The newest movie in the newest re-imagination of the Spiderman franchise hit theaters last Friday, and the reviews are quite stupendously mixed. I had a chance to see it with my family this weekend, and I’m happy to add my couple of cents, and hopefully help folks to decide whether to spend the money to take their families as well. Here goes:
1. Will I like it? If you just generally enjoy big superhero action flicks, then you should have a good time. However, if your opinions tend to be a bit more complex, then ask yourself: Do you care about the comic book backstory for Peter Parker? If you answered yes, then you may have a problem with this movie.
2. Will my kids like it? Probably. Kids have a lot less baggage than we do, and this *is* a fun Spidey movie.
3. How’s Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker? I think he’s pretty spot-on. He brings the right balance of irreverence, nerdiness, and unadulterated joy at what he gets to do. Plus he has the chops to share scenes with Sally Fields as Aunt May, so he keeps the film working even when the plot isn’t running on all cylinders.
4. How are the bad guys? Jamie Foxx has fun playing the prime baddie, turning from downtrodden nerd to Electro due to one of those sad-yet-common industrial accidents that seem to happen so often. Dane DeHaan also makes Harry Osborne sympathetic early on. Paul Giamatti has a small roll as the criminal who becomes Rhino, but this is no Paul Giamatti we’ve ever seen before, so it’s worth watching just for that.
5. And the effects/action? They are good. They GoPro-like Spidey-eye views swinging around the city are very well done, and nothing looks too-CGI.
6. You said something ominous about the plot earlier… Yeah, well, here’s where things break down a bit. Some things are just so contrived that they start really straining plausibility. Jamie Foxx’s character is so badly treated at OsCorp that he could have filed a lawsuit. Plus the safety precautions around a highly dangerous lab were laughable. It would have been more plausible if they’d been setting him up to become Electro. Also, later on there’s a point where people are randomly put into grave danger just to put a timetable to Spidey having to fix something, and then it turns out that Gwen Stacy just HAPPENS to have read the specs for the super-machine they need to re-set, so she HAS to come with him. Of course, when she gets into the control room, there’s a big red button that says “Re-Set.” Dumb, dumb, dumb.
7. When can we take a pee break? Being an action film, it certainly keeps the excitement up, but you could probably sneak out when Peter goes hunting down in the abandoned subway station.
Bottom line it for us. TAS2 is reasonably fun, and kids and any adult who doesn’t get too hung up on Spidey’s classic backstory or, well, plot, should enjoy it. But if silly plot contrivances pull you out of suspending your disbelief, you might want to save this one for an MST3K night with your friends/family.
Okay, because I just HAVE to talk about the things I thought were wrong with this movie, I’m going to start a SPOILER-FILLED conversation here. Don’t read any further if you don’t want to have the movie spoiled!
Some things I had a problem with in this film:
The safety procedures in the lab where Jamie Foxx’s character Max gets turned into Electro were so lax, OSHA would have had a field day. Seriously, a corporation as big and professional as OsCorp MUST have a huge safety department, QA/QC procedures, and risk management teams to help avoid just these issues. And honestly, for a nerdy genius like Max, his very risky behavior in trying to fix the problem with the conduit was highly out of place.
Also, Max could easily have filed a workplace grievance to HR over how his boss treated him.
Peter’s parents’ secret lab was awefully clean and fresh for having been left fallow for well over a decade.
The whole issue of magnitizing the web-shooters to protect them from Electro’s blasts? I don’t think the physics works quite like that, especially when there’s that much voltage being thrown around.
Gwen, who is a specialist in genetics (I believe), just happened to have studied the specs for the power station, so she knew how to re-boot the system, and had to come along for the final battle. But then, when they get to the control center, there’s just a big red button that says “Emergency Re-set.” So, really, she didn’t have to be there at all.
Oh, and they only have 4 minutes because there are two jetliners on an exact collision course when the FAA systems go dark with the power outage. Funny, I thought all critical infrastructure, like ATC systems and maybe hospitals (like where Aunt May was during the blackout) have back-up diesel generators for just these situations.
Okay, those are just off the top of my head. What else do you all remember?
Yeah, the Petri dishes in Richard’s lab looking all perfect after 15 years was a little nuts, even for me who chooses to leave all semblance of common sense out the door for these movies.
One more thing that was wrong with this movie, Peter Parker. Andrew Garfield (and Mark Webb and the writers) make a mess of Peter Parker, although they get a few things of Spider Man in costume surprisingly right. With (SPOILER ALERT) Emma Stone out of the franchise, anything that could be considered an appealing character or decent acting has left these movies. Not sure that gives me much encouragement to see the next one.
Yeah, I thought how they handled Spidey worked well. His quippiness and banter were fine, and very in-character. Other stuff, not so much.