Movie #645 ........................."The Amazing Spiderman" 2012

Movie #645 "The Amazing Spiderman" 2012 is a very tense drama, with good acting. I'm not quite sure why it had to be remade, but the fact that I enjoyed the first one, too, didn't take away from an enjoyment of this one, as well. Like "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo," I liked both renditions, but for different reasons. Not remembering a lot from the first Toby Maguire movie, I DO remember his dorkiness, his laid back sense of humor in approaching the whole Hero-thrust-upon-him motif. I'm not a huge fan of Dunst, but she was capable, and the bad guy was bad, but there was some intrigue and good conflict with the Franco character flirting with Dunst, etc. In this one, you have huge chemistry between Garfield and Emma Stone (perhaps because they ARE a twosome in real life or partly because they are such good actors, better than the original, but not by a whole lot)The aunts and uncles are comparable, but the Franco character is missing, and the bad guy here is quieter and there's more to him (I've always been a Rys Ifans fan since he danced in his underwear in "Nottinghill") I really thought Emma was terrific and made everyone look good who shared screen time with her, and I was very impressed with Garfield (as I was in watching him in "Social Network") --- he's so awkward, angry inside, so real as a teenager. But then you've got him fighting lizards, so unreal, so in that way, the film went back and forth from "this is really happening" to "now this is just plain silly" ---- one complaint I had with this version is that there's a lot manipulation in the plot --- This runs 136 minutes (and make sure you stay and watch the end credits) so it's long already, but I thought that the transitions were pretty obvious and they boxed the film in, giving it no time for the audience to breathe --- for example, someone sees his face and next scene he comes up with a mask --- his uncle has a fight with him, and the next scene, you know something is going to happen with the uncle to make a reason for the earlier scene ---- so it doesn't slowly spin its web in telling the story, but it kind of pushes it at us. Otherwise, I found it quite enjoyable ---- in a tense way, but that's what an action picture is supposed to do. Boy, the flying sequences really are well done! I don't remember them as effective in the original, but then we are several years down the road in special effects in this one. I rated this 4 out of 5 stars The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) PG-13 The story of Spider-Man takes a turn toward the darker side in this reboot of the hit superhero franchise, which reveals how high school lad Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) learns to wield his newfound powers while facing down archvillain The Lizard (Rhys Ifans). Genre:Action & Adventure This movie is:Gritty