I was mildly interested in seeing this reboot of the Spiderman franchise - not wanting to get my hopes up too much - after loving the first Tobey McGuire foray (the second one a little less so and not liking part III much at all), I was curious to see how a new director would handle the story… would he build on the old familiar movie story, follow the comics closely, or take it in a whole other direction? Or would he do a bit of a mash up?
There were a few things I really enjoyed about this reboot: I loved the presence of a backstory about Peter’s parents, the action/web-slinging was excellently rendered, and the 3D, while lightly intrusive at times, seemed to enhance the dizzying effects of swinging through the streets of New York. Casting Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben was an interesting choice, but Sally Field as Aunt May… well. After getting over the shock that Aunt May wasn’t white-haired, I adored Field’s portrayal of Aunt May; sassy, strong, and certainly NOT the sweet little old slightly daft lady who was completely lost after the death of Uncle Ben. Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey was, as ever, everything I would have wanted to be when I was her age, pretty, fashionable, very smart, and extremely brave… I mean, really, would YOU go after a %^$*# monster with a high school trophy??? Hmm. Seems like a lot of smart women are showing up in movies these days. But I digress…
The biggest hole – and there were many – in this film was the lack of The Daily Bugle and Editor in Chief Jonah Jameson. To me, in the comics and in the previous movies, Jameson was the bridge between the audience and Spider-man, looking at this guy who just shows up suddenly and does all these weird things, like flying through the city going after blond muggers and messing up the cop’s sting operations. He was also a mirror on the ridiculous, allowing us to suspend our disbelief with incredibly biased and wrong headlines that make us all want to jump up and defend the guy who really just wants to be a hero, even if he is a bit of a show-off. Without that mirror-device, we are left to just follow Peter Parker, who seems to be in just about every single scene, ad infinitum… Sometimes too much of a good thing is just… too much.
The Creature was pretty creepy, but I didn’t get a full on baddie vibe from him, even when he was fully… who he turned into. Other than the scene on the bridge, he never really put anyone the audience cared about in peril. The fact that he wanted to “share” his discovery with the whole city, rather than use his new-found power to rule, watered down his menace. This is no isrespect to the actor, Rhys Ifans, who I like very much; it is the fault of the script. I have seen many a nuanced bad guy who is humanized, funny, even, and you even LIKE them a little, but they are STILL bad to the core and they Must Be Stopped At All Costs.
Without much humor to break up the story, without the Daily Bugle and the ever irascible Jameson, and without a bad guy who was REALLY REALLY bad (he truly wanted to HELP EVERYone, really he did!), the movie could not make it to the next level. I hope in the next movie (because of course there will be a next movie) uses a better script with a better story. Because without the story and the use of all of the disparate elements that make the it work, we in the audience are left trying frantically to fill in the blanks with what we already know about the character in between munches of popcorn.
And, personally, I don’t want to work that hard in a movie theater. I want to be swept up in a story that takes me somewhere.
Oh, and Stan Lee’s cameo… funnnnny! And, probably the most fun scene in the movie. Makes you want to buy a pair of those …!
This movie could have used more of those moments.
My rating: 6.5 out of 10.
Just Musing,
Susan
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