Before I write up this entry, I just want to say, wow.  Even seconds after posting up an entry I’ve gotten several likes and a new subscriber to this blog, hahaha.  Thanks so much to those who are reading, and welcome to all the newcomers.  I’m excited that readership for this blog is steadily growing, I really couldn’t ask for more.

Now onto The Amazing Spider-Man.

It’s been a while since I’ve watched the movies featuring Tobey Maguire as our friendly neighborhood web slinger, and from what I can recall, only the first one of the trilogy was really worth watching.  Again, if memory serves, I think this movie is almost like an alternate-reality version of Maguire’s first movie.  They share some similarities and yet are nothing alike.

If you were to ask me which movie I liked more, or thought was better, I don’t think that I could fairly answer that because I think Garfield and Maguire came at the role from very different angles.  I think the best way I can describe it is that I felt the Spider-Man trilogy was a lot darker and more serious; the characters also seemed a lot older.  In The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker is much younger, and far less experienced.  In fact, the Peter Parker in this new movie is a lot sloppier than Maguire’s version; he’s not very good at keeping his identity secret, and he relies on help from others a lot more than I remember happening when Maguire played the role.

I didn’t have high expectations for this movie prior to seeing it, and I think I would have passed it altogether had the trailer for it not caught my interest.  Luckily it had, and though I was initially dreading the fact that it was 2 hours and 16 minutes long, I can honestly say it only felt like an hour and some; I think they paced everything quite well.  The only two things that didn’t quite work for me (that I also found mildly amusing) was that neither the “school bully” nor “The Lizard” could seem to decide whether to be mean or nice towards Peter Parker/Spider-Man.  Especially The Lizard.  **MINI-SPOILER ALERT** I found it odd that all it took to defeat him and give him a change of heart was to just foil his plans at world domination, hahaha.  I feel like most “evil” characters would just go back to the drawing board and snarl at the protagonist to watch their back, they’ll return bigger and stronger, they will have something better up their sleeve next time, etc.

Overall, this movie was actually a lot better than I was expecting it to be, and of the three movies I’ve seen in the past week, this was definitely the best one.

FINAL VERDICT: B+

This is definitely a lighter take on our favorite web hero and different enough that you don’t feel as if you’re watching a carbon copy of the Maguire version, which depending on what your hopes for this movie are, may or may not be a good thing.