David’s reviews

My rating: Bazinga!

I really like this origin story for Spider Man. It’s unique, and different.

Photo by Sony Pictures

I liked the TASM universe’s approach to Spider Man. Off the bat, his parents have a role in his life, and how his life was deeply affected by his parent’s departure from his life. It’s shown the trauma he has because of it, always alluding to his father leaving him, and how much he resembles his father. Wanting to discover the truth of his parents deaths, he embarks on the journey which will eventually lead him to becoming Spider Man.

Garfield’s portrayal of Peter Parker resembles the modern nerd instead of the traditional nerd. He is a skater, and listens to pop/indie/alternative music. He dresses like a skater, and visually does not look like a nerd. Aside from the clothing, his Peter Parker is still very much a nerd, and a genius. He creates his own web-shooters in his garage/lab, he helps Dr. Connors with the equation for cross-species genetics, and he figures out the antidote for Dr. Connors lizard changing.

Garfield’s portrayal of Spider Man is amazing *pun intended*. He brings the unconventional humor and excessive talking of Spider Man. How he learned to become Spider Man was similar to his predecessor, but I liked it. His experiments with his web-shooters, his skating scene where he tests out his powers, and eventual progression of his Spider suits. I feel he used his homemade suit a few times, before making his own Spider Man suit. His swinging scenes, and first person point of view shots were unique, and entertaining. Their swinging scenes are the best of all of the Spider Man films.

One of my favorite scenes from this movie came from the swinging scene with the cranes. Much more than just the people helping him get to Oscorp and to defeat Lizard, it represented the people accepting him as Spider Man, and that he can help them. I really love that scene, and it makes you feel warm and fuzzy.

This film wasn’t the first film to portray Gwen Stacy, but I liked Stone’s portrayal of her. She was a genius and smarter than Peter. To this date there have been several portrayals of MJ and Gwen Stacy’s and potential love interests for Spider Man, but I feel to this date Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy stands out. Aside from being the love interest for Spider Man, she was a genius of her own, did fantastic in high school, and had an impressive internship with Oscorp.

Outside of the main villain in Dr. Connors, this film began to portray Oscorp as the behind-the-scenes villain. Oscorp is really seen as an evil company, and in the grand scheme is really the true villain that needs to be defeated. Norman Osborn is briefly mentioned through another character who practically threatens Dr. Connors into experimenting on injured veterans. And in a post-credit scene, Mr. Harbinger visits Dr. Connors in prison and asks him if he told Peter the truth, again feeding into the idea of Oscorp being an evil company.

My favorite scene of the whole movie is the final dialogue Peter has with Aunt May. After Gwen leaves, Peter is seen by the door and Aunt May makes a similar comment Uncle Ben had previously made regarding Gwen. “What a pretty girl! Have you asked her out? No. Why? Because I’m no good for her. Peter Parker, if there’s one thing you are its good, anybody has a problem with that can talk to me”. To me it made sense what he said. You can do everything right, but yet still feel less than, or you’re not good enough. I like this quote because it’s not true, he wasn’t a bad person, and if he couldn’t see it himself, there was someone there to assure him that he is wrong, and he is a good person.

Aside from these points, the movie was still an origin story, which was something we’ve seen before. We know he is bitten by a spider, we know he will assume a “great responsibility”, and we know he will take down a bad guy. Something the movie repeated and showed again. The film carries a serious tone throughout the whole movie, which makes it be dull and boring at some points.

I enjoy this movie a lot, it’s a comfort movie for me. If you haven’t give it a try, I hope you like it too.

By: David Rivera