Spidey's Webb

This is it, the first of 2012's Great Triumvirate: "The Amazing Spider-Man", "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Hobbit". OK, I've been corrected, I should say the second of this year's Great... um... Quadrumvirate? Anyway, No.1 was "The Avengers" which did reach all hopes. Not expectations, it exceeded those, but hopes! Anyway, back to the actual topic here, "The Amazing Spider-Man"!

First of all though, what kind of a film comes out on a Tuesday? Who goes to the cinema on a Tuesday? I know Wednesday has it's films, but let's be honest, it's all about Friday. There was a time, not more than a month ago, when I wouldn't have cared about the release date as I didn't have a job and I could go to the cinema whatever day I wanted, ensuring I could see all the important films the day they were released! Alas, not any more! But, again, back to the point, I saw TAS today, something I've been excited about for so long! I'm sure I first heard of this film about two years ago when I discovered that some guy called Mark Webb had cast the nerdy, English, relatively unknown Andrew Garfield as my favourite super hero of all time! Did it reach expectations as "Avengers Assemble" did? I'm not so sure, but it definitely entertained and it definitely did not disappoint!

Starting with the cast, because we all know I LOVE Emma Stone and am hugely fond of Andrew Garfield, this film has done very well, it cannot be denied. Garfield, though approaching 30, is a brilliant choice to play the awkward but intelligent and emotionally complex teenage Spider-Man, or Peter Parker to his friends. One of Spider-Man's strengths as a comic is the character depth and interesting backgrounds of its leads, especially the eponymous hero. In this film especially there is a focus on the absence of Peter's parents and their strange disappearance, leaving him to live with Aunt May and Uncle Ben, two of the Spider-Man universe's most well-known characters. Garfield has to balance some strong emotions and life changes in this film: the loss of his parents; the discovery of a possible clue to why they disappeared ten years after it happened; the fresh loss of another loved one; first love; and to top all this off, intense physical transformations and, as we all know, the great responsibility that comes with great power. This isn't as easy a role to play as one might expect from a super hero franchise. Spider-Man has emotional depth perhaps only matched in comics by DC's Batman. Andrew Garfield has proved time and again that he is a diverse and powerful actor and this performance did not not slip from that. He also has a great charisma and likeabiltiy which I believe is key to Peter Parker and the script has tried hard to stay true to Spider-Man's wise-cracking, humorous side as he arrests car thief after car thief, all delivered very naturally by Garfield.

Emma Stone can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned, though it must be acknowledge that this part is not the most challenging of her career. She's sweet and witty and completely believable as a girl in her late teens despite again being 5 or 6 years older than her character. The chemistry between Stone and Garfield is obvious, probably helped by their real-life relationship (that lucky bastard!). Ifans is another actor who never fails to deliver a stand-out performance. Though I don't believe Curt Connors proved as interesting a villain as the Green Goblin in 2002's "Spider-Man" or Doctor Octopus in 2004's "Spider-Man 2", as a character he is made very three dimensional. An old colleague of Peter's father, Richard Parker, he is a scientist at Oscorp (run by Norman Osbourne, the Green Goblin himself, though not yet in this instalment) who dreams of a human race without weakness and strives to find the cures for human diseases in animal genes. His own personal tragedy, the loss of an arm, is the main force that drives him, and like many of Spider-Man's enemies, he is a well-meaning, gentle man, driven to madness and villainy by horrific events in his life and a lab experiment gone very wrong. When will they learn? After Spidey, these experiments never go right! Ifans masters both the sweet but troubled Curt Connors and the cruel and ambitious Lizard. He is not just a Hollywood actor, he is a real actor with great range and a strong presence and this film is no exception to that. Also, I love Sally Field as Aunt May! She is the perfect mother figure and a genuinely good actress.


The visuals and the graphics are also to be praised. Spider-Man's new outfit is very cool. I've always loved his spandex suit, it's complex and well designed, it looks bad ass despite the fact that he's covered himself in blue and red skin-tight fabric, and it's just practical! Plus his entire face is covered, unlike say Super-Man or the Green Lantern, so we do not have to suspend belief when a family member doesn't recognise him. Where costumes are concerned, I actually believe Webb's film beats Raimi's. Maguire's outfit was very cool, but this new version is darker and looks more like its designed for battle. The Lizard is a formidable looking foe and Ifans' face has been well incorporated into it's lizardy facade. As with the first films, your breath catches in your throat and shivers run down your spine in the scenes where Spidey swings through the great heights of New York City, though I find these scenes too few and far between.

As to plot, I love the detail of the back story which this film provides. Adding the intrigue into Peter's parents is the main aspect which sets this apart from Raimi's films. Luckily this film got its villain right, unlike "Spider-Man 3", whose main flaw is its attempt to fit three complex villains into one plot: Sandman, Green Goblin 2, and Venom. The Lizard is a very interesting character in this film. I believe he is generally one of the stronger Spidey villains, and he has been allocated a strong back story as Spider-Man has. I never understood Raimi's choice of the Sandman in SM3, I've always found him a dull baddy. Furthermore, at no point does this film slow down or bore because it fits so much plot in.  There's a blooming romance; the mystery surrounding Peter's parents; the contentious relationship between Peter and his surrogate parents, May and Ben; the foreboding and invisible presence of Norman Osbourne; all on top of the Spider-Man origin story and then the ongoing battle between Spider-Man and the Lizard. 

That said, I did not enjoy it as much as, or believe it was as good a film as, "Spider-Man" or SM2. Let's pretend 3 didn't happen, shall we? The main reason I love the character of Spider-Man is because I believe he has the best powers and, with good special effects, watching Spidey swing through Manhatten, climb vertical structures, shoot web and just generally do some bad ass gymnastics is all breath-taking and I think this film's main flaw is that, although these were all done brilliantly and the fight with the Lizard in the high school is amazing and thrilling to watch, there isn't enough time dedicated to fights and to Spidey, especially with all the focus on the Peter half of him. This was a great film, just not as great as its forerunners.

Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, would rate it AT LEAST 8/10 and will be incredibly disappointed if a sequel isn't announced soon. Garfield deserves to be a massive star and this franchise has fantastic potential to keep getting better. If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you wait when the credits start for an extra scene a few minutes in. Gosh, I do love Marvel so!

2012

Do you like the title? Eh, eh? It's still a film title, aren't I clever? Anyway, this blog shall be about the films I am most looking forward to in 2012 - I also have an appropriately matching poll on my blog at the moment, but that won't be there forever, whereas this post will!

Anyway, the line-up for 2012's blockbusters is insane! It's like Hollywood tapped inside my brain, fished out all my favourite things - Superheroes? check!, specifically Spider-Man and Batman? check! Christopher Nolan? check! The Lord of the Rings? sort of check! Chris Hemsworth? check, check! - and threw them left right and center at different production companies and directors until the following glorious ensemble of movies was created!

1. Avengers Assemble

   It's already out, but boy haven't we been waiting long for this one? It's only May but I can already say with relative confidence that this will be in 2012's top 10, as will the following films on this list I hope.
   I went to see this for a second time in 3D on Friday and I do actually believe that in some places it is an improvement.The vortex opened by the Tesseract is pretty cool in 3D, as is much of the final battle scene on the streets of New York. I also had the pleasure of seeing adverts for not one but two more films from this list: "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "Prometheus", as well as the trailer for "Dark Shadows", which also has strong potential to be a brilliant blockbuster!

2. The Amazing Spider-Man

    I loved Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man franchise with Toby Maguire and I believe the shots and special effects showing the web-slinger swing his way through Manhattan are still some of the coolest and most thrilling scenes in ay super-hero movie. That said, I have been pulled in by the allure of Marc Webb's (appropriate name right?) revamp, starring the incredibly talented and charismatic Andrew Garfield and the beautiful and hilarious Emma Stone. I love the dark twist, though that may be very unoriginal of me, but I'm hoping that this Spider-Man will be to Raimi's what Nolan's Batman was to Burton's: dare I say it? Gritty and dark!

3. The Dark Knight Rises

   Anyone out there who didn't love "The Dark Knight" is probably not the sort of person who's going to read my thoughts on films and any super-hero fan worth their salt is by now getting rather desperate to see this latest installment in Nolan's Batman series. 
  However, the build up to this film began so long ago and expectations have been so high that it's getting to the point where people are asking if it can really ever live up to all the hype. I say, if anyone can achieve such a film, it's Christopher Nolan.
   Batman is one of my favourite super-heroes (second to Spider-Man funnily enough). He faces perhaps the best villains of any hero franchises and holds one of the best back-stories (up there with Spider-Man again). There is a rich abundance of Batman history and characters that should mean that Nolan can't have run out of steam and won't be reproducing a Batman film we've seen before. He's brought us multiple new characters and faces: Bane, who is a completely different breed of villain to characters such as Ra's Al Ghul ("Batman Begins") or the Joker or Two-Face ("The Dark Knight"). Added to this we have Hathaway's Catwoman (or Selina Kyle), who should mix things up a bit with her ambivalent alliances and other additions such as Gordon-Levitt's policeman John Blake and Cotillard's Miranda Tate, of whom little is still known. This could be the best film of the year (bar "the Hobbit" perhaps) if Nolan achieves its potential.

4. The Hobbit

   Since I was 11, "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy has remained on the top of my film list. Until I die, no matter what technological advancements the movie industry sees, even if they manage to resurrect Heath Ledger and he and Chris Hemsworth do a buddy cop movie, LOTR will always be a perfect film in my eyes.
   It has what is probably the best story ever told at its center, some of the best set pieces of any film ever and an ensemble cast that cannot be beaten, even by "Avengers Assemble".
   Now, almost 10 years after "The Return of the King" left our screens, we are being presented with an additional not one but TWO movies to savour and love. And what makes this that bit more perfect is that "the Hobbit" ended up being directed by the man who brought us the originals. Is there any way this film could be anything but awesome? I'd be amazed if Peter Jackson managed that.

5. Prometheus

   The "Alien" saga is  a classic, we all know this, and there could be an argument for it holding some of the greatest horror films and thrillers of all time.The alien itself I would class as being the best, most original and most stylistically perfect movie monster ever. There are so many levels to it: The monster itself, the eggs, the face-huggers, the different forms the alien can take, the acid blood, etc. It's so well thought through. And many argue that Ridley Scott's entry, the first film in the saga, remains the most frightening. It creates suspense and oozes horror better than any other film I've seen.
   This new installment is still a bit mysterious to us as it would appear that Earth's heroes face a different foe, but one that we all presume must hold some link to the eponymous alien creature. And I believe that is this film's greatest asset at the moment. It is perhaps the film that has gauged my curiosity more than any other this year. Even after the new trailer, with lengthier clips and more dialogue, we still have no idea really what's going on and I really, really want to know!
P.s. What a cast ay? Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba and Rafe frikkin' Spall!

6. Snow White and the Huntsman

   I guess this year everyone's noticed the oddity that is two Snow White films turning up at once. There have of course been other adaptations since the classic Disney version in 1937, like "Snow White: A Tale of Terror" in 1997 or that random TV version with Lana from "Smallville". But these few and scattered attempts have spanned over seventy years and now we have two such films coming out within a few months of each other!
   "Snow White and the Huntsman" has seemed to me destined to be the greater film (as opposed to "Mirror Mirror") from the word go. Once again, the director has chosen the dark, sinister path that has made some of this decades most popular franchises. There is a far greater focus here on battles and good versus evil, on the sadistic nature of the queen and the struggle of Snow White to become an empowered young woman than on the traditional fairy tale romance of "boy saves weak girl in need". There is a prince but from what I can tell he forms a very small part of the story. The seven dwarfs, sorry, make that eight here, also seem to play a relatively small role. In fact, one could argue that this film barely represents the traditional children's story we're all so familiar with. Then again, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
   We all enjoy a fresh new take on a well-known tale. Christopher Nolan's Batman did so well because it was an incredibly modernised interpretation of a character who has seen many portrayals in film, TV and literature. If this Snow White is to really capture our attention and stick in our memories, it has to be something new. Also, I'm very happy with the focus on the Huntsman as he is played by Thor (OK, Chris Hemsworth, but here he's clearly just being a dark-haired Thor) and carries far more appeal than Sam Claflin's (bleh) Prince. I'm also hoping that there will be less focus on this "fairer than them all" business, as I don't think that I could sit through two hours of people telling me that not only is Kristen Stewart hotter than Charlize Theron (mmhmmm....), but that she is fairer than them all!

In summary, 2012 is gonna be off the hook!!!