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Saturday, April 20, 2024
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HOLLYWOOD THE AMAZING SPIDER MAN
EDITOR'S PICK
`The
Amazing Spider-Man` poorly executed reboot
Rating: **1/2
A desperate battle for survival. How else does one describe "The Amazing
Spider-Man", the reboot of a franchise that began hardly a decade back and
which, despite its best intentions has only regressed the original story?
The familiar story of Spiderman`s beginnings has undergone only cosmetic
changes. His father is shown to have been working for Oscorp before he
disappeared. His girlfriend is Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) who is his first love in
the comic books and not Mary Jane and her father is a cop.
Spiderman inadvertently creates the monster he later fights. And Peter
Parker/Spiderman (Andrew Garfield) lets both his girlfriend and her father know
his secret identity.
It is hence fun finding out why this film was made. Here are six probable
reasons:
1) Peter Parker in the original franchisee got married and it was time to send
him back to school. 2) If comic books can reboot from a "Spiderman" to
"The Amazing Spider-Man", why can`t a film. 3) To help the Titanic of
a sinking studio, stay afloat. 4) If kids can like "Transformers",
they will like anything that has special effects. 5) Girls hate lizards so every
time the lizard guy comes up, girls will jump on the lap of their boyfriends who
will create a word of mouth buzz. 6) The studio found a director, whose last
name was had some connection with spiders - Webb.
At its core level, one can describe this film as the template of the original
Spiderman mixed with few scattered elements taken from various films e.g.
introduction of the concerned father of the girlfriend like in
"Twilight" or have him make his own gadgets like "Batman".
There are too many problems with the film to narrate. Firstly, the story itself
does not have any emotional pull or the engagement of the original Spiderman.
The characterisations are not handled properly and even Gwen ends up becoming
just a pretty face without a mind or aspiration of her own.
Even the hesitant, love angle between Peter Parker and Gwen is not handled well.
And many characters are left hanging without a conclusion, most notably that of
Irrfan Khan. Despite being a brilliant actor, he hardly suited his
blink-and-miss role where he fumbles with his ascent.
One department where "The Amazing Spider-Man" does not fail is its
special effects. Considering the state of commercial cinema emanating from
Hollywood, one can safely assume that this would be reason enough for the film
to make a billion dollars globally.
The film gets an early release in India. It is not hard to imagine why.
Demographically India not only has the world`s largest number of teens, but also
the world`s largest concentration of them, teens who have grown up loving the
brainless "Transformers" series.
The Indian angle with the presumably last minute introduction of Irrfan Khan is
also meant to woo Indian audiences.
If reboot is what Hollywood was looking for, they could have done something much
more interesting and fun.
Actor Andrew Garfield, best known for starring in "The Amazing Spider-Man", found working with Oscar-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese in the film "Silence" a gift.Read More
One of the world’s most popular characters is back on the big screen as a new chapter in the Spider-Man legacy is revealed in The Amazing Spider-Man™. Focusing on an untold story that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story, the new film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, with Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the film in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures, which will open in theaters everywhere in 3D on July 3, 2012.
The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father’s former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors’ alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.
