4. No “With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility”
This comes with the complaint that Uncle Ben’s death lacked emotion, drama, and direness. I couldn’t disagree more. The scenes leading up to it were pure nostalgia and was paced as dramatic as it deserved. I thought Garfield and Sally Field’s scenes were brilliant in construction. Besides, do people really prefer Tobey Maguire’s blubbering attempt at crying?
And with that, comes Uncle Ben’s famous words – or lack thereof. I don’t get it. People complain about this movie being too cheesy, yet they demand quite possibly the cheesiest line this particular movie could handle. It would have felt beyond forced and completely uncharacteristic. What makes this movie so different is its intimacy and realness; tacking on these words would immediately bring this movie into blockbuster Hollywood land and would break the focus of the darker storyline. The Amazing Spider-Man was epic in its realness, not epic in its epicness.
Besides, the first three original films were built around this iconic line and brought it into public attention. It was so prevalent that the line is attached to the hip with the original series. To add the lines to the reboot would be to disrespect Raimi’s films and disregard them. Webb knows that with great power, comes great responsibility – that felt tacked on didn’t it? I thought so.
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10 Comments
I think my main criticism of the film has to do with the “untold story” of Peter’s parents being almost completely cut out. This mystery drives the beginning of the film but I believe the scene where we’d get the revelation about Peter’s father, similar to Ang Lee’s Hulk, was taken out for some reason. I feel this would have made it a more well-rounded film and I wonder if it’s possible that we’ll get a director’s cut or if this material be retconned for the sequel. I’m thinking it’ll be the latter.
Yeah, I know that’s probably one of the most common ones, but since I agree with it completely, I didn’t add it to this list. The teaser in the credits set up his “untold” story for the sequel so perhaps they’re just taking their time?
I liked it, I don’t care if people think it is “too soon”, it was a solidly entertaining film with two very talented leads.
I would have to disagree and say these are my main gripes.
1) Changing the origin story. I actually felt like they did a really good job with this. And I agree, to re-hash what Sam Raimi did would be utterly pointless at this time. BUT. Peter NOT wrestling, Gwen knowing who he really is (for reasons comic lovers would know), and Uncle Ben NOT saying the line for which comics Spider-Man bases his entire existence on is ridiculous.
2. Mean Spider-Man. Okay. So. I thought Andrew Garfield was a fantastic Peter Parker. Extremely nerdy and showed off the geek quite well, especially for a modern day nerd, so to speak. But it honestly felt like his Spider-Man was just too harsh. It wasn’t banter, it was him belittling the guys. It almost felt way too mean spirited to be Spider-Man.
3. Ease of Identity. Okay. So this one may be because I am, like previously stated, a giant nerd. But one of the biggest proponents to Spider-Man is the fact that he ABSOLUTELY will not show his identity to anyone. There is a select few who know, but other than that, he remains literally the man behind the mask. Raimi’s trilogy and this one go to very little extent to do this. In Raimi’s he rips off his mask and stops a train. In this one, he does it and tosses it to a little boy to wear. Some of the greatest moments in Spider-Man’s comics come from his conflict between the two lives he leads.
4. Too soon. This is pretty much on par with what you said, however, I feel like this hurt them because they were scared to go back over what had previously been told. They should have gone for broke with this film, realizing people will go see it regardless and realizing that it will do nothing but set up their larger universe in mind. The fact they chose to reboot this so soon and still omitted some obvious plot points is boggling.
Besides the “with great responsibility…” line was paraphrased anyway. It would have been cheesy as hell to include it. The very same meaning of the words was included in a speech by Uncle Ben and done in a way that, in my opinion, was much better than if he’d actually said the line verbatim. Fans should have enjoyed making the connection.
I thought The Amazing Spider-man was a great film, not as amazing as, say, The Dark Knight, but still worth the ticket. I have no doubts I’m gonna buy the DVD in – at this rate – three months time.
Everything you said was wrong. This movie was the epitome of the gritty-realistic-reeboot / moody-teen-romance that is ruining Hollywood. If I Peter Parker wearing one more muted-colored hoodie or fingerless gloves I’m going to explode
I am a big fan of spiderman. I loved raimi’s films(except spiderman 3). All would agree amazing spiderman is a good film if not great.
On other note, good article . Twilight references were bang on.
Do you work for Sony?
I have a hard time believing anyone honestly wants to defend this trainwreck.
Excellent article and I agree on all points. I felt the same way you did after walking out of the movie and I needed to see it again..two more times. I don’t understand any of the complaints except the last one about it being “too soon” but that’s nothing to hold against the movie. Many critics have said that to walk into this movie holding something against it is just unfair and means you’ll miss out on something great. After Spider-Man 3, I was ready for a palate cleanse and I got it.
This movie was indeed awesome. It was much closer to the comics. But I can agree with some of the flaws though. Regardless, it was still a great movie. And those two people above. Pfff, they’re just hating this movie because it’s a “reboot”. This movie was far better than SM1 or SM3. They just want their “Tobey” version back. Well, this movie still doesn’t beat Spider-Man 2.