This just came out here in Japan.
I really enjoyed this, it was about as good as you can expect a big modern tentpole movie to be...light years ahead of the usual Marvel stuff (dunno about Avengers, not out here yet).
I enjoyed it more than Raimi-Spiderman 1 and 3, and probably about the same as 2. It was emotionally involving, and pretty fast paced; the story was always moving along in a meaningful way. The cast was terrific...Garfield was believable and appealing as a slightly more edgy Peter Parker. The big advantage he has over Tobey Maguire is his physicality as Spiderman...the new Spiderman seems quicker and more powerful, and Garfield's athletic frame matches that choice.
Emma Stone was awesome. Both strong and cute and much easier on the eye than The Dunst. The relationship between her and Peter was the best thing in the film. Martin Sheen, Dennis Leary, Rhys Ifans; all very good. Sally Field as Aunt May was the weakest link I guess; not a bad performance, by any means, just not particularly outstanding.
The overall tone is a good balance between drama and fun. The Uncle Ben / Spidey Origin stuff does feel familiar, but there's enough new stuff - the relationship between Peter and Gwen, the back-story of Peter's parents, and the Lizard's story - to make the movie feel fresh enough. The climax of the movie is satisfying, and there's even a nice moment reminiscent of the train scene in Spiderman 2 where the general public reach out to support our hero.
Apart from the feeling of familiarity in the first half, the only other complaint I had was that the Lizard's intentions toward the end of the film were not particularly convincing. His plans for New York didn't really resonate with his character. But these gripes are pretty minor in the scheme of things. This was a good movie.
Random thoughts:
- Stan Lee's cameo was very fun!
- The score was OK I guess. I prefer Horner's Spiderman theme to Elfman's rather sad-sack theme.
- Peter Parker uses Bing??
- The film looks pretty good; more real-world than Raimi's Spiderman. I liked the first-person Spidey shots scattered through the movie.
- The special effects are pretty solid. Swinging Spidey is much more believable this time. The Lizard is menacing enough, but he does suffer a bit from the usual CG artificiality.
- The 3D was good. Maybe the glasses have got better, but the movie didn't even seem especially dark.
- Mechanical Web shooters: no problem in my book.
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