Saturday, June 30, 2012

Film Review: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN


HOW COULD I MISS THIS ONE!



Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Chris Zylka
Director: Marc Webb

I am a great fan of super-heroes from Marvel Comics, so how could I miss this one? I have seen all three of Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman films and loved each one of them. Venkat was also interested and this time it was Vignesh, Venkat and me at the Imax Adlabs on the day of release. Incidentally, when I came out of the theatre at 11.15 pm, I caught Sonam Kapoor and a few of her friends waiting to go for the next show.

THE STORY:

The film begins with the Parker couple handing over their young son to his uncle and aunt - Ben (Martin Sheen) and May Parker (Sally Field). Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) grows up clueless as to why he had been abandoned by his parents. He does not have a lot of confidence and is often bullied by his schoolmates. He happens upon a briefcase with his father’s name on it. His life changes forever after that.

Peter goes to meet Dr. Curtis Connors (Rhys Ifans) who used to work with his father. He is bitten by a spider at Dr. Connors lab. Peter becomes Spider-man and inadvertently hands over the formula to Dr. Connors that converts him into The Lizard. The Lizard becomes a terrible danger and it’s up to The Amazing Spider-man to save the world.

MY PERCEPTION:

I did wonder the need to begin the Spiderman series all over again as we already have the ones with Tobey Maguire starring in them. But I suppose the character is so fascinating and Marc Webb had a different take on it. Webb is his surname – what a coincidence!

I remember seeing Andrew Garfield in The Social Network http://sundarivenkatraman.blogspot.in/2010/11/film-review-social-network.html where he plays Jesse Eisenberg’s partner Eduardo. He plays an amazing and realistic Spiderman, yeah, even better than Tobey Maguire. The comparison is automatic and cannot be helped. The story line is a bit different and maybe more acceptable.

Emma Stone as Gwen looks cute and has a smart role to play as the daughter of the police chief (Denis Leary).

Irrfan Khan from our very own Bollywood has a fairly chunky role to play. He is very good!

The story is of course typical of the genre and is all about Spiderman triumphing over The Lizard. It has been handled well and makes for an entertaining watch.

VERDICT: If you are a fan of superheroes, then you cannot miss this one.

RATING: ****Snazzy

*Silly
**Shaky
***Smart
****Snazzy
*****Super

1 comment: