Spider-Man 4 (reboot thread) -- aka The Amazing Spider-Man

I can't think of a scene as tonally different from the rest of the movie in the first two as the Parker shuffle was in the third

there were some pretty broad cartoony moments throughout the series

sure, but right now without the movies in front of me to reference I can't remember a scene that felt like it was shoehorned in from a completely different movie operating under a completely different reality

It was like they stitched in a scene from The Mask.

i say bah to your tonal consistency bah

don't worry though, you'll never see something that playful in a superhero movie again

ha ok that's not true if whedon hangs around but oh how you jackals will turn on him

it would be funny if he decided to follow-up the Buffy musical episode in the middle of The Avengers 2

You know that would be my dream movie.

Black Widow, undercover cabaret singer

shit, I hope JW and Scarjo don't read this thread

http://filmnerds.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/superman3.jpg

hey has anyone else seen this yet i wanna talk trash about it

spoiler at one point uncle ben is wearing a polo neck it's really distracting

that 'small knives' joke is so bad and overdelivered ugh

Didn't someone say on some comics thread that Gwen Stacy got pregnant with twins due to some time travel rape or something?

not time travel and it was consensual but J. Michael Straczynski wrote a storyline that "revealed" that she had an affair with Norman Osborn and secretly gave birth to twins

ha ok

I think there was some sci-fi plot device used to age Gwen's kids so that they were adults when Peter finally met them? (I haven't read the actual story.) IIRC they were originally gonna reveal Peter was the father of the twins, which would've made much more sense... But then some editors decided Peter meeting his adult kids would "age" the character too much, even though they were adults only because of magic or something.

i say bah to your tonal consistency bah

― da croupier, Tuesday, 3 July 2012 19:08 (2 days ago) Permalink

don't worry though, you'll never see something that playful in a superhero movie again

― da croupier, Tuesday, 3 July 2012 19:09 (2 days ago) Permalink

ha ok that's not true if whedon hangs around but oh how you jackals will turn on him

― da croupier, Tuesday, 3 July 2012 19:10 (2 days ago) Permalink

otm

If I wasn't so broke I might go see this today, just to get outta the sun + crush hard on emma stone for a while

... probably just take another nap tho. save money for food? idk

HEY THERE SPOILERS LIVE BELOW THIS LINE

Having seen the movie, I am looking forward to a sequel. A lot of this was fun but I was mentally doing the "get ON with it" hand gesture.

Emma Stone v lovely and feisty and a good foil for Andrew Garfield, but the 'dizzy her into a kiss' is as crappy as it was in Temple of Doom.

I thought Garfield was more obnoxious that I'd have liked of Spidey in the flexing his powers scenes (mostly with the basketball), but I may just be a sensitive guy Tobey Maguire stan there.

I liked that Spidey was essentially a boutique crimefighter for a lot of the film.

My gf was particularly struck by how off a lot of the lolgeek references were, including using bluddy Bing for a search engine.

Also this movie could have done with some Bruce Campbell, but on the other hand the Stan Lee scene was better than ALL previous Stan Lee scenes put together. And one of the highlights of the generally excellent fight scenes.

My annoyance at Peter being too dumb to really get the sledgehammer "Oh by the way there is a new predator in New York, which is me, and I understand that it can be quite aggressive, because I'll fuck you up" was completely erased by the LIZARD MOUSE!

Which is kind of my takeaway, that they didn't quite line up the gritty and the quippy (the awesome jokes when he's learning his powers slightly undercut by the fact that hey hasn't he just destroyed his aunt 'n uncle's bathroom?).

Also, right - from Ben's point of view, doesn't he tackle the thief for the crimes of running along the street and dropping a gun? I thought that was protected speech in the US?

HEY THERE SPOILERS ALSO LIVE BELOW THIS LINE

Oh yeah didn't love - the only person of colour is the only outright villain.

Also! (I will shut up after this) I was greatly amused by the fact that not only does the reboot have the Big, Emotional, New Yorkers Rally Around Spiderman sequence to match the one pasted into the original after the WTC attacks, but the sequence is based on the massive misapprehension that anyone gives a shit what Spiderman is swinging from.

Saw the 1st Raimi flick for the first time last week, along with this new one. Kind of unexpectedly loved the former, mostly indifferent towards the latter.

thought the new one was pretty good, as per usual I loved Emma Stone, thought the twist on Ben's death and Peter's selfishness was really well done, honestly couldn't have cared less about Flash and his magically changing personality

The last scene was totally missing "FYI I'm boning Flash now"

I figured it wasn't going to happen but I really really REALLY wanted them to kill Gwen at the end instead of her father for dramatic reasons

also does Aunt May know he's Spiderman or not?

Yes. Or possibly No, whichever is funnier.

other cool things:

- the web alert system and all of the lizards
- how Peter's identity was possibly the worst-kept secret ever
- the Stan Lee cameo
- Martin Sheen

things that were dumb but I ultimately didn't care about

- the magic webbing, that required a mechanical delivery system yet somehow seemed to be linked directly into Peter's mind re: behavior
- I thought the Lizard didn't retain his scientist personality/knowledge and that Connors didn't actually behave in an evil manner when in human form; basically like a bad-guy Hulk

how was Garfield's hair?

forgot to list it in the "dumb" category

What was the point of turning a buncha cops into lizards if they didn't wreak any havoc? Lame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydxl1H090ck

spoilerrrrrrrs:

also does Aunt May know he's Spiderman or not?

― I see you, Pineapple Teef (DJP), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 18:04 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it seemed like it. what i loved about the most recent three films was the guy at the newspaper, who was always in jonah jameson's office, who you knew totally knew who peter parker was & seemed to be very subtly protective of him - he was like an ally of spidey's in the comics (/tv series, i am basing all of this on the tv series) but this wasn't explored or made explicit in the films. i always figured that if the franchise ran longer they'd out spidey to him, or involve him somehow, it was the same actor each flick, i forget who he is in the story (okay I googled it's Robbie Robertson). & i thought that this steamrolled over a couple of really great, frustrating problems from other variations on the story; like aunt may believing spider-man was a nuisance was such an awesome trick, or the public opprobrium for him. but maybe it works both ways. it being an open secret was interesting in its own way, & felt "true", but some of those things felt like they deprived the story of some easy drama, some palpable sense of all of the binds of being spider-man, better at least than the 'great power' speech remix did.

anyway, bullet point style, some other things about this:

- i wish there was a Zidane style movie that just tracked spider-man swinging around shooting webs for ninety minutes, with a fuzzy post-rock soundtrack. those bits were good.

- this felt v unnuanced, to me, very literally comic-book and broadbrush, with so little of the texture that i figured this reboot would go in for including, i guess cf recent batman films - like the new york of this film was just nowhere, w/fictional subway stops & no geography. there were a couple of nice little moments, though, like him replacing the sewer grid he'd just climbed out of. but it felt too presumptuous, sometimes, like it was rooted firmly enough in the comic universe to render a bunch of really basic logistical stuff irrelevant (like, how did this mutant lizard guy set up a lab overnight in a sewer, how did that happen, but i realise at this point i am posting on the internet about factual inaccuracies in a spider-man film, so).

- i thought the dialogue was really bad! like again this makes me feel like an imdb commenter criticising the screenplay but it sounded so first draft. the best parts were the mumblecore (sorry) speechless moments between him & gwen. but seriously the fucking answerphone message? like that's what uncle ben's phone messages were like? "remember you need to mail the letter i gave you, also never forget i am proud of you and going forward always remember the following key five tenets of a rewarding life-"

- i thought it looked pretty bad. like is this what 3d looks like? just one thing right in front of you & then some blurry bokehed lights in soft focus? it's kinda like people acting in front of painted screens, depth-wise.

- the lizard was just the worst. just so bad. like a bad computer game lizard saying PEETEEER PARRRKERRRRR in the exact same HARRRYYYY POTTTTERRRRR inflection every parent has breathed into their personifications of snape. so bad! how does that guy get work! i mean rhys ifans, not the dr. he is qualified but i guess also did turn out to be a volatile choice of employee. feel like i'm discriminating against employees with health issues but c'mon now. i hope he turns up again - i vaguely remember him & PP being pals in the tv series?, as least fairweather friends for when the guy wasn't all lizardy - like i could be into him as a cool old mentor guy. but he was so bad. the british villain.

- the square jawed dad cop guy, this was so dreary. real bad. like '90s buddy movie bad. & all gwen could do was just go sit in a car. like she got that one moment reenacting being a child in jurassic park, stomping around the lab, but could there not have been a spunkier heroine? she just had to be really benign while her dad gritted his jaw. & like his death scene, with the war-movie timely head roll & all. weak.

- andrew garfield was pretty good! on balance i prefer tobey maguire talking about how the shape of the theatre conditions the effect of the soundwaves generated by applause &c&c&c, but his hooded kid felt sorta appropriate, like weird offbeat kids were a better fit than JOCKS vs NERDS for a contemporary spider-man film.

- also just re: the NYers rallying around spidey scene, this straight up almost made me cry. it's really embarrassing, i almost never cry, which is fine, because when bad things happen & you don't cry you tell yourself you just have a different tear duct threadshold than other people, but then you almost cry at spider-man and it feels worrying that it probably affected you more than you life. i liked that part though.

- & i think i mentioned uncle ben's polo neck.

Having seen the movie, I am looking forward to a sequel. A lot of this was fun but I was mentally doing the "get ON with it" hand gesture.

this is otm, like the story wasn't quite disfigured enough for uncle ben running out after peter & a guy robbing a store to seem sorta loomingly foreshadowed.

this was completely entertaining. spidey swinging scenes looked great; I like the first Spiderman but also remember how cheap and awful the cgi was, looked like a computer game. The actual figure of spiderman was so much more realistic here, I can't tell if they used a lot of actual mo-cap or what.

Apparently yeah 90% of the Spidey we see on screen is Andrew Garfield (but the swinging screens in the first are awesome, GTFO)

The reviews I'd read promised a return to the wise-crackin's Smilin' Stan Spidey, but we only got it the one time with the guy stealing the car.

But yeah, hated the Lizard, didn't understand why Martin Sheen was wearing false teeth, didn't get Dennis Leary, hope the next film features the Green Goblin so we can have ASM #121-122. So much Superhero Sadface. I thought the Green Lanertn movie was better than this.

I thought that machine was totally gnarly.

Was that what it was trying to convey - the cloud machine was like totally awesome & shit?

Did really enjoy it, but am left wondering about why the transformation of officers without them doing anything while transformed? Were scenes cut or something?

Pal said it's good when it's just Gwen and Peter/Spidey, the rest is risible.

sure, but right now without the movies in front of me to reference I can't remember a scene that felt like it was shoehorned in from a completely different movie operating under a completely different reality

― I see you, Pineapple Teef (DJP), Tuesday, 3 July 2012 18:23 (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this seems a really weird thing to say - spider-man 2 seemed like peter was mooching around between two or three different movies a lot of the time. like in addition to the emo superhero movie and the light-hearted superhero movie he'd occasionally pop into a newspaper comedy and some kind of indie flick about his weird neighbours. the difference between the raimi movies seems like, those were made for people who had seen a lot of movies, this seems to have been made for people who had not seen any movies ever.

like, the new one has a scene where peter can't convince the police chief that curt connors has transformed into a lizard, and after peter is thrown out the chief goes over to an aide and says GET ME EVERYTHING YOU CAN ON CURT CONNORS. or n.b. that after (x) dies there's a shot of him in the rain yelling NOOOOOO, with an echo on it, slightly slowed down.

You know that comment was a comparison of Raimi 3 to 1 & 2 and I hadn't seen the new one yet when I said that, right?

i think thomp's saying it's a weird thing to say since spider-man 2 was schizy as well.

yeah, sorry. segueing awkwardly.

should read "the difference between the raimi movies and this new one seems like:"

Raimi 2 didn't feel MPD* to me at the time, which is why I said "I should go back and revisit the movies but here is the impression I had"; you can merge genres together in a haphazard way or in a more seamless way, and the tone transitions in Raimi 2 did not feel as off to me as the tone transitions in Raimi 3.

* yes I am a "schizophrenic doesn't mean that" pedant

i def will admit that the dance sequence in 3 was a step beyond the tone jumps in the previous spideys, though i think it was still within the sensibility (which admittedly a lot of superhero fans clearly don't share) and i'm more of a "AND he gave me a dance sequence!" kinda guy then a "WHY did he give me a dance sequence?" guy anyway, most of my favorite directors could be lumped into "for people who have seen a lot of movies"

also the dance sequence in and of itself was smooth and hilarious, it wasn't some joel schumacher thing where the director was blundering through some nonsense

love that it seems the big sticking point between sony and raimi is that the dude was dead-set on the next villain being john malkovich with wings - i can't blame a corporate monolith for deciding they'd better off spending $150m on this than $300m on that.