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Movies opening up this weekend are: The Amazing Spider-Man, Savages and Katy Perry: Part of Me.
Director Marc Webb, who wowed us with (500) Days of Summer, replaces Sam Raimi as the director – Andrew Garfield, who was amazing in Red Riding Trilogy, replaces Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man/Peter Parker – Emma Stone replaces Kirsten Durnst as the love interest, this time playing Gwen Stacey instead of Mary Jane Watson. Like Christopher Nolan did with the Batman franchise, Marc Webb has come along and rebooted Spider-Man a mere 5 years after the last one Spider-Man 3, the BIG question is, was it necessary?
In terms of Sony’s maintaining the rights to keep making the movies and not letting the rights revert back to Marvel Entertainment/Disney, they had to make this film now or lose the rights. Director Sam Raimi couldn’t do it, so rather than having Tobey and the rest of the cast suit up under another director’s vision or force another director to ape Raimi’s unique style – the decision was made to reboot the whole thing including the kitchen sink. The fact that the last Spider-Man movie, part 3, was pretty much disliked by everyone, made it an even easier decision.
The result, is a Spider-Man movie that’s a bit different than what we’ve seen before. Garfield’s Peter Parker is still a bit of a geek and a loner than the Parker that Maguire played, but so has what we consider a “geek”. By comparison, Maguire was so much a social outcast, that he was almost unlikable outside the Spidey costume. At times it was hard to imagine someone cool like Harry Osborn being his friend or someone hot like MJ be interested in him. He’s still a social outcast, but you know it’s more by the fact of being socially awkward than anything else. This is a Peter Parker who’s brooding, who feels like his parents abandoned and dumped him on his much older aunt and uncle, played by Sally Fields and Martin Sheen, it goes more to explain why he is the way he is. When he plays Spider-Man, he’s a bit more sarcastic, a bit more of a rebel. His Spider-Man is cool, and with mechanical web-shooters, not organic yucky ones.
Emma Watson as Gwen Stacey, is a revelation compared to Durnst as Mary Jane, she’s the girlfriend that you’ll fall in love with. If you’re a comic book fan, you’re probably already depressed by what will surely be happening in upcoming films if they keep her as a character. Dennis Leary is incredible as Captain George Stacey, a NYC cop who considers Spidey a vigilante who shouldn’t be out there doing a cop’s job. He brings a “real world” perspective to the debate over whether or not we’d accept these so-called “heroes”.
Rhys Ifans plays Dr. Curt Connors, who becomes the monstrous Lizard that Spidey ends up fighting. Compared to the rest of the movie, he almost feels shoe-horned in, which is not to say that he didn’t do a great job, just that he wasn’t really needed.
The main difference between the reboot and the Sam Raimi movies, is the focus on Peter’s parents who seemingly abandoned him. This focus wasn’t touched at all in Raimi’s movies and is scarcely a part of the comics themselves. It’s something that helps explain why Peter is the way that he is, and does help connect a lot of things together that normally wouldn’t. Peter is more of a brooding young kid with abandonment issues than some social outcast that most of us would have a hard time liking.
It’s a much different Spider-Man movie than what we saw before , but that’s really what you need after a director with as distinctive a voice as Raimi had. If you miss Raimi’s vision, you can still buy Spider-Man DVD’s cheap, this is something new that you’ll have fun and be entertained by!
Oliver Stone is back and directing a story about a bunch of friends who are pot farmers, whose idyllic life is broken up when a Mexican cartel decides to essentially take them over. They decide to fight back with the aid of a dirty DEA agent played by John Travolta. It’s an over-the-top uber-violent movie that has dark humor and convincing performances. It’s a great crime thriller that will keep you watching and entertained.
Both a concert movie, as well as a “behind the scenes” documentary, it’s fun because it’s Katy Perry. If you’re a fan, you’ll have fun watching this, if you’re not – it won’t mean much to you anyways.
