Good fandoms don't die....

[kusanivy]

... 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

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[kusanivy]

Oy - you're really gonna put me on the spot aren't you? No pressure ;)

Well, when I went the second time I took a friend who hadn't seen it yet, although he had seen/read some negative reviews and he enjoyed it (in fact he liked it more than Spidey 1). He said it wasn't "OMG AMAZING" but it was much better than he'd been lead to believe.

There's been a lot of criticism about how they dressed Peter. He's not done up in stereotypical "nerd" clothes as he is normally portrayed. He's not in a sweater vest - he's got messy hair, he wears hoodies with thumb holes in the sleeves so he can pull them down over his hands, and yes, he has a skateboard.

But both my friend agreed that's OK because the important part is NOT that Peter looks like a "nerd" or a "hipster" but that he's socially inept. He stutters. He opens his mouth and starts to say something, stops, starts to say something else, changes his mind, and ends up in the end making no sense whatsoever. It's obvious he's not that comfortable talking to people he doesn't know that well. And that to me is more important than how he's dressed.

(My friend also liked the almost schizophrenic relation between "Peter" and "Spidey". As I said there is enough overlap that they are believably the same person, while still being very different from each other. He's immensely more confident when he's Spidey and he moves differently, although early on, when he's not sure of himself yet, Peter has some of the same twitchiness)

I've also heard criticism that he doesn't really grow as a character which I also think is somewhat unfounded. It's there but it's really subtle compared to how Hollywood normally does things. I think they were hoping to spread it out over subsequent movies. Again I think it's more realistic - teenagers DON'T change that quickly, and even though bad stuff has already happened I think Peter is still high on his new powers and thinking "I'm the hero, I can fix things". But then maybe that's just me, projecting what _I_ know from years and years of being immersed in Spider-Man lore onto mediocre writing.

To ME it works - there are many times, especially early on, that Peter let's his powers make him arrogant (even as he tries to live up to 'the catchphrase which shall not be named') and he gets in over his head and that's all here.
He hasn't had his MASSIVE wake-up call yet, that's still to come, and they foreshadow that when he does it's going to be nasty.

But again, maybe that's just me. Spider-Man has been one of my BIG fandoms for a loooooong time. I'd gotten out of it for awhile, both because of how awful the third movie was and also I was SO annoyed by what they were doing in the comics (have Peter make a deal with the devil to trade away the entire existence of his marriage to Mary Jane in exchange for Aunt May's life? REALLY Marvel?). And every time they tried to start a new show they went in a "new direction" by putting him back in highschool and making him awkward and unable to juggle his two lives which is not how I like Spidey.

I like him with a little more confidence and experience. I like it when he's married and MJ KNOWS because I think a couple (or a family) seriously having to deal with the complications of one of them having super powers and doing the hero thing are MUCH more interesting than watching said hero come up with dumb excuses for cancelling a date/being late/etc over and over and over again.
(Again, is why the original run of Blue Beetle is AWESOME. Having his dad stand there going "I was ready for bad grades, gangs, even drugs - I wasn't ready for superpowers and laser weapons." And then they deal with it - because they have to)

But this time they DID take things in a new direction while going back to "first principles" and it's a GOOD new direction I think.

As to whether you should spend your hard earned Avengers/food money... well I'm not brave enough to say ;)
You and I have had vastly different views on movies before, and as I said I'm somewhat biased when it comes to a certain guy in red & blue tights.