"There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."
- Oscar Levant
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
- Groucho Marx

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The Truly Amazing Spider-man


Alright, I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! 
Today, I saw my first 3-d movie. It was the Amazing Spider-Man. 
It did not the disappoint. 
There has been much controversy surrounding Spiderman and his movies. Personally, I think this new movie is better than the older ones.
There, I said it. I'll say it again.
This movie was better. Why? 
Because it was simply better. It was more faithful to the series, it didn't showcase this;
And let's face it, the Green Goblin is a third or second movie villain, not a first. 
And the acting was better. Uncle Ben was played by Martin Sheen (one of my favorite actors) and he did amazingly. 
And the best part? Never once mentioned "With great power comes great responsibility." 
What he said instead? "If you have the ability to do something to help others, you have the responsibility to." Don't seem very different, now do they? Well, they are quite different. 
I'm gonna stop here, cause otherwise I'll loose sight of what I'm actually writing about. 
Toby Maguire, while he did a fine job playing Peter Parker, just didn't cut it for me. regrettably, neither did Andrew Garfield. But he did do better. Aunt May was also done better, and so was Captain Stacey.
They also had New York accents. 
What made the movie for me was the time they spent on the death of Uncle Ben. I'm about to do a small spoiler section, so be warned.



<<<SPOILERS AHEAD>>>


 The death of Uncle Ben is literally the birth of Spider-man. No way around it. It's a powerful, powerful sequence of events. The old 2003 movies literally hopped right over that. 
This movie took the story in a completely new direction. the traditional story is that Spiderman acted as an underground wrestler, and then some other dude robbed the illegal wrestling outfit, and he let him get away. He comes home, Uncle Ben is dead, the police have found the robber/murderer, so Spidey goes out after him and accidently kills him. This internal anguish, plus the death of both uncle and the man responsible convinces him to become a hero. 
In this one, almost the same thing happens. Peter has only just been bitten by the radioactive spider that gives him his powers, and he's still getting familiar with them. While out late one night he drops by a convenience store and has a little argument with the clerk. The next guy in line takes money out of the register while the clerk has his back turned, and when he sees Peter has just witnessed him doing it, tosses him a bottle of milk. The thief runs out, and the clerk asks if Peter wills top him. He shrugs it off and continues walking, only to hear a gun go off. He walks up to the scene, and there's Uncle Ben,now dead, because he did what was in his power to do a good thing. 
After that, Peter goes looking for the murderer, and slowly develops his Spider-man costume, gear, and persona. He looks for the murderer but never finds him. It stays that way for the rest of the movie. 

  Granted, this is an incomplete summary, but I'm not writing the screenplay, now am I?

<<<SPOILERS DONE>>>


That entire sequence made the movie for me. The rest of the movie is beautifully done, and true to Marvel films, there is a cut scene at the end. There's also promise of a sequel.
I await it eagerly. 

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