REVIEW: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Director: Marc Webb

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone

Website: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948470/

Finally, we have a Spider-Man film that really captures what the character and story are really about. This is a reboot of the Spider-Man franchise that I think was the best possible move they could have done, seeing as the Raimi films…well, they weren’t exactly anything to write home about. This one, directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, is the truest to the comics I’ve seen yet and a spectacular friggin’ movie to boot, maybe the best summer blockbuster we’ve seen this summer yet. Does that get your ears perked up? Let’s dig into why.

First, the acting is just great in this. Andrew Garfield was an odd choice to play Peter Parker, as he looked very little like what we always associate the character with being. But he does a really good job at playing both Peter as the sometimes-troubled and awkward high school student with a brilliant mind and Spider-Man as a witty, wisecracking vigilante. He’s not as outwardly geeky and soft-spoken as some past incarnations have been, but he feels more like a three dimensional, real kid, and that’s why I think this is the best Peter Parker we’ve seen on any screen yet.

The scenes where he’s discovering his powers are really cool and show the wonder of it combined with the awkwardness and absurdity that Peter no doubt feels – there are numerous bits where his newfound strength completely destroys everyday tasks like opening doors and brushing teeth. Hell, when Peter is going home on the subway right after, he wrecks an entire car and gets into a huge fight scene all by accident by hitting people when he does not mean to. There’s one scene where he’s just sitting on his bed, wide-eyed and half-crazy after seeing what he can do now, that just encapsulates everything that a normal kid would feel after having these things happen to him. It’s silent, wordless moments like this that are spotted throughout the film and really show me what a talent this kid is, and how well the director managed to use him.

The humanity of the character really comes out through Garfield’s emotive and spot-on performance. Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, who despite playing the usual Emma Stone kind of performance – you know, the whole sassy and independent girl thing she does in every movie – this time the writing is strong and actually supports her very well. So she does a good job.

Another great performance is veteran actor Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben, who just does a really great job at playing a parental figure for such a troubled kid – you get the tender side and a more strict side, as well as just a great sense of personality and wit about him. At the end of the day, you really, really like Uncle Ben in this movie. I liked all of these characters a lot. Even if you knew nothing about Spider-Man, you could like and really care about these characters as much as you have with any movie – that is the sign of great acting and great writing.

The setting and lighting are wonderful, with beautifully lit shots of New York and some very pulpy old school-style comic book-esque locations – witness the glowering green lights and the cavernous depths of the sewers where The Lizard makes his infernal concoctions, and in contrast, the Parker house, warm and full of all the things you’d expect from an aunt making delicious things in the kitchen to movie posters and camera equipment in Peter’s bedroom. So aesthetically the movie gets it right – small stuff, but it counts. The settings all reminded me of comic books in their layouts and how they were set up.

The real meat of the movie comes from the bigger moments, though, like any time when Spider-Man is doing his thing around the city. This movie rocks some great, funny dialogue for him and some cool scenes where he apprehends all these small time crooks with his webs and super-speed and strength – they are scenes you will find in anything Spider-Man related, but they’re a lot of fun here and stand up to the past 50 years of his history with ease. One of the better moments comes when he saves a kid from a burning vehicle – I won’t spoil much else, but the grace and power with which this scene is handled are just epic, and the scene is really, really cool. The finale is a fast-paced, boiling thriller of a set-up that just rules. A great, blood-pumping finale for a great film.

The film remains entertaining whether it’s about Spidey kicking the crap out of a crook, about Peter Parker interacting with Aunt May or Gwen Stacey and her family or about Peter’s quest to find Curt Connors and solve the mystery of what happened to his dad. That’s really the mark of a first-rate script and director. The Amazing Spider-Man is one of those great cinematic moments where everything just came together like magic for a real winner of a movie.

Review: Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010)

Director: Edgar Wright

Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, Jason Schwartzman

Website: www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com/

"You're pretentious, this club sucks, I have beef. Let's fight."

-Scott Pilgrim

I am so out of loop with popular culture. What the hell is Scott Pilgrim? Who is he? I was first introduced to this franchise by seeing the commercial for the movie when I was watching The Big Bang Theory. It looked like an interesting enough plot – a kid has to fight his girlfriend’s seven evil exes to date her and keep her. I didn’t know if it’d be good, bad, whatever…but it piqued my interest. So I figured I would go see it in the theaters when it finally came out. And what’s my take?

I…think my mind was just blown when I saw this. It was so crazy and so over the top that I had no idea what to make of it. Starring the apparently infamous Michael Cera, this weird little action/romance story is told in a highly strange and stylized fashion. When a new scene starts, they often pop up a little black comic-book-esque box by them with white text explaining some facts about them, often humorously. Scenes vary wildly in length, some lasting five minutes and others less than one. The movie likes to parody video games and use terminology and clichés from them to further the story – in one scene, the hero decides to stand up for himself and fight for himself over anyone else, and as he flaunts his newfound power, the words “Scott gained the power of self respect!” are narrated in a deep voice and flash on the screen in blinking neon.

See? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this. This movie is completely original. Well…except for the comic it’s based on, but shut up, I know what I’m talking about in this review!

Even the writing is completely off the wall. In the first few scenes, the titular Scott Pilgrim (Cera) has a conversation with his band (made up of a token regular guy named Stephen, a stoic, monotone redheaded chick named Kim and a guy named Young Neil, who is not in the band, but just lives at the house they play in) about inviting his new “fake high school girlfriend” Knives into the house while they play. They’re really concerned that she’ll break up their nerd-dom and not be able to handle it. The dialogue is so winding and so convoluted with things that would just be otherwise retarded or ridiculous. Like when Ramona says “I was just a little bi-curious,” the enemy character replies “Well, I’m just a little bi-FURIOUS!” That line is so horrible that I’d want to smack whoever wrote it. But in this movie, I’ll buy it. I really will.

I will now go through some of the exceptionally noteworthy scenes in this movie:

There’s one scene where Scott beats a Vegan opponent by making him drink milk, I think it was, that turns out to violate the ‘Vegan Police’ code, getting him stripped of his ‘Vegan powers.’ I couldn’t make this up, people. There’s the all-time special effects wonder of the world when Scott and his band face off against the dastardly and short-lived threat of the Kazayanagi brothers, resulting in a chaotic explosion of shining beast-like holograms, neon lights and multi-colored fire that will make your eyes bleed with how cool it is. And there’s one scene near the end when Scott has to fight his ‘negative self’ for some reason that nobody really cares about, because it’s awesome either way. It cuts away to Ramona and Knives outside when Scott walks out with his ‘negative-self’, joking and laughing like old friends. Scott says that his negative self is a really nice guy.

See? I love the comedy in this movie. It’s so innocuous and so dorky that it becomes absolutely side-splitting when it’s at its best. It’s just great, it really is.

The acting is good. People will bash on Michael Cera whenever they get the chance, but he does a really good job here. His delivery is hilarious and his facial expressions are always really funny with how naïve they are. I’m not familiar with a lot of his movies, but he does good here. I can tell you that. Mary Winstead as love interest Ramona is wonderful, as she is good looking and versatile – funny when the movie calls for it and also soft and vulnerable or cold as ice whenever needed, too. Kieran Culkin and Anna Kendrick bring up the backbone along with the delightful Alison Pil as Kim. And the seven exes are always over the top and fun, too.

So, detractors from the score? Well, I was amazed with how far up its own ass it could get when it really tries. That Vegan Police scene I mentioned above was about where the line was crossed, although it was already flirting with that when a girl’s hair highlights are literally punched out. These scenes are still enjoyable in their own way, but I can’t help but feel that the film kind of winds up in its own special effects and nerd-isms at times. But maybe that’s part of the appeal.

This film should in all respects suck a whole lot. But it works. It really works, in one of the most oddball fashions ever. All the film’s extravagances and eccentricities are done with a hefty sense of irony, but in the same way, even the irony is ironic, like they’re ribbing the kinds of snot-nosed indie films of this usual sort, in a good natured way. There’s also a ton of homage to video games and video game culture, as well as to anime and comic culture, too. It’s a delightful hodge-podge of influences that, combined with the film’s crazy exuberance, really makes an entertaining watch. The characters are delightful, the humor is spot on, the action is wondrous and the plot is a ton of fun. Scott Pilgrim is a winner. Revel in its supreme nerdery.