, I'm not really arguing that he should be cracking wise in battle, but that he should be serious at some point instead of constantly joking even in his own head. When Bendis writes him in the Avengers, there is almost never a moment where he can be serious and it makes him pretty unlikeable.
 

Colin Jacobson

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Originally Posted by JonZ /t/254830/spider-man-4-july-3rd-2012/510#post_3945001
I used to argue this at SHH. A film isnt a comic book - and I cant think of anything that would kill tension of a character joking constantly when he should be fighting for his life.

IMHO Raimi balanced this perfectly with lines like "Here's you change!" from SM2. They were brief, and paid the homage.

I have to agree with James Bs opinion about the origin story. I havent seen this and wont based on principle alone. I guess ill catch it on cable on day, but HATE the fact that this franchise is being rebooted already. You dont hit the restart button every time you hit a bump. Can you imagine in James Bond did this every time the franchise had a stinker. Learn from you r mistakes and move forward.

I dont want to see Spiderman, or Superman or Batmans origin again.

While I didn't like "Amazing", I do believe the filmmakers were in a tough spot here. There's a difference between Bond and Spidey, as Bond doesn't tell an overarching narrative. There's virtually no continuity between films - there's no character development to continue and relationships to progress.

If those behind "Amazing" just moved forward, they'd have been stuck with the same character progression from the Raimi films - or they'd have to explain what happened. Clearly they couldn't put Peter back in high school, and they'd have to move along the Peter/MJ relationship.

Which would've been fine, I guess, but I suspect they didn't want to be beholden to the story led by a different director, so that led to the necessity of the reboot.

If they'd simply put Peter back in HS without a reboot, it would've confused audiences. They wanted to create their own Spidey World, and that meant they needed to redo the origin story.

Though I guess they could've just given us a quick montage at the start to set up this movie's universe - give us a five-minute "Previously in 'Spider-Man'" thing to let audiences know this is a different Spidey world than the Raimi movies and not bothered with the roughly four hours of origin in "Amazing".

Not sure if that would've worked, but I do believe the filmmakers needed SOME kind of reboot/origin here because this really is a different narrative...
 

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