The Amazing Spider-Man

[Palatinus]

Going to go see the new Spider-Man movie on Thursday.  I'm pretty excited.  Has anyone seen this?

[mattkoz]

Yes, I enjoyed it. I think the Lizard was a mediocre villain, but the greater story line has more depth than the previous Spider-Man films.

[Palatinus]

I saw it today (for my birthday, yay!).  I thought the movie was terrific.  Now I can forget about that awful other person who pretended to play Spider-Man.  I have heard some complaints from people about the Lizard being a poor choice of villain, but I disagree.  I think he was an ideal villain for a first movie.  He was created using the same technology as Spider-Man, he has a personal connection to Peter, rather than being some evil guy doing evil for evil's sake he was driven insane by the effects of what changed him, as a creation of science he was able to bring out both Spider-Man's abilities as a fighter but also Peter's abilities as a scientist, he was big, green, and menacing, he set an excellent tone for what's to come, and finally, he was a dangerous challenge but ultimately not really a bad guy which means that the bar was set in such a way as to allow the next villain to be more threatening without having to go to ridiculous lengths.

I really liked everyone in the movie.  I thought they did a good job of picking actors who could really portray their characters rather than just getting people who are current Hollywood draws.  I think Martin Sheen was terrific and hilarious.  I thought Dennis Leary was a great Captain Stacey.  Emma Stone really owned Gwen Stacey which was terrific since Gwen has always been one of my favorite characters.  Even a character like Flash was not portrayed as some 2D plot device.  Andrew Garfield is now Spider-Man in my book.  Just like Kevin Conroy is Batman.  Or Mark Hamill is The Joker.  Rhys Ifans was good as Curt Conners.  His performance I think was the least tested as I've seen so many portrayals of the character I don't really have a set idea of how he should be.  Sally Field was a good Aunt May.  I usually find that way too much attention is paid to Aunt May's character, but I think she was appropriate in the background in this movie.  I hate in the Spider-Man comics how she is such a big deal all the time, always driving Peter to get part-time jobs, take crazy risks, make deals with the devil.

Aside from the casting, I really liked everything else about the movie.  The pacing was terrific.  I never felt like things were going too fast (very unusual for a super-hero origin story) and I never felt like it was dragging (even with a ton of plot and character development).  I like the variety of shots so that things like web-slinging didn't become redundant.  The battles were actually fairly short but each one was exciting.  The chemistry between Gwen and Peter was natural and believable.  The plot and development of the universe was well-done, remaining true to the source while making a comprehensive movie-verse that can be expanded upon endlessly.

This is, to date, my favorite Super-hero movie.