Spider-Man Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man movie

Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: “With great power comes great responsibility.” This is my gift, my curse. Who am I? I’m Spider-man. – Peter Parker from Spider-Man

We all have secrets: the ones we keep… and the ones that are kept from us. – Peter Parker from The Amazing Spider-Man

Ever since I was a kid I have always loved action movies and movies that involved superheros. I have always had that nerdy side of me that absolutely loved the comic book superheros that saved the day. Now it has to be said that Spider-man has always been one of my favourite superheros alongside with the heros of The X-men and Batman. In this blog I will be comparing the two movies and giving you my opinions on both of them.

Back in 2002 Marvel released their first Spider-Man starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst as Mary-Jane Watson. This movie was based on the comic books written by Stan Lee in the 1960’s. This movie was increible when I first saw it and I have the same opinion now 10 years later. Spider-Man follows the basic template of the original Stan Lee comic with Peter Parker an orphan, intellectual teen loner living in New York with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, dreaming of getting the girl next door, Mary-Jane Watson. We follow Peter Parker on a school trip to a Columbia University Lab where Peter is bitten by a genetically altered spider and overnight in gains superhuman strength, perception and agility. We are introduced to his powers in an amusing way, watching Peter trying to figure out exactly how they all work. When watching the movie we see Peter use his powers for material gain. When Peter fails to stop a burglar from robbing the wrestling arena, a tragedy follows that compels him to devote his powers to fighting crime as Spider-Man. Peter feels responsible for the death of his Uncle and decides to fulfill his Uncle’s golden advice “With great power comes great responsibility”. When Peter is not busy being Spider-Man he moves into an apartment with his best friend Harry Osborn, and beigns to work for the Daily Bugle as a photographer. Meanwhile his alter ego finds a nemesis known as the Green Goblin, a super powered, megalomaniacal villain who is the alter ego of Harry Osborn’s father Norman Osborn.

I found that the movie really followed the comic book Origins of Spider-Man, As well as following the comic book we see that Spider-Man also has a few dark moments that catch the audience off guard. The final fight scene between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin is quite violent and bloody, more so than the comic books. The other scene, where Spider-Man confronts his Uncle’s killer, it is quite chilling and is much more than what the audience was probably expecting. There are a few other dark moments in the movie that did surprise people, however it shows the overall feel of teen angst and emerging adulthood. In a way it added some sort of “real life” into way may have been a silly comic book movie.

Spider-Man was a fast moving movie filled with intense drama, teen crushes and love affairs, and plenty of action. The CGI in the movie was decent at the time in which the movie was made, however compared to what we have now it can be seen as “too-fake”.

Now Spider-Man appeared in several series of comic books including The Amazing Spider-Man, which was actually the longest series out of them all, beginning its series in 1963. The comic books were slightly sinister yet affectionately cartoony, combined with the humour of Stan Lee’s writing. All of this was portrayed in the 2012 movie starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. Andrew Garfield plays the sarcastic and humorous character very well using lines such as “Oh, no! You have found my weakness. Small knives!” and “Really? Seriously man… Do you really think I am a cop?” . The story line is similar to that of Spider-Man where Peter is bitten by a genetically altered spider and gains superhuman strength etc. However, Spider-Man’s web does not come out of his wrist like the Tobey Maguire movie. Peter creates a device that allows him to spin adhesive webbing out of his wrist, because intitially the spider bite did not give him the power to spin his own web… who knew?

In this movie we are introduced to one of the original villians from the comic book series, The Lizard. The Lizard is Dr. Curt Connors, Peter’s fahter’s partner at Oscorp. Curt Connors was a genetic biologist who researched the ability of certain reptiles to regrow missing limbs, partially to find a way to regrow his own missing arm. After a test on himself, he transforms into a violent lizard monster. Though able to revert to his human form, he suffers occasional fits of his alter ego breaking free. Like the comic books, this movie has a lot more information about Peter’s parents. Whereas Spider-Man only tells us that his parents died.

A lot of people have said that they thoroughly enjoyed this movie and they enjoyed the plot a lot more than the first 3 Spider-Man movies. However, I would disagree with the majority of people. I prefer the story line of the older Spider-Man movies, I like the fact that Peter can spin his own webs and not have to use a device to do it. Although I do like the sarcasm and humor that comes with The Amazing Spider-Man a long with the incredible CGI effects. However, that is all I see with The Amazing Spider-Man movie, I just liked it for the action and effects. Nothing else.

If the two movies combined everything that I liked about them then there would be a brilliant movie!

 

 

The Breakfast Club

Who would have thought that 28 years later the John Hughes classic The Breakfast Club would still be the best attempt at understanding the stereotypes we find in High School? Most of the movies that we find about high school are normally patronising and very unrealistic. However, this teen movie successfully shows the audience what it’s like to actually be different but how we are all evidently the same.

The Breakfast Club is a classic movie about a group of High School students who end up with Saturday detention. We are introduced to each of the characters by the stereotypes that each student considers the other, the Nerd (Anthony Brian Hall), The Beauty (Molly Ringwald), the Jock (Emilio Estevez), the Rebel (Judd Nelson), and the recluse (Ally Sheedy). Not only are we introduced to the stereotypes of the students but also of the mean teacher (Paul Gleason). Mr. Vernon is the teacher that is in charge of the Saturday detention. During their detention Mr. Vernon gives them a simple assignment. The students must write an essay about “Who You Think You Are”. Now each of the students think they know exactly who the other is. However, during several discussions and arguments, they each learn that they actually have more similarities than they first thought. At first we see The Rebel initially focuses all of his anger at Andrew the Jock and Claire the Beauty. We see that he has an outward hatred towards their “good lives”, this hatred masks the hurt about his own life. In reality, Claire wishes that her parents would give a damn about her, and Andrew wishes that he had the guts to stand up to his father. All three of them think that Brian is the “perfect son” and does not have the same problems that they have. We see that these characters are very developed and we learn a lot about them. However, Allison is under developed and we don’t learn nearly as much as we do about the others. The problems that Allison has are problems that she created herself in order to get attention yet distance herself from others.

Each students has their own problems and as insignificant they might appear, to a teenager, they are everything. Being a teenager myself I can completely understand how the characters feel. This is what captures the movie so well. Teenage years are a time of self-consciousness and angst. I’m sure when most people look back at their teenage years it may seem a little ridiculous. Yet at one point it was important. Parents don’t understand and teachers don’t understand.

The movie does and incredible job portraying and deconstructing the stereotypes of the students. There have been different critiques of the movie and how it was a little to contrived. Those people were not paying attention on the middle of the movie. A normal Hollywood movie would have had a clear happy ending to it and they would have all become best friends. This movie allows us to see what would have actually happened, the movie admits that come Monday they probably won’t be friends. The biggest truth about high school is missed here. Most kids, while saying they want to be more than just a stereotype, will never actually take that risk. By the time Monday comes they will return to their comfort zone rather than risk the ridicule of their “friends”. While the ending of the movie leaves us with the idea that the Jock and the Recluse hook up, the Rebel has found his Beauty and the Nerd has actually found friends, we could also leave with the opposite idea. When Monday arrives, the Jock and the Beauty will return to their own kind, the Rebel might go back to hating everybody, and the Nerd and the Recluse might still get ignored in the hallway. Hughes leaves this all to us to figure out for ourselves. How you feel about the ending might be due to the stereotype you actually represent yourself with.

At the end of the movie we get to see what the essay that they wrote says. At the request of the group, Brian agrees to write the essay that had been assigned to them earlier that day which challenges Mr. Vernon and his preconceived judgments about all of them. Instead of writing about the actual topic, Brian writes a very motivating letter that is the main point of the story.

He signs the essay “The Breakfast Club”, and leaves it on the table to be read by Mr. Vernon. There are two versions of this letter, one read at the beginning and one read at the end, they differ slightly; showing the shift in the students’ judgments of each other, and their realisation that they actually have things in common.

The beginning of the letter is as follows:

Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong. What we did was wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us… in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Correct? That’s how we saw each other at seven o’clock this morning. We were brainwashed.

The letter ends as follows:

“Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong, but we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us… In the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain…Brian Johnson …and an athlete…Andy Clark …and a basket case…Allison Reynolds …a princess…Claire Standish …and a criminal…John Bender

Does that answer your question?… Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

The letter is the most important part of the movie, it demonstrates and illustrates the changes the students have undergone during the course of the day; their attitudes and perspectives have changed and are now different.

If you haven’t seen this movie then you need to. After watching this movie it made it into my Top 10 Movie list. It is a must see!