spoiler warning
The Amazing Spider-man
came out almost 2 weeks ago, on a Tuesday, which is a little weird but okay.
And ever since watching it I feel like I’ve soaked up every online critique,
review and podcast. You see, there is something about this film that fascinates
me.
I think the biggest
problem this film has is its close proximity, time wise, to the Sam Raimi
films. When the first one came out I was 14 and I was blown away. It was
probably my first taste of a superhero movie and it was my first crush.
Probably the weirdest crush ever but I digress…
Essentially what I’m
saying is that this film never really had a chance when compared to my first
film love. It’s probably why I didn’t get too hyped up by its release, despite
the ever-improving trailers. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it. I don’t ever
remember feeling bored or annoyed or anything whilst watching it and I had more
than a few laughs. But since leaving that theatre, I haven’t been able to get
it out of my head.
Now is the part where
I explain the title. You might want to read my previous article, “The game
change of The Avengers” where I rejoiced in Maria Hill’s presence for the
Avengers (purely so she was ready and waiting for the sequels). The makers of
The Amazing Spider-man tried to do the same thing. Months before the film’s
completion the writers and producers explained how essentially they could slow
down the story because they had the luxury of knowing they’d be making more.
That might sound kind
of cocky but they weren’t wrong. The name of Spider-man alone is enough to keep
bringing people back and after the first film’s release they know they can make
at least two more.
Unfortunately I think
this led to them mishandling the story a little. In an interview with Avi Arad
and Matt Tolmach by Empire they seemed to hint that the reason Peter Parker
doesn’t find Uncle Ben’s killer is because it is a storyline that will be
picked up again in the future.
And even stranger
still, in a film that was advertised as telling you the “secrets behind
Spider-man” you don’t really learn that
much about his parents. In fact the post credit sequence pretty much tells you
that there is waaay more to learn on the subject.
Perhaps when the
trilogy is complete we will look back at this film and say “ah it all makes
sense now” but the issue is that a film shouldn’t do that. By all means weave a
long running story but a single film has to stand up on its own as well and I’m
not sure it does.
There was certainly a
lot to enjoy about The Amazing Spider-man. The casting is perfect, I just loved
Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. And after reading a lot more of the comics I
did feel that this was a Spider-man much closer to how he should have been.
Unfortunately the
unfinished nature of the story and a few other flaws here and there did stop
this from being a film I could get really enthusiastic about. Don’t let this
put you off too much. As I said there’s still much to enjoy about The Amazing
Spider-man.
Extra Note: After writing the above article I made some discoveries. According
to a couple of online sources, the reason why some story elements and
characters are dropped without another word are down to re-edits and last
minute changes.
Apparently there
should have been a whole scene where Ratha confronts the Lizard and Spider-man
shows up. From the sounds of things it seems as if we should have learnt more
about Peter Parker’s parents but something changed. Perhaps the director and
producers decided half way through to move certain elements to the sequel.
And so any scenes that
included the parent storyline had to either be re-cut or dropped all together.
I think this is why, story wise, the film does come across as a bit lacking in
closure.
No comments:
Post a Comment