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!
Writer's Block 