Spider-Man, not unlike various other superhero franchises, has had a steady continuity of movies that got rebooted. The original writer, director and even actor are all gone from the project, so the series starts anew. How does it compare?
The story is, as expected, an origin story. It shows us the mild-mannered life of a high school student Peter Parker and how he gets bitten by a spider that was used in a genetic experiment, which results in him gaining supernatural powers, while trying to evade the police and showing them that he's one of the good guys. Notably, there was a lot of focus on the fact that Parker's parents had some sort of secret, which was never explained.
The thing that stood out to me was the emphasis on Parker's flaws. They say whereas DC goes for larger-than-life role models, Marvel likes to make relatable characters with flaws. In this case, Parker has tendency to not think about what he's about to do. Many times, he makes a decision that comes back to bite him. It's a detail that makes him an intriguing character; He wants to do so much good but has to deal with the mistakes he's made.
The story has a lot going on that makes it differ from the original Spider-Man movie, most important being the different villain. They took some liberties with the costume and powers which I thought were nice choices, such as having his webs immediately be the work of gadgetry as opposed to organic (both paths have been taken in Spider-Man fiction prior), his actual powers including reflexes and sticking to any surface.
I found Andrew Garfield made a convincing Peter Parker. He's young, wise-cracking and awkward, which is what I think of when I think of Parker. He has a lot of great moments. I can't say I found any of the other cast members particularly offensive or noteworthy, they did a solid job as far as I'm concerned.
After seeing the original Spider-Man, I felt no need to see more - It was a satisfying end, albeit bittersweet, and left me uninterested in sequels. However, I found that with this movie, I would not mind more. In fact, I hope that this leads to another big movie series. It'll be interesting to see what other villains they decide to use, and how they'll explore the secret of Parker's parents.
Since getting rid of all my movie reviews on this blog I hope this new format is easy to read. That said, I'll be going back to toys for a bit, but I do hope to review more things aside from that. Maybe more movies, or TV shows I've finished. We shall see.
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