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The amazing Amazing Spider-Man
Ahhhh the Amazing Spiderman is, in fact, amazing
It's so smart
The plot is tight
I love Garfield's Parker
Gwen Stacy is wonderful
It made me cry 3, maybe 4 times
It's unspeakably better than the previous trilogy
The only thing I didn't completely love was that I felt like Curt Connors was underdeveloped, but he clearly does have something going on that they just didn't go into [yet], and it wasn't the only plot thread that might see resolution in the future.
Speaking of the future, I am fully prepared to love a collaboration between Disney and Columbia wherein Garfield's Peter Parker joins up with the Avengers for something or other.
(But I don't want any Superfamily shit where he's Steve and Tony's adopted son. Thanks, but no thanks, weird internet trend.)
It's so smart
The plot is tight
I love Garfield's Parker
Gwen Stacy is wonderful
It made me cry 3, maybe 4 times
It's unspeakably better than the previous trilogy
The only thing I didn't completely love was that I felt like Curt Connors was underdeveloped, but he clearly does have something going on that they just didn't go into [yet], and it wasn't the only plot thread that might see resolution in the future.
Speaking of the future, I am fully prepared to love a collaboration between Disney and Columbia wherein Garfield's Peter Parker joins up with the Avengers for something or other.
(But I don't want any Superfamily shit where he's Steve and Tony's adopted son. Thanks, but no thanks, weird internet trend.)
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I'm glad to hear this one is better than the previous trilogy, though! Spiderman's not one of the comics I used to read, so the other movies and the 'deal with the devil erasing his marriage' thing weren't giving me the best impression of the character.
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The marriage erasure thing is -- gross. But it's one of those comics things that happens with changing writers over many years, where you get a new guy, who thinks that 1) comic heroes can't ever be settled down or committed because then the 14-year-old-boys who are OBVIOUSLY the only audience of comics will lose interest in them, or that 2) noooo I ship something differennnnt I'm undoing the previous writer's plot. (I've seen some of this with Jane Foster vs Sif in my perusal of Thor canon.) I read that some of the Spiderman writers hated the Mary Jane romance, so... It seems like it's been a divisive character history.
But I have no qualms about saying this movie was really well-done. The writing is smart, which is so key for me: a lot of times movies want you to think they're smart, but they're not written by smart people, so you just come away going "...Really? You want me to believe that when this character can't make the obvious connections between X and Y?"
Peter and Gwen are both very intelligent, and you're not only told that, but you can see that in their actions and responses to things. She's resourceful and brave and not a damsel. His dilemma is way more real, way less wangsty, and his development is very strong: going from self-centered brat to personally-driven vigilante to genuine heroic character intending to fix the mess that he created in his self-centered brattiness. The characters had real chemistry, which Dunst never had with either of the males she was supposed to be caught between. I'm very happy with it. ♥
/spills words on
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That right there is honestly enough to make me want to watch this new movie. It's silly of me to say it, but I hated the... awkward? romance between the three of them in the last trilogy. It didn't feel real. When Peter recited that stalkerish poem to Mary Jane, it made me go, "Really?"
I wanted to like MJ, but I came out of those movies wanting to go, "Why does he even like her? Why does she like him?"
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As
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As you said in the comment below, I really liked Peter's development, how he owns up to the mess he created and feels so strongly compelled to fix it. I also thought it was quite poignant that he didn't catch Uncle Ben's killer (I forget if he did or not in the Tobey trilogy) - part of which was because he was doing what he did based on a vendetta and not because he wanted to help people.
I really liked what they did with Chief Stacy's character. It would have been so very easy to just make him into the Man trying to stop Spiderman from being awesome, when instead he was an intelligent man who honestly cared about protecting people. I also liked that he actually took Peter's seemingly crazy advice and had his officers check up on Dr Connors - that was the kind of scene that would have ended with a, "CRAZY KID I DON'T LIKE HIM I AM CROTCHETY" note but it didn't.
I also liked how earnest Peter was - he kept fucking up but he was really, honestly trying to do the right thing. He was just confused as to what the right thing would be - confused by very believable grief and angst, I thought. I felt like Garfield navigated all the reactions - not being able to control his powers and acting pretty frightened and paranoid, using his new powers to be an asshole since he's been picked on a lot, etc - in a way that was really natural and very, very teenage. Speaking of teenage, THEY WERE SO AWKWARD I LOVED THEIR AWKWARD FLIRTING. When Gwen does that little twirl fjdlsafdsa it was just the kind of awkward stuff teens are doing.
I adored Gwen, but there were some moments to me where I didn't like how Peter talked to her. Telling her to shut up when he kissed her, and not listening to her saying no when he had the gash marks in his chest, and then ordering her to leave Oscorp. Fortunately Gwen was intelligent enough to insist when she wanted to be heard and stay at Oscorp when she knew she had to get the antidote for everyone, but it still rubbed me the wrong way when he talked like that. I also like that she acknowledged her dad's wishes for Peter to stay away but seemed like she was going to make her own choice about dating him.
Overall I thought it was really great though! Definitely the perfect start to the Superhero Summer (this, then Batman, then Avengers eee).
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/spoilerssss
And then, yeah, Stacy started out seeming like this typical Dennis Leary character who is just mean for no reason, but under that he was very reasonable and Peter could work with him. Looooved it.
Peter felt like a dumb kid this time around. A smart, smart, smart dumb kid (I love when he made the web and set up the camera ahhh) but a dumb kid nonetheless. He did a lot of things without thinking, like giving Connors the formula just because he wanted to know more about what happened to him, and he and Gwen were so incompetent at liking each other, it was adorable.
I noticed that, but the only one that bothered me was when he had those scratches; that had me feeling a bit weird. The other two were a non-issue in my opinion, so it's only with all three that it seems like a pattern, but I think it's more one of familiarity and comfort than any genuine misogyny or sexism on either the writing or the character's part, especially since we know that Gwen was so awesome standing up for people and her own interests that I think she would have acted or mentioned it if she'd felt shut down.
BECAUSE SHE WAS SO AMAZING. Oh my baby when she was all "I'm going to make this damn antidote" and she set off the fire shut-down, and she stole the device and hid with it, and. sdlkfjsklg. I spent the whole second half of the movie going "AHHH NO GWEN DON'T DO IT YOU CAN'T DIE." Please don't kill Gwen, future movies. /lies desolately
When are your release dates for those??
Re: /spoilerssss
I also thought he had a good point when he said that the guy Spider-Man "took down" was part of a long-term string operation. You don't have that kind of information when you don't work WITH the police, and already he was on solid ground, but it's also the kind of thing that could sound like just an excuse to the audience.
The "profiling" bit he nailed Peter with was AMAZING. A+++. I want him to be in more movies even though he's dead.
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