Numerous incremental improvements over the Tobey Maguire edition of the franchise (better actors, Spider-Man gets to say some actual wisecracks, somewhat more intelligent plot) don’t quite keep one from noticing the fact that you are watching, first and foremost, product.
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I always thought that the Raimi “Spider-Man” films suffered because Spider-Man just wasn’t funny. He’s meant to be funny.
I rewatched the Raimi films in the past month . . . I hadn’t seen them since they were first in the theaters and I did not think they’d hold up. Imagine my surprise that I actually liked them a lot better than I thought I would – I thought they held up terrifically well, problems aside (like, yes, the fact that Spidey should be annoying).
But this film – in trying to avoid going over so much of the same territory as the Raimi films, they end up subtracting a great deal of the necessary pathos. I mean, come on, they didn’t even get Martin Sheen to say the “great power” line – how janky is that?
Slight editorial nitpick: “…don’t quite keep ONE from noticing the fact that YOU are watching…”
(Emphasis added. Also, ellipsis. But mostly emphasis.)
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I don’t think it’s a big deal to not have Uncle Ben saying the words specifically – if anything, that has always seemed forced to me. Why would anyone give that specific advice about power to a nebbish kid who was unpopular in school? It doesn’t make any sense, considering who Peter was at that point. I think the lesson can be learned even without Ben spelling it out explicitly first (and in fact, in the original Lee/Ditko origin Uncle Ben NEVER says the “power and responsibility” line; that bit was added later).
And I’m optimistic about Sheen as Uncle Ben – it’s just a great piece of casting, like JK Simmons as Jameson in the Raimi films.
As Weird Al put it:
“With great power comes great responsibility”
That’s the catch-phrase of old Uncle Ben
If you missed it, don’t worry: we’ll say the line
Again and again and again…
I’ve heard the 3-D is kind of crap. True or false?
I reviewed this in a more in depth manner here: http://mibreviews.com/2012/07/04/the-amazing-spider-man/ I don’t totally agree with MGK here.
The ugly, blatant James Dean-esque posturing of Hipster-Man damned the film for me.
Why would Ben give that advice to a nebbish high school student? Why not?
Here’s an easy conversation:
“Uncle Ben why are you so upset with the Union bosses/company owners/police officers/politicians?”
“Because Peter these people have been given a lot of power to make people’s life better and they aren’t living up to it. With great power comes great responsibilty and they aren’t living up to it.”
The first half of the film felt a lot like Batman: Year One to me, and the dark, vengeance-driven storyline for that part didn’t really feel like Spider-Man to me. Guilt is what drives the character, not vengeance, and I didn’t feel like there was a switch from one to the other in this film. SM2 nailed the heroic aspects of the character better than any other superhero film I’ve seen–in SM2, being Spidey has literally ruined every aspect of Peter’s life but he keeps doing it anyway just because it’s the right thing to do. I don’t see Andrew Garfield’s version making that kind of sacrifice. He’s more of a hot-headed thrill-seeker, and he has a certain arrogance about him (he thinks he’s doing what the police can’t). As much as the Raimi films didn’t really feel like Spider-Man because MaGuire was too mopey, I feel like this film felt even less like Spider-Man. This felt more like the movie Chronicle than anything.
Not that this was a bad movie though. It was probably a better film than most of the Raimi films (maybe not SM2); it just didn’t capture the spirit of Spider-Man very well.
Eric TF: Sadly enough, the irony is that in this film they DIDN’T USE THE LINE, just to be different. Instead, Ben just waffles a mush-mash of motivational poster lines on the general theme of responsibility. Not unlike what JB just wrote but with less, y’know, coherence.
While I can’t comment as to which version is superior, as I haven’t re-watched the Rami films in a while, I can say with some confidence that this movie had some of the best superhero fighting I’ve seen. The way Spiderman zips and flips all over his enemies just feels so right, with creative use of the web blasters.
With that in mind though, I thought that when compared to the final showdown of the original Rami Spiderman this movie had the weaker climax (w/o spoliers).
Also, is it just me or did they keep trying to find excuses to have Spiderman’s mask removed? It feels like half the time he is in costume he doesn’t have the mask on.
JCHAndsom,
I`m definitely not just you. I haven`t seen the new version yet, but I remember that in the Raimi films Peter’s mask was always getting conveniently torn or take off for dramatic effect, and from the looks of the trailers that happens a lot in this movie too. It’s always annoyed me way for than it should, because in the comics Spider-Man was actually pretty protective of his identity, at least up until recent years, but then there’s a reason I don’t like modern Spidey, and every time I saw him without the mask on in the movies I was just all “Really? Tobey MacGuire needed screentime that much? What, was he afraid that people are too dumb to make the connection between him and Spider-Man unless they see his mug hovering oner the costume?”
I really just wish Spidey could be allowed to keep his mask on.
It was a good movie overall. I just still didn’t see the need for a reboot.
@JCHandsom and SilverHammerMan:
The mask off thing is something that started bothering me as early as SM2. I’m betting it’s got to be something in their contracts that they have to have a percentage of screentime be maskless or to show their faces.
I also wish that they’d let Spidey keep his mask on…
It’s just said that in a movie that is essentially telling the same origin story again, they drop the most famous line from the Spidey backstory.
I’ve heard the reasons varied, but one of the ones listed is that they dropped it because it’s so well known / associated with Spidey. Which is sort of like cutting out wolverine being ill-tempered.
I kind of liked when he lost the mask on the train in Spider-Man 2. Because nobody knew or cared who he was.
about the mask: I remember a lot of discussion around the first Spiderman that they wanted the mask off so you could identify with Peter Parker, and not just think that it was a stunt man in a suit (and, you know, so the actors could act). There’s even a bit in one of the big ‘art of’ books about how one of the original concepts was to make the mask transparent at some angles so you could see the actor’s eyes and/or expressions. Raimi rejected that in part because he wanted to be true to the comic.
I didn’t mind so much that the mask comes off. Once or twice, like the time on the bridge, it actually works well as a character moment. I DO wish they’d given a little bit of thought to the mechanics of the mask, though. There are times when the mask is CLEARLY part of the rest of the costume and times when it’s CLEARLY just a thing sort of sitting on his face.
I likes ASM, but I missed the heart of the Raimi movies. And the visuals are pretty clearly stolen wholesale from Iron Man/The Avengers. That’s not really a knock, but I wished they’d found their own visual aesthetic.
I simply adored this version. Much more than I ever liked the Raimi version. Garfield and Smart actually *seemed* like teenagers to me. The high school scenes seemed more based in actual high school. The actors were immensely superior. The action was amazing. The CGI was seamless in a way that Raimi never mastered. Spider-Man was actually snarky and quippy, and who knew that the Spider-Man with the best Brooklyn accent would actually be British?
I can’t wait to see it again. And to see the sequel, and the one after that, and the one after that.
I liked it overall.
There were a number of points where they were clearly doing things differently from the Raimi movies for the sake of being different more than anything else, but it worked overall. The plot has some elegant moments (like how he transitions into making crime-fighting his mission), and stuff that feels haphazard. The ’02 film had more in the way of iconic imagery.
I would say the cast was, in most cases, improved from the earlier series, particularly Sheen and Stone, and also Garfield. Sally Field had less to do than Rosemary Harris. The ’02 version had a more compelling villain.
I’m sorry, but while I liked the movie, I’m gonna have to disagree with everyone who thinks Garfield is the superior Peter Parker. He comes off as the typical angry angsty teenage movie heartthrob, where Tobey came off as the hopeless and utterly uncool but well meaning geek that Peter Parker should be.
Also? Peter Parker would never in a million years have a skateboard, let alone be able to successfully ride one without killing himself.
I liked that they didn’t use the exact phrase about power and responsibility, but rather had Ben say something that hit the notes of it instead.
Also, they wrote Flash so much better in this than in the 02 version – having him be one of the first people to reach out to Peter after Ben’s death made Flash be something other than just the paint-by-numbers bully that he was before, and they made a welcome nod to him being Spidey’s #1 fan in the scene where he shows up wearing the shirt with the spider symbol on it.
Just so we’re clear, the version of the ‘Responsibility’ line in the Amazing Spiderman is basically word for word from Ultimate Spiderman. It even had the “Well then where is he?!” part.
Anyone else think they missed a trick in the name badge scene…would have been very easy to use the name Miles Morales.
Overall I preferred this film to Raimis trilogy and I loved them.
I agree with MGK, especially on the product part. While I think this movie was in large parts superior to Raimi’s version (superior actors in all roles, actually funny, Andrew Garfield perfectly cast), it’s also something of an unsuccessful mish-mash between Marc Webb’s emotional vision and Hollywood’s formula of superhero films. And you can tell that Webb has no interest in the Connor storyline. He makes no effort to delve into Connor’s descent into madness, which makes his last moments on screen all the more out-of-left-field.
In the movie you can see where Webb really wanted to go. Peter using his guilt not for vengeance but for good (which does happen, but it feels like it just came too early), the subplot between Peter and Captain Stacy, even Aunt May figuring out his secret identity. Connor’s Lizard scene comes far too early and breaks the rhythm that Webb was building up for most of the film.
If I were to do it, I’d keep everything prior to Connor’s first transformation the same. Afterwards, everything should be reinforcing the classic line “With great power comes great responsibility”. Peter does not embody it – he is too full of wrath. Connor has access to the power, but in the end is coerced by the end of his dream and Osborn’s influence to use the serum, which is the action-packed finale. No bio-weapon – we don’t need the artificial saving the whole city. Because it doesn’t need to be. Spider-man is always about Peter’s guilt, and the Lizard being the result of Peter’s meddling is enough. It should be tragic in the truly dramatic sense. Which is where Cpt. Stacy comes in. He embodies Peter’s values, as someone given great power who uses it responsibly, but he and Peter are at odds, for one is a policeman and the other is a vigilante. A game of cat and mouse, where the police try to set traps for Peter while he hunts for his uncle’s killer. There grows an admiration for one another, which is bolstered by Peter seeing him both as Spider-man and the boy dating his daughter. His death echoes Uncle Ben’s earlier, and sets up the Gwen/Peter estrangement.
That got away from me. Anyway, hopefully Marc Webb gets another shot at this, and with the success of this film gets a bit more control; I have a feeling the sequel could be superior in every way.
I hated the obligatory New-Yorkers-helping-Spiderman scene. It was a terrible idea in the first Raimi movie to replace the World Trade scene with one of people throwing garbage at Green Goblin, and I was really hoping that it wouldn’t be copied in this reboot.