The Amazing Spider-Man! (Beware spoilers!)
I finally got to see The Amazing Spider-Man this afternoon and I really, really loved it. There seem to be people who liked it and people who didn't, and I'm not really sure what the criticisms have been, but my only real quibble was that mothers were once again marginalized in favour of fathers. Peter's mother is such a non-entity that it's only been a few hours and I already can't remember her name. Gwen's mother doesn't make much of a bigger blip--and I can't remember her name either--though I hope she at least gets to show up in some post-movie fic. Aunt May gets a slightly bigger role, though given her prominence in the Spider-Man canon, you'd really think they would have given her a couple of more scenes. Hopefully those will be included as deleted scenes on the DVD.
SPOILERS: Cutting for more detailed spoilers!
OTOH, this is a movie in which the only people who die are two white men. I mean, in a way that's kind of an improvement?
I really, really don't understand why some canon het romances work for me and why others don't. This time around, I think it really helped that I already adored Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as individual actors and assumed they would have excellent chemistry as a couple (on screen, I mean) because lo and behold! Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy were AWESOME. Seriously, seriously adorable and sweet and star-crossed in both a real and an angsty teenager-ish way. And yet they were both mature enough by the movie's mid-point to ask tough questions about themselves, to be brave and strong. I used to watch the Spider-Man cartoons from the 90s and liked M.J. back then, but I mostly shipped Peter with Felicia Hardy aka the Black Cat. The little I've read of M.J. in the comics I've liked, and she tends to be fun in fanfic, but I've really fallen in love with Gwen Stacy and her teenager grown-upish-ness (not a word, I know) and how she's just this good kid who has it all together, and yet is so drawn to Peter that she's happy to take risks with her nice safe life. I love how she defuses the situation with Flash, how she wrangles the interns at Oscorp and kicks Peter out when he doesn't toe the line, how she stays to get the antidote while evacuating the building: this is one cool girl. But with a sense of humour, too! I laughed so hard at her menstrual cycle fake-out with her dad. :D
And Peter himself just wrenched my heartstrings again and again! Oh, Peter!
I kinda love that Captain Stacy made Peter promise to stay away from Gwen. It was aggravatingly ridiculously paternalistic of him to ask that of Peter, and for Peter to agree, and yet that's exactly what any cop dad would do in his situation. Gwen is a minor and her dad's responsibility. And Peter's choice to stay away isn't ridiculous either. I personally hate that trope that pretends it's feminist to give the civilian girlfriend veto power over whether she and her superhero boyfriend stay together or not. IMHO it has to be a joint decision. And if it can't be a joint decision--both parties wanting to stay together--then the boy has just as much right as the girl to say he wants to break up. I mean, isn't that pretty much how divorce works? You can maybe argue he's being paternalistic, overprotective, or all about the man-pain--that could all be true. But you can't make someone be comfortable with the idea of putting loved ones in danger. You can't force them to get over their issues or burden them with that kind of responsibility just by the sheer power of your say-so. (I suppose you could always try therapy, however.)
In any case, the movie leaves plenty of room for Peter and Gwen to get back together. She's clearly not as angry at him as she'd like to be--or is pretending to be. Honestly, I love how much he makes her smile. I love that she covers for him at Oscorp, but still puts her foot down when he breaks the rules. I love that she's the best science student at Midtown and he's the second best. I love how he tries to ask her out and she says yes and they don't even know what they've agreed to as a date. And then she invites him to dinner! At her place! An event that apparently required a suit! Poor Peter Parker!
I really liked Uncle Ben and thought that whole sequence of Peter storming out of the house, Ben chasing after him, the guy robbing the store and Ben trying to stop him, was really, really excellent. I was afraid it'd be cheesy or overdone as it's such a well-known story, but it basically felt like a well-written family drama or something out of a Law & Order episode--just an ordinary tragedy in the lives of ordinary people.
Dr. Connors turned out to be more sympathetic than I'd expected. It's been a long time since I watched the 90s Spidey cartoon (I've never made a point of reading the Spider-Man comics) and I'd forgotten that he's supposed to be a somewhat sympathetic character. Not sure I particularly want to read fanfic about him, but I'd be more likely to care about his redemption/healing arc than Loki's.
Speaking of Connors and science... When spoilers first started leaking, there was talk of ASM!Peter being written as a genius and I gotta admit that I don't really see that here. "Genius" gets thrown around too much, I think, especially in comics and sci-fi where "genius" is apparently another super-power. Peter is very, very smart and deserves to go to a top-notch university and do great things, but a lot of what he accomplishes in the movie (and I'm not devaluing his achievements here, because he is the one who makes it all work) is through his dad's secret file and Oscorp research. Also, I suspect the spider-bite boosts his brain in some way, because he's suddenly moving his body and processing visual information in ways it takes professional aerialists and fighter pilots years of training to do.
I really hope there's a lot of Gwen/Peter fanfic out there. If anyone has recommendations, please share! I'll try my best to do my own rec post at some point. :)
The fanfic that I started after finding out Emma Stone was playing Gwen Stacy is, unfortunately, never going to be finished. Ugh, I've stalled on everything I've been trying to write this year! My fic was an AU in which Gwen was bitten instead of Peter, but which kept the story-line of Peter tracking down Curt Connors for answers. I wanted Gwen and Peter to basically team up, with Peter as Gwen's Alfred, basically, or maybe Lucius. Someone who could help with equipment and planning and cover stories for whenever she needed to sneak out under her police captain father's nose. There was also going to be a "fugitive from police" scene with Gwen hiding from her dad on the roof of Stark Tower and getting help from JARVIS and Tony's robots.
But hey, other people keep writing the stories that I wish I could have written myself--and doing it ten times better than I ever could--so maybe I'll be lucky and someone will write a "Gwen is Spider-Woman" fanfic one day.
Hmm, this has been a very haphazard movie review. Oh well! Basically, I loved it and place it right under The Avengers for favourite movie of the year. Granted, I've only seen four movies this year, but second place is pretty darn good! Next on my to-watch list: The Dark Knight Rises.
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SPOILERS: Cutting for more detailed spoilers!
OTOH, this is a movie in which the only people who die are two white men. I mean, in a way that's kind of an improvement?
I really, really don't understand why some canon het romances work for me and why others don't. This time around, I think it really helped that I already adored Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as individual actors and assumed they would have excellent chemistry as a couple (on screen, I mean) because lo and behold! Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy were AWESOME. Seriously, seriously adorable and sweet and star-crossed in both a real and an angsty teenager-ish way. And yet they were both mature enough by the movie's mid-point to ask tough questions about themselves, to be brave and strong. I used to watch the Spider-Man cartoons from the 90s and liked M.J. back then, but I mostly shipped Peter with Felicia Hardy aka the Black Cat. The little I've read of M.J. in the comics I've liked, and she tends to be fun in fanfic, but I've really fallen in love with Gwen Stacy and her teenager grown-upish-ness (not a word, I know) and how she's just this good kid who has it all together, and yet is so drawn to Peter that she's happy to take risks with her nice safe life. I love how she defuses the situation with Flash, how she wrangles the interns at Oscorp and kicks Peter out when he doesn't toe the line, how she stays to get the antidote while evacuating the building: this is one cool girl. But with a sense of humour, too! I laughed so hard at her menstrual cycle fake-out with her dad. :D
And Peter himself just wrenched my heartstrings again and again! Oh, Peter!
I kinda love that Captain Stacy made Peter promise to stay away from Gwen. It was aggravatingly ridiculously paternalistic of him to ask that of Peter, and for Peter to agree, and yet that's exactly what any cop dad would do in his situation. Gwen is a minor and her dad's responsibility. And Peter's choice to stay away isn't ridiculous either. I personally hate that trope that pretends it's feminist to give the civilian girlfriend veto power over whether she and her superhero boyfriend stay together or not. IMHO it has to be a joint decision. And if it can't be a joint decision--both parties wanting to stay together--then the boy has just as much right as the girl to say he wants to break up. I mean, isn't that pretty much how divorce works? You can maybe argue he's being paternalistic, overprotective, or all about the man-pain--that could all be true. But you can't make someone be comfortable with the idea of putting loved ones in danger. You can't force them to get over their issues or burden them with that kind of responsibility just by the sheer power of your say-so. (I suppose you could always try therapy, however.)
In any case, the movie leaves plenty of room for Peter and Gwen to get back together. She's clearly not as angry at him as she'd like to be--or is pretending to be. Honestly, I love how much he makes her smile. I love that she covers for him at Oscorp, but still puts her foot down when he breaks the rules. I love that she's the best science student at Midtown and he's the second best. I love how he tries to ask her out and she says yes and they don't even know what they've agreed to as a date. And then she invites him to dinner! At her place! An event that apparently required a suit! Poor Peter Parker!
I really liked Uncle Ben and thought that whole sequence of Peter storming out of the house, Ben chasing after him, the guy robbing the store and Ben trying to stop him, was really, really excellent. I was afraid it'd be cheesy or overdone as it's such a well-known story, but it basically felt like a well-written family drama or something out of a Law & Order episode--just an ordinary tragedy in the lives of ordinary people.
Dr. Connors turned out to be more sympathetic than I'd expected. It's been a long time since I watched the 90s Spidey cartoon (I've never made a point of reading the Spider-Man comics) and I'd forgotten that he's supposed to be a somewhat sympathetic character. Not sure I particularly want to read fanfic about him, but I'd be more likely to care about his redemption/healing arc than Loki's.
Speaking of Connors and science... When spoilers first started leaking, there was talk of ASM!Peter being written as a genius and I gotta admit that I don't really see that here. "Genius" gets thrown around too much, I think, especially in comics and sci-fi where "genius" is apparently another super-power. Peter is very, very smart and deserves to go to a top-notch university and do great things, but a lot of what he accomplishes in the movie (and I'm not devaluing his achievements here, because he is the one who makes it all work) is through his dad's secret file and Oscorp research. Also, I suspect the spider-bite boosts his brain in some way, because he's suddenly moving his body and processing visual information in ways it takes professional aerialists and fighter pilots years of training to do.
I really hope there's a lot of Gwen/Peter fanfic out there. If anyone has recommendations, please share! I'll try my best to do my own rec post at some point. :)
The fanfic that I started after finding out Emma Stone was playing Gwen Stacy is, unfortunately, never going to be finished. Ugh, I've stalled on everything I've been trying to write this year! My fic was an AU in which Gwen was bitten instead of Peter, but which kept the story-line of Peter tracking down Curt Connors for answers. I wanted Gwen and Peter to basically team up, with Peter as Gwen's Alfred, basically, or maybe Lucius. Someone who could help with equipment and planning and cover stories for whenever she needed to sneak out under her police captain father's nose. There was also going to be a "fugitive from police" scene with Gwen hiding from her dad on the roof of Stark Tower and getting help from JARVIS and Tony's robots.
But hey, other people keep writing the stories that I wish I could have written myself--and doing it ten times better than I ever could--so maybe I'll be lucky and someone will write a "Gwen is Spider-Woman" fanfic one day.
Hmm, this has been a very haphazard movie review. Oh well! Basically, I loved it and place it right under The Avengers for favourite movie of the year. Granted, I've only seen four movies this year, but second place is pretty darn good! Next on my to-watch list: The Dark Knight Rises.
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