The Fantastic Marvelous Amazing Generic Superhero Movie

Rating: 6/10 (7 July 2012)

I don't have any childhood attachment to Spiderman like most other people do. I was more a Superman person. When the Sam Raimi version of "Spiderman" came out, it was a fresh take and felt it was "what a Superhero movie should be". It was not all bluster, and Tobey Maguire had an alluring charm. On the other hand, there was always the moment where everyone could tell we were no longer watching live action, and essentially switched over to watching a Spiderman cartoon. It didn't hurt the quality of the film, I knew from Sam Raimi and composer Danny Elfman's soundtrack work that it was in good hands. That was until Spiderman 3 (see my review).
Spiderman 3 did for me what "Batman & Robin" did for that franchise. Wisely, the studio put Batman back on the shelf in 1997. The origin story for the Batman franchise was presented in the first film in 1989, SIXTEEN YEARS before the complete reboot and retelling of the origin story in 2005. Here, Sony (watch for Sony product placement in TASM), within just 5 years, is rebooting and is shoving the same familiar origin story last seen just 10 years ago. 16 years is almost a generation between reboots. 10 years for Spiderman is too soon. I have been watching 'modern' superhero movies for the last 12 years (starting with the first "X-Men"), and there have been some truly great inspirational releases over that time. But there are so many superhero movies out there, and they all have the same clichés now. It is the same generic formula over and over:
1. Innocent Boy 'A' wants to date Innocent Daughter 'B' of Successful Father 'C'. 2. 'A' finds secret power. 3. 'A's father 'D' dies, causing 'A' mental anguish. 4. Scientist 'X' becomes Designated Super Villain 'Y'. 5. 'A' becomes superhero 'Z', both loved and hated. 6. 'Z' Threatens 'B', causes panic in Gothametropolis. 7. 'A' is in mental tug-of-war whether to fight crime or marry 'B'.
And so on.. However in this unnecessary Spiderman reboot, the generic formula is worse
'D' is also 'X' while 'C' hates 'A' and 'B' knows about 'Z'.
I am becoming burned out on the traditional super hero films. No, this reboot is not "Batman Begins" just because they put in the Hans Zimmer WWWHHHHOMMMPPP music stings and busy strings in the soundtrack. Maybe they thought this would feel more authentic by adding a lot of old furniture in the movie. They also tried to add authenticity by casting genuine Academy-caliber actors as the aunt (Sally Field) and uncle (Martin Sheen). But as the movie began telling the origin story again, wasting too much time setting up sequel bait, I began to groan almost right away. Andrew Garfield is the new Tobey Maguire, and yes he is a likable boy/man (he looks like a college student going to a high school). His character is not quite the same Peter Parker. Now he is jumpy and has better agility before his transformation. Garfield's charisma wins you over, thankfully, because having to sit through the same story plot points was starting to give me restless leg syndrome.
I have been a veteran movie-goer for over 40 years, and I just can't get into cliché teenage romance stories these days. At least the original Spiderman set Peter in college, and a far more interesting life. Scenes of skateboarding and high school socializing are meant to connect with the young crowd, but they feel clunky and cliché nonetheless. I know this is a big 220 million dollar film, so I was impatient for the movie to get to the big action scenes. The movie finally gets you there, and the effects are clearly better than the original "Spiderman" for the most part, but that is to be expected over the course of 10 years. They are well done and are exciting, but are relatively straightforward. The villain for this film is a lizardman, who looks menacing enough, but is not a Super Villain by any stretch of the imagination. Any member of the audience who saw "The Avengers" earlier in the summer will get a sense of deja-vu, as the Stark tower appears, almost identical, in this film as the centerpiece of the big final action scene. There is a desperate attempt to incorporate a number of skycranes as part of the big finale that makes no sense whatsoever, and provides very little payoff anyway.
I was waiting over two hours for this? Yet another fight on top of yet another skyscraper? Been there, done that, way too many times. I will still recommend the film for the action scenes and the ability of Garfield to carry the film. But it is not as good as Raimi's interpretation , especially "Spiderman 2".