Saw Spiderman. Very frustrated. These movies are made for Disney. The casting was terrible. The Gwen Stacy was an awful choice, for anyone who knew the comic from about 67 through to her famous death. It was a joke. That's twice that Sony has made a charade out of Parker's two leading ladies. Kirsten Dunst for Mary Jane was the worst of the two errors, but that isn't saying anything. Sally Field for Aunt May was ridiculous. Only the elder Sheen made very good sense for Uncle Ben. The actor who played Spiderman had potential, but the acting and dialogue was poor in so many places that it didn't matter. God was the acting and script was just terrible in places. Parker never met Stacy in high school. That was a college romance. And so the high school script made it look like one of those teen wolf movie romances (what's the name of that series?). It was just awful. And they have Stacy helping in a fight scene by hitting the lizard with a school trophy, which helps Spidey just in time. Given all the force the Lizard is shown in the scene, the assertability conditions become extremely poor. Like it was written by children, for children. And Parker's disclosure of his identity to Stacy, for the sake of teen love, at the beginning of the movie – before he even is a real commodity as a public persona – is quite ridiculous. They completely screw up Captain Stacy too. Even at the end of the movie, they reverse his final line. Instead of “Protect Gwenn,” you get him saying, “Keep her out of it.” Also, Jameson is not in it. The Flash Thompson actor was HORRENDOUS. It wasn't even “him” as far as people who know of the original comic book. Betty Brant is a no show.
Whoever wrote this script and cast these actors were clueless, looking for a stupid teen movie. Why this cannot be taken as a serious subject matter – like Lord of the Rings – I have no idea. It's always going to be a stupid carnival. You'd think the reason why is because it is Marvel. But the truth is, for this series, it's Sony. It's always been Sony. They have never known how to approach this subject matter.
Ironically, they did do a couple of good things with the story. The web shooters are very good. They shoot like bullets. The costume is also good. They way Ben Parker dies was good. The fact that the spider bite occurs in Oscorp Lab rather than in high school is also very good. But again, there was very little spider sense in the movie. You get the impression Parker just has really quick reflexes at times. Extremely disappointed.
Thursday, August 2, 2012 at 1:02AM