Andrew Garfield of the The Social Network fame takes over Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man and Peter Parker and he’s done the job well. He plays the high school nerd in the film but when he realizes that he’s got the power of Spider-Man, after the spider bite, of course, he’s not so much a nerd. [break]
Playing his girlfriend is Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and she’s done a good job, too. The chemistry between the two teenage lovers on screen is not bad at all.
Practically speaking, no complaints about the movie’s cinematography or the editing or anything else for that matter, but the story and the 3D effects were much of a disappointment.
In the previous series of Spider-Man directed by Sam Raimi, how Uncle Ben dies is portrayed completely differently in this edition directed by Marc Webb, and you may be a little confused as to how Uncle Ben really dies. But the fact that the parents of Parker are finally revealed in the movie gives a whole new angle to the story.
And Parker is actually bitten by a radioactive spider and not a normal one, like shown in the previous sequels. Also, the financially weak Parker seems to be a brilliant little scientist with interest in photography. If the movie is supposed to be a prequel, how does he land up working for a daily newspaper as a photographer? He’s supposes to a genius little nerd who solves equations left over by his dad, which eventually brings doom to New York City, and as Spider-Man, he takes it on himself to solve the problem. But the stories still don’t mix and match together.
The story all begins after Parker finds a briefcase of his father who’s supposed to be a brilliant scientist. He tries to understand his parents’ disappearance and lands up being good friends with Dr Curt Connors played by Rhys Ifans, his father’s best friend, who eventually turns out to be a man with an alter-ego willing to create a world without suffering and he turns into a lizard who talks.
Also worth mentioning is the special cameo appearance of Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan who’s done a pretty good job. But his character disappears shortly after the interval. What happened to him? I have no clue. Do you?
The 3D effects in the movie, adversely to my expectation, were depressing. Some parts of the movie have fantastic 3D effects, but not really during the 136 minutes-long film. The movie doesn’t have a momentum.
All in all, the movie is, well, OK to watch. But, like I said, don’t be expecting too much out of it. For Spider-Man fans, it’s a bit too much of a letdown to handle. But like one of my friends said, “If you love Spider-Man, you love Spider-Man, and not the movie.”
Screening at QFX Cinemas.
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