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Review: Life Of Pi – ala mode makes Pie disappear faster

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Just saw Life of Pi.  It’s about Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, a teenage Indian boy who’s family is moving to Canada, and along with them the animals in their zoo, they’re going to sell the animals to someone in the Americas.  While on the transport ship they run in to a storm and the ship sinks.  Pi manages to get on a life boat and so he must survive.  Sounds simple enough.

The good; the movie looks amazing.  The images are stunning.  Did they use a real tiger at all?  I can’t tell.  The journey of Pi in the middle of endless ocean is remarkably covered.  Much like Castaway we manage to be enthralled by a single focus point, and the emotional beats are certainly there.
Did I mention that the movie looks great?  Ang Lee paints wonderful images.

The bad; it’s Castaway with a Indian boy and a Tiger, or Open Water, or Frozen … see where I’m going?  The journey of the film is nothing new.  Ang Lee manages to stretch out a smaller amount of story in to a feature length film.  I don’t plan on seeing this film again, it doesn’t have replay value to me.  But I am glad having seen it.
The film brings up the question of God and his role in our lives, but then quickly drops it, much like the lack-luster Prometheus.  I would’ve liked some more dwelling on this inner struggle, there’s a lot of time spent on the ocean isolated, this eternal question should’ve had more time devoted to it.

Overall, I enjoyed watching Life of Pi, don’t need to see it again, but I was left wanting some more.  Something new that I hadn’t seen in the other similar movies mentioned above.
*SPOILER* The ending sort of bugged me, where Pi is being interviewed as to what happened with the ship wreck, the survival story of the Tiger and other animals… compared to humans on the ship?  The Tiger is Pi, the Zebra is the kind Japanese Sailor, the Jackal is the French Cook… I’m not sure what the point of that was?  Is it supposed to be like Fight ?  I just didn’t see why the metaphor with the animals had to be there, but that could be because of the book. *END SPOILER*

Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in to a little song and dance

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I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey this weekend.  Is it me?  Or is the Sherman Oaks Arclight degrading?  The audience there as of late has become that of a dollar theatre.
Back to the movie, it’s the first in a prequel trilogy to that of Lord of the Rings.  We follow a young Bilbo Baggins as he embarks on a journey through Middle-Earth.  A Dwarf King is seeking to reclaim his rightful mountain kingdom from a dragon that’s occupying it now, he needs help, and that’s where Bilbo joins their merry gang.  We also get to see some familiar faces along the way.

The good;  the score, I love Howard Shore’s music.  Its swelling grandeur really compliments those wide shots.  This is the exception where a prequel actually worked for me.  We’re again brought in to the world of Middle-Earth, a time and place where not much changes in terms of technology.  So I’m ok with this, it’s not like a sci-fi prequel, where the technology of the world is far better in the past than it is in the future.
Speaking of music, there’s singing in this movie!  I actually wanted more songs.

Martin Freeman is great as the young Bilbo.

The bad; there are certain scenes where there’s too much going on, the frames are just too busy, one example that comes to mind is the mining caves.
I realize that the work of literature, The Hobbit, story, where it is one.  It felt more epic, when it wasn’t, it’s a very straight forward story without any twists or turns.

Overall, I enjoyed An Unexpected Journey,  it was delightful seeing the shire again, as well as some familiar faces of Middle-Earth.  I’m now curious to see it in forty eight frames 3D.  The scene with Gollum is amazing, the emotions that they get out of his computer generated face was frighteningly real and… well emotive.  It was a treat seeing that scene filmed live action, we all know the scene from the Bass/Rankin The Hobbit.
Still uncertain why this is a trilogy, but my butt will be in the theatres.

Review: Wreck-It Ralph wrecks the box office

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I saw Wreck-It Ralph this weekend and apparently so did everyone else.  It’s about Ralph, the villain in an old 8-Bit game called Fix-It Felix Jr, who is fed up of being the bad guy, so he game jumps and decides to find his own destiny.

The Good:

Where to start… where to start… the humor is great, lots of stuff for the grownups who grew up with 8-bit games.  When they’re in Game Central Station there are a lot of characters from other games, Wreck-It Ralph is the Who Framed Roger Rabbit of video games.  I enjoyed seeing all the other characters throughout the movie, as well as the other arcade machines that pass time in the arcade.

The animation is top notch.  Each game is a separate world and the characters that inhabit that world behave and look differently.  An example is Ralph’s world, the inhabitants of the apartment of Niceland behave in short quick movements, almost with a staccato beat, which is very evocative of the 8-bit world in which their video game takes place in.  Then we go on to Hero’s Duty where everything is in high def with lots of action going on in the background.  Next we visit Sugar Rush where the world is made up of some form of candy.  A standard movie takes time establishing one world in which the protagonist lives in, with its own set of rules in the case of sci-fi or fantasy, but with Wreck-It Ralph we’re treated to at least three other worlds, amazing that the filmmakers were able to accomplish that.

My main praise for this film has got to be the story.  The story is what grabbed me immediately, from the beginning Ralph is a relate-able character and his journey is one that is simple yet complicated in its own way.  The arc of the story is very very similar to Brave and The Iron Giant.  The ending especially reminded me of The Iron Giant.

The Bad:

I don’t think I have anything to put here.  Only that people will immediately dismiss this film as being a cartoon and not an animated film.  “I don’t watch cartoons,” to those of you whom this applies to… I say, stretch your brain, and allow yourself to experience something new, it might shock and amaze you.  And if it doesn’t, then you have no soul and you should have a doctor look in to that.

Overall:

I cannot recommend this movie enough.  There’s something for everyone, it’s a throw back to the 8-bit games that pioneered video game entertainment industry, as well as a commentary on the state of video gamer entertainment today, but above all it’s touching and moving in the right places.  I predict a best animated feature nom.

Another bonus is the short Paperman that we got before the main feature, what a pleasant little treat.

It’s also great to see all the other video games, here are some to name a few; Bowser, Paperboy, Ryu, Ken, Blanka, Pac-Man, M. Bison, Zangeif, Chung-Li, Sonic, Q*Bert, Frogger, Princess Daisy…

Review: Cloud Atlas – in which the Wachowskis do it again… sigh

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Saw Cloud Atlas this evening.  It’s difficult to say that this movie is about… but I shall attempt it.
It’s about characters in different parts of their lives and how everything is connected no matter the distance between time and space.

The good; the cast, Tom Hank, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant… the movie is peppered with wonderful actors and everyone delivers a great performance.

What else… what else… the music, the Cloud Atlas Sextet is beautiful.  It’s also filmed very well, the images look amazing.

The bad; everything else.  What is this movie about?
*SPOILERS* At the end of the movie I was left with this “message”… history repeats itself and it takes death and sacrifice to change the flow of things.  How are these notions new to us?  A simple message was beaten down, drug out until all the blood drained from its supple carcass… and then that continued for about three hours.  A short film could’ve conveyed the same message more effectively.

Why the run time of one hundred sixty four minutes?  Several different stories inter cut and interwoven together to create a tapestry of prosthetic make up and wigs.  The edits were oddly chosen, we get a scene in the nineteen seventies cut with one from eighteen ninety with little more than a verbal transition connecting the two.  The actors don’t even play the same characters reincarnated…  the editing caters to the self diagnosed ADD masses of today, for shame.

The Wachowskis are hit or miss, I love The Matrix, the first and only movie of the franchise, I enjoyed V for Vendetta, and I’m in the minority on this one, but  I enjoyed Speed Racer as well.  But Cloud Atlas manages to lose me on every front.

Also, there’s this; http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/matrix.asp 

A rumor circling small circles that Sophia Stewart won a lawsuit for ideas she had for The Matrix, completely false, do yourself a favor and read the full story.

Overall skip Cloud Atlas.  Just cause a movie has big name actors does not necessarily make for an excellent movie.  Southland Tales had a huge cast list and was a mini reunion for SNL alumni… if the cast is your only reason for seeing a film, I shake my head at you, you’re the reason why marketing is what makes a movie, rather than the content.
My prediction is that it’ll get nominations for best adapted screenplay and best make up.

PS. don’t sit next to a stupid Asian girl who reacts at everything… we know that actors are playing multiple characters in this movie, but don’t point them out every time you recognize one of them through their make up, what is this?  A Where’s Waldo game?  When something tragic or scary happens, don’t make an audible.  If that’s how you are through life, please don’t go to Disneyland, it’ll be sensory overload and your brain might explode… on second thought, stop what you’re doing now and go to Disneyland.

Review: Argo – in which Affleck does the Bieber

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Saw Argo this weekend, directed by Ben Affleck, and inspired by true events about six American diplomats rescued from Tehran in nineteen seventy nine during the Iran Hostage Crisis.

The good; knowing the ending of this movie, cause it’s a true event, so anyone with novice computer skills can look up how the real story happened.  Much like Valkyrie or Titanic (to a lesser extent), I found myself caring and at the edge of my seat during the climax of the film.  Bravo, when the simple act of a plane taking off receives an applause from the audience.  And that’s not a spoiler, for those of us who can read, and learn something from history.

The casting is great, I found myself caring for all the characters, not just the Americans, but everyone… the hostages, the bureaucrats, everyone.

There are lots of in-Hollywood jokes, was not expecting that many.

I keep thinking back to the writing and directing.  The two melded together beautifully to create an atmosphere of danger and tension.  And what’s more is that it was able to be sustained throughout the film.

The bad; Affleck’s hair, it’s a little distracting and it took some getting used to.  I can’t find anything to place in this section.  But I can think of what people will not like, so let’s go with that… yeah.

Not a lot of action, this film is methodical and slower paced.  Argo is classified as a “thriller” movie… with that genre comes certain expectations and sign posts.  So the average movie going public will probably be disappointed that most of Argo is a bunch of people talking, much like Tinker, Sailor, Soldier, Spy.

Overall Argo is great, it’s the first film on my radar to scream best picture.  I waited a week to see it and it’s still getting applause in the theatres, not sure if at a carnal level that it speaks to our patriotism, but it does evoke a certain emotion given the current state of things abroad.

Argo is well thought out, and historically it’s an amazing story that deserves to be told.  My prediction, best picture and best adapted screenplay nominations.

*[excerpt from the trailer, and of course the movie]*
John Chambers: [after telling him his plan to get the hostages out] Let me get this straight, you want to come to Hollywood, make a fake movie, and do nothing?
Tony Mendez: That’s right.
John Chambers: [Smiles] You’ll fit right in!

Frankenweenie

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Frankenweenie is the latest from Tim Burton. From his previous short film, this feature length version is about a boy who loses his dog and longs to bring him back, a modern take of Frankenstein.

The good; it’s black and white, I mean, who else does black and white these days? Love the feel that it adds and you don’t even notice.

The film starts off right away introducing us to Victor, our main character, we waste no time connecting with him, bravo in the way they were able to pull that off. Granted, it’s sorta biased to people like me, film school graduates and what not.

At first I thought, “why make this a full length feature film, when the short film was fine?” But they made wonderful additions to fill the runtime of a feature. We get more characters and complications in the plot, building to a wonderful ending.

There’s a nice touch with the science teacher and his view on science. As Victor’s mentor he’s a shapeshifting one, you don’t know if it’s a good guy or a bad guy, he’s designed to scream bad guy but his message to Victor, as well as the audience, is surprisingly meaningful… wrapped in humor at times.

The bad; not much here, you either love Tim Burton’s character design style or you don’t. Personally, I didn’t mind it, but I can see it turning others off.
This isn’t necessarily a kid’s movie, I’d say it’s for mature kids, kids that can comprehend what’s going on, and see the deeper message behind the scary images. There are some frightening scenes, which help punctuate the message of responsibility and love.

Overall, worth watching. The setting is timeless, not exactly a period piece, but just a timeless suburban small town that may or may not have existed in history, except in the way that we remember it. It was also great to see the cast of the original short film thanked at the end. John August and Tim Burton have teamed up again for another success.

 

Looper

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Saw Looper this weekend, it’s about a near future where criminals have time travel abilities. Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a Looper and he kills people that the “mob” wants dead, they’re sent to the past where Joe shoots them and disposes of the body. One instance Joe hesitates and chaos ensues.

The good; time travel, it’s got time travel.  The premise is very interesting, considering the film takes place in the near future of 2044, time travel being invented relatively soon.  There’s also a lot of touches with the production design for this world of 2044, which aren’t addressed directly but are just present.  Some examples are the solar power technology, it’s just everywhere, the vehicles are solar converted, and there are panels everywhere, on house and things, a lovely element to make the world believable.

*Possible SPOILERS* Loopers get paid in silver bars, they find these bars on the backs of the people they kill from the future, when they’re “paid out” the bars are gold, this usually means that they’ve killed their future self to keep the mob clean.  Joe encounters Old Joe (Bruce Willis) during one of his assignments.  This is basically where the time travel stops, because now it’s Joe versus Joe.
What’s great about this part of the movie is that two actors are playing the same person, but they’re not the same character.  Young Joe and Old Joe are two different people with different motivations.  Typically when one version of oneself meets oneself they are allies, but here the relationship between the two remains adversarial, bravo for that.
*END SPOILERS*

The ending was very satisfying… and it fades to white.

The bad; it’s got time travel, I know I mention this in the above, but there is very little time travel, it’s used more as a device to get things started, like a red herring.  Once we get into the movie that’s all we get of time travel.  So I was torn on how to feel about it at this point.
On the one hand, I wanted more time travel, that stuff just fascinates me, and then on the other hand, I liked where it was going with the two Joes.

*SPOILERS* We reach the middle of the movie where a plot point is revealed, and it doesn’t feel organic, this kid named Cid possesses powerful telekinetic abilities that are raw and emotion induced.  Young Joe finds himself protecting Cid and Emily Blunt from anyone that might be looking for him as well as them.  It felt like we left the whole time travel hook completely and are now in a last stand sort of movie where Young Joe has to protect the homestead.
Then there’s the “sex scene” that didn’t really add anything to the movie, and it cut before it got graphic, so why have it at all?

Overall, I enjoyed watching Looper.  Got me thinking and talking about it after the movie, but not in a bad way.  Time travel movies are always tricky, this one does a nice job hooking you in and then takes a turn, for better or for worse?  I can’t say, that’s up to you and how much your mind is willing to stretch and work up a sweat.

Lawless

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I attended a Q & A screening of Lawlesslast night, thanks to Jeff Goldsmith.  The film is another team up by director John Hillcoat and screenwriter Nick Cave, who previously brought us The Road and The Proposition.  This film is based on the book entitled The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant.  It’s about the Bondurant brothers during the prohibition era in Franklin County Virginia, they make moon shine and have run ins with no so nice people.  The film stars Tom Hardy, Shia LeBeouf, Jessica Chastain, Guy Pearce, Mia Wasikowska and Gary Oldman.

The good; it’s Hillcoat and Cave collaborating again, I love their movies.  They manage to blend two genres together, the western and the gangster/mob genre, this melding is much better than that of Public Enemies.
The acting is great, there’s a great sense of family with the Bondurant brothers, normally I don’t like Shia Le-Beef, but in Lawless he’s casted perfectly as the young brother Jack.
Tom Hardy’s portrayal of Forrest, the brains behind the operation, is wonderful, he reminds me of Clint Eastwood in a western, long stares with minimal dialog.
Guy Pearce plays Special Agent Charlie Rakes, and is creepy as all hell.

The action and violence is gritty and visceral.  It gives this film that wild west feel, where frontier justice ruled over any authority.  The pacing is methodical, but not to the point of being slow, and these moments are then punctuated with scenes of violence.

The music for the film is great as well, it’s done by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (non-comic book).  The score feels period appropriate but then there are songs with lyrics and even those songs are done as if they came from that time.  Great choices.

The bad; it does detract from history, but then again the movie is “based” on a true story.
There’s not enough Gary Oldman, his introduction in the film is superb, I wanted more of him.  We’re introduced to his character, Floyd Banner a wanted gangster, through the eyes of Jack, we see this brutal act of violence with a sense of longing and romanticism that influential youths have, this is what leads him down the road to criminal activity.

Overall a gem of a movie, I can’t wait to see Hillcoat’s next movie, I hope he teams up with Cave again.  During the Q & A Hillcoat mentioned that it’s hard for him to make films in this country, USA, cause there’s not enough time, things are rushed.  I couldn’t agree more.  When people talk about Grindhouse cinema, I might argue that that period of filmmaking never ceased, it just became the  norm.  I highly recommend this movie.

Oh and don’t sit next to old people during movies… during the Q & A this guy brought out a book and started reading…

Premium Rush

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I saw Premium Rush this weekend.  It’s about Wilee (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who’s a bike messenger in New York.  He gets a delivery and from there it spirals down into a world of complications as he tries to just make the delivery.  Sound simple enough right?

The good; this movie is slick, I mean it’s a fairly straight forward story, but the integrate some nice devices.  Wilee uses his smart phone to plot the course to the destination, we get to see this on the big screen, it’s an advertisement for google maps, new gps and the like.  What could’ve easily become a gimmick actually worked well.
Another thing they used reminded me of the Dragon’s Lair cartoon series that came out after the popular arcade game, where Dirk would imagine different scenarios of how to overcome an obstacle, this was also used much later in the CG Action Man cartoon series, but the film uses it as Wilee’s judgement on how to navigate through traffic safely.
They also incorporate non-linear editing with the way they tell the story, and I like it in this case.  We start the movie with an accident shot in slow mo, the movie rewinds to earlier that day, but then it continues to do this through out the film because events are overlapping each other, it was quite impressive to see the same scene covered from a different angle at a further point in the movie.

Wilee as a character is great, Gordon-Levitt plays a very good everyman-good hearted guy.  The script focuses and allows us to understand who Wilee is, his set of rules that he lives by and why he lives by them, we really got to know his motivations and routing for him wasn’t forced.  I gotta hand it to Gordon-Levitt, he did a lot of peddling for this movie.  They also nicely employed the use of a stunt man to do the more tricky bike stunts, this is one instance where motion blur was used to mask that fact, bravo, very well done.

The bad; this movie will under perform, I don’t know who to blame for this one.
Wilee not only has an antagonist in the form of a suit wearing Michael Shannon, but he’s also got bike messenger rival Manny.  Physically this guy looks like he could out peddle Wilee any day, but his “roid” usage and multi-gear bike loses out to Wilee’s endurance and smarts.  So not only is Manny the heel as a messenger but he’s also the love interests’ rival.  If Manny’s role was more prominent it would’ve felt forced, but his presence was appropriate.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie, when I said that the eighties were back I meant it.  Premium Rush felt very much like an eighties movie, but not of the action ilk, just more of an average Joe (pun intended) getting caught up in something crazy that interrupts his everyday world.  Other movies that come to mind are Gleaming the Cube and No Way Out.  Premium Rush is  written and directed by David Koepp, you might know him more for the movies his written; Men in Black 3, Angels and Demons, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, War of the Worlds, Zathura, Spider-Man, Jurassic Park, The Lost World Jurassic Park… well done with Premium Rush Mister Koepp, now I know that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’s failure rests all on George Lucas.
The story of this film is strong and that’s why the so called gimmicks of non-linear story telling, integrated computer usage and multiple outcomes works.  Future movies, please take note, focus on the story first and don’t let the tricks be the focus.

PS. it also doesn’t hurt that the movie is bookended with Baba O’Riley by The Who, hehe.

The Expendables 2

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The Expendables 2 opened this weekend.  I haven’t looked forward to a movie since The Dark Knight Rises, and boy did this movie deliver.  It’s about a team of mercenaries that get hired to recover something in a crashed plane, they wander through some third-world European country and find a bad guy that they need to take down.  Simple enough right?

The good; the opening sequence.  It starts off with a condensed version of the first movie, the team comes in guns-ablazing (as if there were any other way) and they pretty much decimate this Nepalese hide out.  Seeing this masterpiece in the Arclight Dome was perfect, the screen was adequately large so I could see all the bodies flying and being eviscerated, and then the sound was in my face!  It’s the only way to go.
What an opening to a movie, the thing felt twenty minutes long if it was a yard… is that a saying?  Explosions, body count, bullets, cheesy lines – The eighties are/is back, with a vengeance.

We get the old team back together with some additions and we even get more time with Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The first film had all three of these action stars in one scene, the sequel integrates all them in to the plot, very very enjoyable.  The back and forth with Willis and Schwarzenegger during the shoot out is that first scene in the church amplified and then fuel injected, these guys are such great sports to have done that scene.

The action is amazing, they were able to re-create the tone and feel of the first movie, why can’t other sequels follow this mold?

Van Damne!  He’s in the theatres again!  And we also get Chuck Norris!  These are not spoilers, if you’ve seen the trailers and advertisements you know that these two are in this movie.

How did all these action stars come together to make this greatness?  Please give us a third one.

The bad; I don’t know if there’s much to put here.
I would’ve liked to have seen more Chuck Norris… I know that sounds weird, but with the tone of this movie, they really could’ve played up his part in it all.  It felt as though they only had him for a small window of time, because the bulk of his time is taken doing Total Gym infomercials, but most of his scenes he was in a cutaway of him shooting and kickin’ butt.  The only real time he was with the cast was his introduction.

Van Damne’s death scene was too short, I would’ve liked some more in his last fight.  The man can still kick, that’s for sure.
His hence men were lacking, there should’ve been a pecking order that the team had to work up to before they get to the big boss.  The first film had Stone Cold and Gary Daniels before you got to Eric Roberts, I wanted that repeated for this sequel.

Schwarzenegger mentions that he’s got his team waiting when he meets the Expendables team… what if the team from the first Predator movie showed up as his team, tell me you wouldn’t want to see that?

Overall it was everything I wanted and it certainly delivered.  So avoid this movie if you don’t want  your expectation met or if you weren’t around for the eighties action movie.  This sequel delivers and satisfies.

The Dark Knight Rises

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Just saw The Dark Knight Rises. It’s about Bruce Wayne and his one man war on crime. This time it’s eight years after the last movie, The Dark Knight, Bruce’s body is worn down (like an athlete) and so is his faith in people. There’s a plot to destroy Wayne Enterprises and Gotham, which bring both Bruce and Batman out of “retirement.”

The good; the movie is about three hours long, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. It had me pretty much on the seat of my pants the entire time, beautifully edited.

The acting is great. Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, love me some Anne Hathaway. Much like Charlize Theron in Prometheus, Anne Hathaway’s in that catsuit most of the time, no complaints there.
Gary Oldman as the ever faithful Gordon.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Blake.  Tom Hardy as Bane.  Michael Caine as Alfred the father-figure.  Everyone delivers a wonderful performance.

The Bat, flying thing, what’s great about these movies is the science and logic behind the technology, they make it believable. From the movie physics of the Bat-Pod to the Bat vehicle, I just love it all cause when you watch it move on screen you think, “yeah, that’s how that would move.”

The bad; oddly enough, I do have some complaints. There wasn’t enough Batman, when you’re watching the movie you don’t really notice this, but thinking back, Bruce Wayne is Batman in the end of the first act, and then at the of the third act, I kinda wanted more Batman-time… on screen that is.
Bane’s voice – in the comic books he’s supposed to be Latin-American, I don’t know what accent he has in the movie, but it’s obviously dubbed and very stage present-ish.  In a shot where he’s in the far background of the scene his voice is still coming in very present at the center channel, that bugged me.

*SPOLIER* When Bane breaks Batman’s back, it doesn’t take him long to recover, there could’ve been more passage of time at this point. His back goes from a vertebrae protrusion to doing push ups and scaling the wall to freedom.

*SPOILER* The ending, very easy, almost too easy, and predictable. Much like Nolan’s previous movie Inception, this one ends in a montage and we’re given information visually. Alfred is away on holiday and sees Bruce just like he’d imagined years and years before Batman showed up, he’s sitting at a table with Selina. I wonder how it would’ve been if they’d taken the ambiguity of Inception’s ending and applied it to The Dark Knight? Leaving us with Alfred’s forming smile instead of cutting to Bruce at the table? And then to have Blake’s character’s real name be Robin? That almost felt like the studio pushed that onto the movie. Don’t get me wrong, I liked that the cowl and mantle would be passed along, but why dumb it down?

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, despite the criticisms I state above. I guess I’m so critical of this new film because I extremely enjoyed the previous films
Definitely worth watching on the big screen, and what a way to end a trilogy.

The Amazing Spider-Man

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Saw The Amazing Spider-Man, it is a reboot.  We all know the story, nerd-loner Peter Parker gets bitten by a radio-active spider, he gains super powers and his Uncle Ben dies in the process.  He learns some life lessons and is the better for it.  But this film does add something different.

The good; I like the swinging scenes, I didn’t think I was going to like the video game like FPS POV angle, but it worked, and it wasn’t over used.  They got a lot of those classic Spider-Man poses in, always love when the film imitates the comic.  The fight scenes with the Lizard are very well done, I love the use of the web-shooters and how they’re choreographed in to the fighting.

Andrew Garfield doesn’t do a bad job, he’s like-able enough and believable enough as the nerd high schooler.  Denis Leary is great as George Stacey, I’ll probably enjoy everything he does anyway.

Without spoiling too much, we get Peter’s parents’ backstory, which is a nice touch.  But that plot line, along with the murderer of Uncle Ben go unresolved by the end of the movie.  Yet, it didn’t bother me at all when the credits roll… strange.

There’s a rather cheesy scene as we approach the climax of the third act that involves Spider-Man being helped by the “common working-class man,” but it works.

The bad; a lot of CG usage.  I miss having a stunt man that has the physical prowess to perform what’s needed of the character.  I miss practical effects, while it takes limitations off of the filmmakers we also lose a sense of, “wow, how’d they do that?”  I remember watching this.
Sure it’s dated, but it’s a guy actually climbing up a building and swinging and doing stuff.

We don’t get any resolution with Uncle Ben’s murderer, Peter goes out in search of this thug and doesn’t find him like he did in the previous franchise.  We also never find out the whole truth of what happened to his parents… I know I put this in the good section, but why were we given these plot threads to begin with?  If they’re going to reboot the franchise and start over with another origin story, why not give us this “new” part of the origin?  Why does everything have to be a trilogy these days?

The scene where the Lizard emerges from the sewers and on to New York’s streets with his bag of “goodies” is so the Sony lot, hahaha, but that wouldn’t bug anyone else but THIS GUY.

Overall, I actually did enjoy this movie.  It wasn’t the best, but considering that first trailer left such a bad taste in my mouth, my expectations were low, then it turns out that it isn’t the worst of the worst, so I was able to enjoy this.  They mentioned Norman Osborn without showing him, such a delight.  Dangling plotlines were unresolved, but masked well so that I didn’t care while watching the movie.  I wish they would’ve had more of the Jekyll/Hyde thing going on with the Lizard.  Andrew Garfield and Marc Webb do a very good job, they were able to craft a story without the set piece of the Daily Bugle or J. Jonah Jameson.

*SPOILER* or speculation… there is a scene during the credits, so stay and read the names of all the people that worked so hard to bring you this film, cause you should… know how to read that is, hahaha.
But Doc Connors is placed in prison, he then sees and talks to a mysterious man… who is this person?  We never see his face.  Is he the voice that’s talking to Connors in his sewer lab?  Is Connors crazy and talking to a dual personality?  Is it Norman Osborn?  Certainly a man that rich can buy his way in to prison.  Or… is it Richard Parker?  Since we never really find out what happened to him???  Dun dun… dunnnnn, Kurtzman and Orci better not screw up the sequel… one can hope write?  See what I did there??