Spiderman Sputtered, Man!

Rating: 4/10 (5 July 2012)

I paid good money to see this and I was truly disappointed. The acting was superb and the cinematography was better than the Raimi version, but the buck stops there! Sam was a better story teller and you felt you didn't need to know much about the character before watching the movie. This new version lacks the plausibility of the whole story. It seems the director, Webb, wanted to make the unreal more realistic and bring him into our world not realizing that movie goers want to be transported into the world of the fantasy and get a break from ours. Garfield played a brooding web-slinger who was more concerned about finding himself than the killer of his Uncle. I know this movie stayed true to many parts of the comic book, but the character development was lacking and was only compensated by the brilliant actors playing the key roles. Spidey Sense was nowhere in this, his ability to heal quickly, and his reporter angles were also omitted. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that all of New York knew he was Spiderman. All except for Aunt May. I must say that no matter how old Sally Field gets she is still too sexy to play Aunt May. The wrestling angle and the slaying of Uncle Ben were too rushed in my opinion. Lizard seemed too powerful to be foiled by the weaker watered down version of Spiderman. Maybe Mr. Webb believed he was more qualified than anyone else because of his name. Even the explanation of how he got bitten was never properly explored. Garfield has a James Dean like quality in his acting and you felt as if you were more comfortable watching PP outside of the costume because Spiderman's identity was never truly developed. I would recommend watching the first two Raimi Spiderman movies than this watered down hapless version. The ending left you dissatisfied as if you were given a Whopper without any meat.