The Amazing Spiderman

It's been a while since I really really liked a movie. I watched the Spiderman cartoons as a child but I wasn't really a fan. I also had qualms about watching a movie with the word "Amazing" in the title, though I was told that's quite usual in classic comic books. In any case, The Amazing Spiderman did not disappoint.

The movie starts off with a short roll of child Peter Parker, then quickly moves on to a very familiar loser-boy-walks-into-highschool-and-gets-bullied scene. This is an overused trope in movies, books and even anime. Another trope used is the bad-guy-kills-loved-one event that causes the hero to move from apathy to activism, in this case vigilantism. Then again, this is Peter Parker, and the loser always has to be established before the hero rises in shining teary-eyed glory. There's nothing I can do about cannon, yet somehow, this movie is able to do something for me--it let me get to know Peter Parker more. Perhaps it was his twitchy, stuttering manner that drew me to his character. Awkward yet approachable and thereby very likeable. The writers and producers have tweaked the original to fit modern day society and technology, in a way that I could imagine myself in Gwen Stacy's shoes, eyeing this awkward boy like I sense something different about him, even before he gets bitten by that (in)famous spider.

I guess what I also really liked about this movie was how Peter awoke to his powers gradually, fumbling and apologetic, very true to his personality. And he bleeds. And gets bruised, quite easily, like a normal person. Though I still can't figure out how he made such a great costume. "Maybe he's a cosplayer," my boyfriend quipped.

For all the two and a half hours the movie ran, my only qualm is that the issue on Peter Parker's parents wasn't really touched upon, save for a super-mega mathematical equation his dad left behind. Given that we glimpsed his parents a short while at the start of the movie, I would have appreciated a bit more story aside from "Died in a plane crash."

Anywhoo that's about it, before I go about posting more spoilers in my review.

In short. I like this movie. Maybe I'll watch it again. :)