Considering that I had been bitten by a variety of bugs during the past week, I thought it fitting that I should take myself to see The Amazing Spider-Man.
It’s state of the art, with Star Trek lights and superior, dramatic sound that envelops the audience—and that’s just the theatre. Spider-Man was in 3D at the newly opened Landmark Cinema Xtreme on the Westside.
So I took my comfy, pre-assigned seat already knowing the well-told Spider-Man story and, frankly, I felt that while there might be an upgrade in special effects, there would be no big surprises.
While the show started out a bit slow, it picked up and provided some interesting twists and plot turns, while keeping with the basic beginnings of the saga of which we are fairly familiar. Ah, remember when a web site was just the location of a spider’s nest? Well, those days are gone.
It’s in the second half of the film that most vestiges of the original Spider-Man, who fights to rid the city of small time hoods, changes and gives us a very new twist on the traditional—and yes, the special effects as well as the make-up are incredible.
There are surprises in the casting as well. We know that Andrew Garfield was picked to play Peter Parker (Spider-Man). Garfield was born in the U.S. and was brought up in England.
Emma Stone plays the love-interest Gwen, but here the cast gets interesting: Dennis Leary is Gwen’s policeman-father, Martin Sheen is Peter’s Uncle Ben, Sally Fields is Aunt May and Welsh-born Rhys Ifans of Notting Hill fame is Dr. Curt Connors.
Only Garfield as Spider-Man has a really big part, but they all seem to add, not take away, from the show and one does forget their collective celebrity—good acting all around.
I liked it, even though, strangely, my bug bites did seem to be more itchy during the two hours of watching spiders and other critters, but that could have been my imagination. And so far I haven’t seen any signs of having an affinity to flies, so I guess I’m OK.
A good line: “Secrets have a cost. They’re not ever free.”
So if you’re up for a little MARVEL Comic Book nostalgia go bond with your teenager and see The Amazing Spider-man. It’s entertaining and action packed and watching Garfield fly around in his skin tight suit is not too shabby either.
I give this Spider-Man 3 1/2 reels.
