The Amazing Spider-Man

As I'm sure you faithful readers are aware, I'm kind of a Spider-Man fan.

Yes.

YES.

YES!

YES!!!

FUCKING YES!

Anyway, unless you've been trapped in a psychopath's basement for the past month or so, you're probably aware of the new Spidey movie.

Now with 100% less Maguire!

Of course, being the fan that I am, I had to check it out. Despite my utter contempt for 95% of the shit Hollywood churns out, my fanboyishness won out.

So, saw it I did! And now I'm here to share my thoughts about it in comparison to the original movie trilogy, to the comics, and to my own opinions.

Let's webswing in!

Let's go right for the metaphorical jugular and talk about Spidey himself. First and foremost, I did NOT like Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker. In my experience, Peter was always moderately attractive, in a nerdy, awkward way. Maguire was a fugly, FUGLY guy. He never screamed "Peter Parker" whenever I was watching him in those films.

There's a reason this is a meme

Now, the new guy, Andrew Garfield...HE'S more toward what I imagined. Despite looking like Edward from Twilight (which, by the way, distracted me for a good five minutes when that connection was made in my head), he has an awkward attractiveness about him that seems right for ol' PP.

Performance-wise, both are about on part. I think Garfield was a bit better, and that's compared to Maguire's three movies to his one. I just really felt that Garfield gave a good "teenage Parker" vibe and I hope he can keep it up as the character grows.

Now, one of the more notable changes from the original trilogy of movies was the departure from using Mary Jane as the love interest and replacing her with the chronologically correct Gwen Stacy, portrayed in The Amazing Spider-Man by Emma Stone.

There is literally not a number in existence that quantifies how many people I'd kill to have this

This change in character and casting not only brings in a new face to the Spidey franchise, but also gives the audiences the strong female support character they've been wanting in their Spidey films! I'll be honest again and admit that I did NOT like Kirsten Dunst from the original films either. Not only did I not find her visually appropriate to play Mary Jane, but she also played the cliched, overused, and tired "damsel in distress" character.

Now, I know those of you that have seen the new movie will rebut with "But Gwen Stacy got in trouble all the time!". First of all, yes, duh. Second of all, not in the way that you think. In the school, she went back for Peter and friggin HIT THE LIZARD WITH A CHAIR. That's badass. At Oscorp, she was actually doing something useful for our hero and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And what does she do when the bad guy finds her? FUCKING TRIES SETTING HIM ON FIRE!

I'm serious. Gwen Stacy is the strongest love interest character I've seen EVER in a Spider-Man film.

Hmm...a few other differences between the films that I noted...

Well, Peter Parker in the new film is actually written as an intelligent individual. And in a balanced fashion too! He doesn't come across as unbelievably intelligent. On the contrary, many minor scenes are dedicated to showing him working and figuring things out. For example, the creation of his web shooters is shown through a series of scenes where he's analyzing and experimenting until he gets it right. THAT is how you properly portray an intelligent character...by showing them figuring things out as opposed to them just KNOWING something without much context.

You're supposed to believe I'm intelligent because the script says so. So there.

The secondary characters, however, were hit or miss for me. I didn't like Sally Field as Aunt May. It isn't that she doesn't do a good job, but rather she only did an "okay" job. That and she doesn't look the part. Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben, however, was pretty good. I felt that he portrayed Uncle Ben as an individual struggling to be the father figure to a son that a) has nothing in common with him as he's getting older and b) is going through some difficult changes in his adolescence. Very well done, in my opinion. Denis Leary does a good job, too...I was honestly expecting a much more outlandish performance (considering the actor and his previous works). However, if Rescue Me taught me one thing, it's that Leary can do subtle and serious when he needs to.

The writing seemed, for the most part, crisp and clean. The dialogue seemed believable. I only recall one unresolved plotline from the movie, and it was such a minor one that I'm willing to let it go.

I could go on and on about this movie, rambling for paragraphs upon pages, but I won't bore you any longer. My recommendation is that you go see the film and make your own decision. Personally, I feel that this was a very promising start to the rebooted franchise and I hope they keep it up with the sequels.

Then again...