Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

The following article may contain spoilers. Reader discretion advised. 

DA- Hold up! Wait. Look up at the movie marquee! It's a bird! It's a plane! Nope it's another Spider-Man movie! In hopes of making some more cash Sony is trying to pretend that none of us saw the Maguire-era Spider-Man films that were last on the screen five years ago. This time we have Andrew Garfield donning the skin tight suit in a reboot that I wish was the original "boot."

Directed by Marc Webb (yes the director of a Spider-Man film has web for a last name) starts off with a young Peter Parker of course being dropped off at the home of Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen). We flash-forward years later to find Parker as the teenage photographer and science lover we all know about. After finding his father's mysterious briefcase he heads to Oscorp to try and find out more about his father from fellow scientist Dr. Curt Conners (Rhys Ifans). As you may have guessed he is then bitten by a radioactive spider, Uncle Ben is shot, he wants to find the guy who shot him, and yada yada yada. 

Sound familiar? Well it should because of course this origin story is very similar to what audiences saw in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man in 2002. This is where the film suffers. The first hour is the same movie and there is no suspense when we know what is going to happen next. While there are subtle differences many of the same character types are still there. Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) is Mary-Jane Watson. Spider-Man hating police captain George Stacy (Denis Leary) is J. Jonah Jameson. Even The Lizard (this film's big villain) is to some extent the Green Goblin (both green creatures created after a Oscorp chemical injection). He even has Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde moments talking to himself very much like the Green Goblin did in the original.

However despite all these similarities once the film finally gets to become it's own movie it excels. Andrew Garfield handles the nerdy Peter Parker and wise-cracking Spider-Man much better than Tobey Maguire ever did. Not to mention the chemistry between Garfield and Stone is much more believable and this is probably is due to the director. Instead of having someone famous for horror movies direct a Spider-Man film, Sony turned to Webb who was fresh off of the dramedy 500 Days of Summer. What might have been a risky move to give the keys to this franchise to such a different type of director payed off greatly especially since the performances are really what saves this been-there-done-that plot.

In the end if a time machine was available and both of these versions were available back in 2002, I would choose Webb's take over Raimi's. While the plot is nearly the same in both films the great visuals and performances really make this version a better movie. Webb tries his best to create a new adventure for audiences and for people who can forget what they saw ten years ago, this adventure is nothing short of amazing. David's Grade: B+

Movie Review: Ted

The following article may contain spoilers. Reader discretion advised. 


ML- It seems today that all you see is violence in movies and sex on TV, but where are those good, old-fashioned values on which we used to rely? Luckily, there's Ted, the R-rated comedy by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane that utilizes many of the shows's signature quirks, with varying degrees of success. The movie is built upon the classic coming-of-age story that has found great success with audiences as of late (most recently, the spectacular Toy Story 3), and decorated with pot smoking and fart jokes and pop culture references galore. It targets all aspects of a guy's personality, but in doing so, loses much of its charm.


We open in 1985 Boston, where lonely young John Bennett uses his Christmas wish to grant life to his new stuffed bear, Ted. Ted (voiced by MacFarlane, who uses the same voice as Guy's Peter Griffin, something the movie makes note of) becomes an overnight celebrity, but remains friends with John (Mark Wahlberg) into adulthood.


The two do what any guys in their early 20s do- smoke, drink and watch Flash Gordon reruns. The only problem is that John isn't 20, he's 35, and his immature ways start becoming too much for his perfect girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis) to handle. John must kick Ted out, putting him in danger of a creepy super fan (Giovanni Rivisi) who has been obsessed with the bear since he, too, was a boy.


The film suffers from being too formulaic: the cliched narrator is annoying and unfunny, the characters fit the roles of every guy-oriented romantic comedy of the last ten years. Joel McHale does his best as the skeezey, spoiled boss, but he can't make the part special because there's nothing there to enhance. Rivisi nails the creepiness as he sways his hips to Debbie Gibson alone in his living room, but there could have been much more development into his psychosis. 


I don't mean to be too critical, because the movie is funny. Unfortunately, the funniest scenes were all in the trailers, so those who watched them over and over again in anticipation may have been disappointed in the theater. Some of the best bits included a topical jab at box-office rival Katy Perry, flashbacks to John and Lori's first encounter, and cameos by Norah Jones, Sam Jones (no relation), Ted Danson and Ryan Reynolds. These moments weren't enough, though, to carry the weight of the rest of the film.


Wahlberg creates a believable character, the guy who just needs to grow up and realize he's got the catch right in front of him, but his performance is nothing revolutionary. That being said, most of his scenes consist of acting against an inanimate bear, and he managed to nail that chemistry. Kunis plays her part, too, one that left me with one major gripe at the end of the film: how come a young boy needs it to be a Christmas miracle to get a bear to come to life, and all Mila Kunis has to do is bat her overly-made up eyes and the shooting stars give her just as much precedence? Seems unfair and contrived to me!


Ultimately, I ask myself: How different is this movie from the rest of the stoner rom-coms, aside from the talking bear? Cast Seth Rogen as the loser friend and I feel like I've already seen that movie three or four times before. The premise of a man dealing with adulthood by abandoning his maladaptive childhood vices through the use of actual toy bear character is clever, no doubt, but the movie fails to take full advantage of the unique idea and instead settles into the safe, established confines of the genre. MacFarlane relied too strongly on the good, old-fashioned values of moviemaking  to create something extraordinary. Mike's Grade: B.

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