The Amazing Spider-Man (SPOILERS BEWARE!)

[Plane Sailing]

I could not empathize with the actor who portrayed the Lizard. In contrast, the actor who played Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 (2004) carried the entire movie.

Completely agree here.

I had hoped the Spiderman 3 would have been a Lizard movie, since they had already put Chekov's gun on the mantlepiece there... I always liked the original comic book Lizard who was strong and tough but Spidey knew that it was his friend Dr Connor which made it harder for him to fight him. It would have had much more meaning and built better on the previous films than bringing in sandman, green goblin 2 and (ugh) venom. Secret Wars has so much to answer for!

I agree that Alfred Molina was a superb villain as Dr Octopus. Spider Man 2 is still my favourite of all of them, because of him.

My only real complaint about this Spiderman though - what has happened to his spider-sense? Gone on holiday?

 

[Janx]

Here is one of the reason why they decided to go with a 'reboot'


Marvel exec Avi Arad explains why they nixed Raimi's Spider-Man 4

From a writing standpoint, the new movie could have been done in a non-contradictory way with the original 3 movies. Peter Parker goes back to college. Meets Dr. Connors in biology class. Meets Gwen Stacy because he and MJ broke up, or MJ still exists.

The problem from the article is the use of the words Sam Raimi and Toby Maguire as a dependency for the project. A 4th movie didn't need those two, and a good writer can make it work.



I saw the movie yesterday. I was hesitant to go see it, given its reboot nature and what I felt was a lack of respect to the other 3 movies (even if the 3rd had problems, a reboot is rather insulting to the original). then I heard NPR's review. It was postive.

So we saw it. And I liked it.

 

[Richards]

I saw it yesterday, and let me echo all of the kudos on the casting, especially on the part of Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

However, I was disappointed in the plot, as it was basically rehashed from the original X-Men movie. (Magneto: "I'll turn all of New York City's populace into mutants! Then they'll have to accept us!" Lizard: "I'll turn all of New York City's populace into humanoid lizards! Then they'll, uh, be glad that they're lizards, or something....") Also, since when does turning into the Lizard make Dr. Curt Connors stronger, faster...and smarter? The stronger and faster are a given, but I fail to see how a human being being injected with lizard DNA is suddenly going to become even smarter than a top-level scientist. And that's not just me reading into what I saw, that was actually spelled out in the movie in a scene in Connors' makeshift sewer lab, when the computer simulation was showing the transformation from human into humanoid lizard.

And that, really, is what made me dislike this movie as much as I did. It seems like at every turn they felt the need to make a change from what has been shown before (either in the comics or in the previous movies), just to be different. I HATE the "change purely for the sake of change" mentality.

And finally, any Spider-Man origin that does not include the simple 6-word phrase "with great power comes great responsibility" has utterly failed at its task. Those six words right there are the whole core of the Spider-Man story.

Johnathan

 

[Janx]

Also, since when does turning into the Lizard make Dr. Curt Connors stronger, faster...and smarter? The stronger and faster are a given, but I fail to see how a human being being injected with lizard DNA is suddenly going to become even smarter than a top-level scientist. And that's not just me reading into what I saw, that was actually spelled out in the movie in a scene in Connors' makeshift sewer lab, when the computer simulation was showing the transformation from human into humanoid lizard.

um, because the writers said so? It's science fiction. If a boy gets bit by a spider, he gets sick or dies normally. Instead, this one gets super powers. Because the writer said so.

And we're not talking about injecting a human and getting him to be smarter than a top level scientist. We're talking about injecting a top-level scientist and getting him to be smarter than a top level scientist.

And to wind it all up, the Lizard THINKS he is smarter than he was. That does not mean he actually is. the world is chock full of people who think they are smarter than everybody else, but they usually aren't. There's even a psychological phenemenon about that.

 

[Mark CMG]

um, because the writers said so?

Doesn't work that way, quite. The level of explanation has to match up with the tone and style of the story, science fiction or otherwise.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Evil is always smarter because they don't care about the outcome, no judgement calls, no mental compass saying this is wrong, no oops.

 

[Oryan77]

Evil is always smarter because they don't care about the outcome, no judgement calls, no mental compass saying this is wrong, no oops.

"....evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."

-Dark Helmet

 

[Fiery James]

I liked everyone in the movie and thought they all did a great job, but felt that it was pretty much unnecessary with the decent Spider-Man less than a decade old. But, I think that may be the result of Sony being nervous about straying too far from tradition and what worked before and not letting the film-makers tell the story that they actually wanted (and made).

When the Sony execs first screened the film, word is they did not react well, and the movie went through a massive re-cut. You can see scenese and sequences in the trailer that did not make it into the movie or appeared in a different fashion.

It's pretty clear from early word and stuff we saw that Peter Parker's parents were involved in the mutant spider project, and that Peter Parker himself was the key to making the animal/human hybrids work. Doctor Connors said that no hybrid had ever survived, but Peter did without any explanation (and it's clear that's because his dad was the one who developed the spider - would have been interesting if we found out that he used Peter's DNA or something in its creation and that's why it was compatible...)

There was more to the story about Ratha presurring Curt Connors into testing his experiment on humans. I've seen pictures from a final confrontation between them in the Lizard's sewer lair that wasn't in the movie. Ratha just sort of disappeared (waiting for sequels?) after the bridge scene.

And what was with all of the lizards running into the sewer anyway? They could have explained that with some throw-away line, but instead it just was...

And the SWAT lizards? Awesome of him to gas them and turn them all into dangerous creatures, but were they? We don't know, the next time we heard about them, they were all recovered. He pretty much could have just used knock-out gas for the same effect...

From the trailer, there was clearly more to the Peter Parker origin story, implying that he was more than accidentally changed into Spider-Man, that his parents were somehow responsible or involved, and that he was a special case. Would be interesting to see a director's cut some day. Maybe the Sony guys were right and it didn't work, but i was certainly open to seeing something different and a different take on the character.