Good fandoms don't die....
... they just go fallow for awhile.
So I've seen The Amazing Spider-Man twice now and each time I see it I come out grinning ear to ear. And wanting more Spidey - immediately.
I had actually NOT been looking forward to the movie at all, or even planning to see it in theatres, since to me it seemed like a very unnecessary reboot (the FIRST Spidey film is only just 10 yrs old! And it's not like Hulk where the first film was such a flop and they wanted to reboot immediately. Not even Spidey 3, as bad as it was, was a financial failure). And WHY a reboot? I didn't even want to see Spidey's origins in the first film - why couldn't they just pick up and move on with new actors?
So it seemed such a cash grab on Sony's part. And speaking of the Ang Lee Hulk... the whole "Peter's dad did something that destined Peter to be Spider-Man" was NOT making me happy (it still doesn't - it's not as obvious as the trailers make it out to be but at the same time they don't dismiss the notion)
But after seeing the trailer in 3D during Avengers I decided to go, if just to see the webswinging in 3D ...
... And I did and it was GREAT.
I ended up not minding that they redid his origin at all! Why? Because Martin Sheen makes an AWESOME Uncle Ben. In fact I wanted to see MORE of Peter with his Aunt and Uncle before everything went horribly wrong, because they were all awesome together. They NAILED the close family dynamic. In fact I had a couple flashbacks because I swear I've had some of the same lectures almost word-for-word from my folks (No, none of them started "With great power..." and in fact neither did any of the ones in the movie! They never say the line! Yaaaaaay! Don't get me wrong, I agree with the sentiment but I do NOT need to hear that catchphrase EVER AGAIN. THANK YOU)
In fact if I had the power to commission a Blue Beetle movie I'd get the same director and writing team as Amazing Spider-Man to do it because if they can make the Parkers that awesome OMG the Reyes would absolutely ROCK.
And I loved that Peter was shy and awkward but in a way that was endearing. Yes, Tobey Maguire was dorky but in a way that was often painful to watch (the worst, of course, being Spidey 3, but to me Spidey 2 is not the pillar of awesomeness most people think it is. I don't like watching everything in Peter's life coming up shit.)
And Andrew Garfield as Spidey - ohhhhh perfect! He's got the lanky, skinny build for it. He's got the moves down (they made a big point of putting him in iconic poses). He skitters. You know, like a spider. All the while being an absolute smart-ass and running his mouth off. And the almost night and day difference between the personalities makes sense too. Peter's extremely shy but every once in a while he overcomes his nervousness and fires off a snarky remark or does something just a weee bit rebellious. So Spidey's extremely smart ass personality is Peter without the nervousness, free to say whatever he wants behind the anonymity of his mask.
And they always made a pretty big deal in the comics and the novels about how part of the reason some people mistrust Spidey is he's a little scary when you first encounter him, something I could never understand. Well for the very first time I see why. I mean as the audience we KNOW it's Peter, and we know Peter is a good kid, that he's on the side of the angels, and that anybody he's helping has nothing to fear.
But if you didn't know that and suddenly there's this almost unnaturally thin figure in front of you, moving in this jittery, jerky, somewhat inhuman manner that's subconsciously pushing your "Ahhhhh creepy bug!" evolutionary buttons. You can't see his face, he's talking a mile a minute, it's dark, and your adrenaline's already pumping cause you've just been in a life or death situation, and all you can think of is this guy's a wanted criminal. Yeah, I'd probably think twice about whether the dude was friend or foe too.
It dawned on me 3/4 of the way through the movie the first time that this is basically Spider-Man Begins. The two Tim Burton Batman movies are good, they do justice to the character, and they also happen to be slightly cartoony and stylized in their world setting and characters. Just like Spider-Man 1 and 2(we shall not speak of 3... actually yes we will - it can be known as "Shumacher Spidey")
Batman Begins tries to set Batman in a world as realistic and close to ours as it is possible to do while maintaining the essential details of the characters. I think that's exactly what The Amazing Spider-Man has done - it's taken Spidey and made him as realistic as possible given that he's a teenager with superpowers who climbs walls and battles humanoid lizards, and other strange superpowered beings.
And that's great and I want more.
So I've seen The Amazing Spider-Man twice now and each time I see it I come out grinning ear to ear. And wanting more Spidey - immediately.
I had actually NOT been looking forward to the movie at all, or even planning to see it in theatres, since to me it seemed like a very unnecessary reboot (the FIRST Spidey film is only just 10 yrs old! And it's not like Hulk where the first film was such a flop and they wanted to reboot immediately. Not even Spidey 3, as bad as it was, was a financial failure). And WHY a reboot? I didn't even want to see Spidey's origins in the first film - why couldn't they just pick up and move on with new actors?
So it seemed such a cash grab on Sony's part. And speaking of the Ang Lee Hulk... the whole "Peter's dad did something that destined Peter to be Spider-Man" was NOT making me happy (it still doesn't - it's not as obvious as the trailers make it out to be but at the same time they don't dismiss the notion)
But after seeing the trailer in 3D during Avengers I decided to go, if just to see the webswinging in 3D ...
... And I did and it was GREAT.
I ended up not minding that they redid his origin at all! Why? Because Martin Sheen makes an AWESOME Uncle Ben. In fact I wanted to see MORE of Peter with his Aunt and Uncle before everything went horribly wrong, because they were all awesome together. They NAILED the close family dynamic. In fact I had a couple flashbacks because I swear I've had some of the same lectures almost word-for-word from my folks (No, none of them started "With great power..." and in fact neither did any of the ones in the movie! They never say the line! Yaaaaaay! Don't get me wrong, I agree with the sentiment but I do NOT need to hear that catchphrase EVER AGAIN. THANK YOU)
In fact if I had the power to commission a Blue Beetle movie I'd get the same director and writing team as Amazing Spider-Man to do it because if they can make the Parkers that awesome OMG the Reyes would absolutely ROCK.
And I loved that Peter was shy and awkward but in a way that was endearing. Yes, Tobey Maguire was dorky but in a way that was often painful to watch (the worst, of course, being Spidey 3, but to me Spidey 2 is not the pillar of awesomeness most people think it is. I don't like watching everything in Peter's life coming up shit.)
And Andrew Garfield as Spidey - ohhhhh perfect! He's got the lanky, skinny build for it. He's got the moves down (they made a big point of putting him in iconic poses). He skitters. You know, like a spider. All the while being an absolute smart-ass and running his mouth off. And the almost night and day difference between the personalities makes sense too. Peter's extremely shy but every once in a while he overcomes his nervousness and fires off a snarky remark or does something just a weee bit rebellious. So Spidey's extremely smart ass personality is Peter without the nervousness, free to say whatever he wants behind the anonymity of his mask.
And they always made a pretty big deal in the comics and the novels about how part of the reason some people mistrust Spidey is he's a little scary when you first encounter him, something I could never understand. Well for the very first time I see why. I mean as the audience we KNOW it's Peter, and we know Peter is a good kid, that he's on the side of the angels, and that anybody he's helping has nothing to fear.
But if you didn't know that and suddenly there's this almost unnaturally thin figure in front of you, moving in this jittery, jerky, somewhat inhuman manner that's subconsciously pushing your "Ahhhhh creepy bug!" evolutionary buttons. You can't see his face, he's talking a mile a minute, it's dark, and your adrenaline's already pumping cause you've just been in a life or death situation, and all you can think of is this guy's a wanted criminal. Yeah, I'd probably think twice about whether the dude was friend or foe too.
It dawned on me 3/4 of the way through the movie the first time that this is basically Spider-Man Begins. The two Tim Burton Batman movies are good, they do justice to the character, and they also happen to be slightly cartoony and stylized in their world setting and characters. Just like Spider-Man 1 and 2(we shall not speak of 3... actually yes we will - it can be known as "Shumacher Spidey")
Batman Begins tries to set Batman in a world as realistic and close to ours as it is possible to do while maintaining the essential details of the characters. I think that's exactly what The Amazing Spider-Man has done - it's taken Spidey and made him as realistic as possible given that he's a teenager with superpowers who climbs walls and battles humanoid lizards, and other strange superpowered beings.
And that's great and I want more.