Lately, we've been inundated with trailers for The Amazing Spiderman 2. People are even joking about the wacky plethora we're getting. "Gosh, why don't you guys just show the whole movie?" "What's left to share?" "Is it just me, or is there a whole new subplot introduced in each one?" "How could this be effective marketing?"
Well, I can at least answer the last one. See, up until this year I never even saw The Amazing Spiderman. I think I rebelled on grounds of too-soon-reboot. I took a few of the "too serious" reviews to heart. I thought, "Eh...I can let this one go."
These trailers offered me a glimpse of what I had missed by letting that go, namely in the oodles of charisma that Andrew Garfield brings to the table (not to mention grounded acting skill), and the wild chemistry between him and the already-known-to-be-wonderful Emma Stone. So I finally gave it a shot.
Watching The Amazing Spiderman for the first time now must be different than a couple years ago, because we're in a whole new world for the superhero movie. It's a post-Avengers world, now all about world-building and serialization. A world of PLANNING and BUILDING. So a lot of the stuff that bothered people when it first came out, i.e. the Richard Parker/Oscorp thing and the fatalist aspect of Peter becoming Spiderman, that stuff didn't really bug me. I've been conditioned for it.
What was left, then, was a very well-told character story in the modern superhero milieu. By taking the plot more seriously, it allowed the more fleshed-out characters to be LESS serious, and more quippy. You can afford to write Peter/Spiderman as more of a smartass, or allow Peter and Gwen to have wittier banter, because you're not relying on them completely to provide the "heart" of the whole thing. There is heart, but it doesn't have to be so on-the-nose.
Uncle Ben is a great example. Martin Sheen is one of our great living American actors, and there's a realism in his portrayal that is very endearing. He and Aunt May joke, too. His famous speech to Peter about responsibility feels more organic to the plot than the same thing in Raimi's movie. Sure, Sam Raimi may have honored the mythology and the characters as popped from the page more, but here, they live and breathe more, and I liked it a whole lot.
Paramount to the success of the thing, though, is Garfield. If there's one reason to recommend finally catching this movie, it's the facile, sharp, and truly rich work done by him. You won't catch him mugging, but you will catch Peter bumbling. The style may be more realistic, but Garfield makes Peter a VERY quirky kid, and I loved that.
It's not often I feel compelled to review a years-old movie, but hey, I'm catching up. If you feel inclined to do the same, The Amazing Spiderman is worth at least a rental.
Bring on the next AS 2 trailer!
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