Har!
There be some mild spoilers ahead, me hearties!
This
film's crimes against continuity are so numerous that I don't know
where to begin, so I won't spend a whole lot of time listing them.
Suffice it so say, Peter Parker didn't know Gwen Stacy until his
Freshman year of college (or Mary Jane for that matter either,
civilians). Peter's mom and dad weren't Oscorp employees, they were
spies or robots or something. (It depends on which ret-con you rule
out.) Peter Parker never, ever unmasked as much in the first 350
issues of Amazing Spider-Man as he did in this film. What is
the point in having a secret identity if you remove your mask every
chance that you get? This film relies heavily on the Ultimate
universe's continuity, and even gets that wrong. I am not
sure what the answer is, though. Can a movie adhere strictly to a 50
year old comic book? The answer is apparently no. Look at how
outdated his camera looked. It looked like the one in the old comics,
but that camera is severely outdated. A teenage kid would use his
iPhone or Droid.
So
was there anything that I did enjoy about this movie? Oh,
plenty. As a movie it was slick, seamless, and extremely enjoyable. I
simply cannot unplug my continuity-sense when I watch these comic
book adaptations. I have been a Spider-Man fan my entire life, so I
admittedly take the character way too seriously. The battle scenes
with the Lizard were, well, amazing. They were spectacularly
choreographed, and were like a comic book page come to life. Just
stunning. The actress who played Gwen Stacy was believable in
appearance, right down to the knee boots, but her character was a bit
out of sync with her four colored counterpart. Denis Leary as Captain
Stacy? No thanks. He's not old enough to properly play the character,
ditto Sally Field as Aunt May. They are fine actors, but not right
for these roles. Andrew Garfield was a much better Peter Parker than
Tobey McGuire ever was. They really dropped the ball not casting
Topher Grace as Peter Parker the first time around. (He was in the
running for the role for the 2002 film.) The guy who played Dr. Curt
Connors (a/k/a the Lizard) was all wrong, albeit likable, in the
role.
I
enjoyed this more than any of the other three films, especially the
horrid third one. I enjoyed seeing the lab-coat on the Lizard, even
for a moment. I was glad to see mechanical web-shooters used. His
Spider-Sense wasn't really displayed outside of the subway scene, and
even then wasn't really pronounced. The aging Norman Osborn subplot
will certainly be addressed in a sequel, undoubtedly resulting in him
becoming the Green Goblin. Let's just hope that they don't f**k it up
this time.
I
still don't get why they felt the need to do a total reboot, when
they could have simply ignored the previous films. Everyone gets the
gist of how Spider-Man got his powers by now, so that felt a little
tiresome.
So
what is my verdict? I liked it...a lot. Was it perfect? No. Avengers
good? No. Was it a Spider-Man movie that I can live with, and look
forward to seeing sequels to? Oh yeah.
Follow
my blog on Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment