The Underwhelming Spider-Man?
I just got back from a showing and just don't know how I feel about it. I liked it and don't regret spending the money and left curious where they're going to take the story, but over all it felt sort of hallow. I can't quite explain it.
There was definately too much downtime with conversations drawn out with awkward pauses that felt unecessary, and far too much time spent showing Spidey swinging around just to show off the 3D. Also it seemed as though they were trying to tell a bigger story than they were showing us, but never actually telling that story.
And...
I kinda want to see this, but kinda don't, so I probably won't. :b
My GF and I saw it on Tuesday night. She liked it and I thought it was "okay". I liked Garfield make for a better "Peter" than Macquire but found the story in the first Raimi film to be better. The Lizard was an okay villain but it seemed as though he was just "there" and didn't really bring anything to the table. Dafoe's character saw MUCH more development. I think the biggest problem with the film is that the narrative either rambled or rehashed a great deal of material from the first film that was released just 10 years ago. Uncle Ben's death had a LOT less impact this time around-- both for the audience and the character and Aunt May really had ZERO presence. I did enjoy Martin Sheen, however.
The biggest problem with the film for me was the unnecessary need to rephrase "With great power comes great responsibility" into something akin to "when you have tremendous ability you have a morale obligation to put that ability to use for the greater good." (Or something like that.) Seriously-- doesn't roll off of the tongue and doesn't make for a good quote later on.
Raimi's film is much brighter and more hopeful. I really rooted for Spidey in that film. This time-- not so much.
The biggest problem with the film for me was the unnecessary need to rephrase "With great power comes great responsibility" into something akin to "when you have tremendous ability you have a morale obligation to put that ability to use for the greater good." (Or something like that.) Seriously-- doesn't roll off of the tongue and doesn't make for a good quote later on.
Yes! I was actually pretty baffled by that. And I totally agree with everything else you said. It goes to my feeling that it was hallow. Ben's death was incredibly weak, the Lizard was just sort of there which is fine but did nothing to really advance Peter's character. Plus a lot of things the Lizard did made no sense, mainly why go after Spider-Man instead of laying low and just unleashing his big plan out of the blue? And the more I think about it the more I realize just how much "swinging around the city" they wasted time on. I get the emotional impact they were trying to get at the end with the crane sequence, and it actually worked on me until it kept going on and on showing his entire journey.
EDIT - Is it just me or did it seem like Spider-Man was an over the top di@$ to that car thief?
You I agree with you in many points. I thought it caught the feel of a younge Spiderman, but was missing something.
Still I did love the movie. I wonder if the director was a Spidy fan?
Seeing the commercials appear to be made up of 50% deleted scenes, I would have much rather kept a few of those in instead of that superfluous mid-credit scene.
Grrr... The more I think about it the more sloppy I find the whole thing. The Peter/Gwen relationship was so incredibly rushed. Yes he's had a crush on her for a long time, but they're just getting to know each other and their first date is him meeting her family? And then kissing on the roof? The trailers, with Gwen explaining that Peter lives with his aunt and uncle, made it seem like she knew him a little better and was maybe inviting him over as a down on his luck, good kid she knew from school.
Not a bad movie, just sloppy and hallow. At least I didn't spend as much time mumbling about keeping his mask on as I thought I would be.