[ShockerCon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thunderstrike541

Guess the movie that I am watching right now:

1: The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be... unnatural.
2: Is it possible to learn this power?
1: Not from a Jedi

Bionicle?

[Paladin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Powerman293

What were your major issues with the first one? I've been thinking about the first one again and I realize its not that great or as great as I thought it was.

Let me break down the biggest complaints I have:

*The Costume. It looks awful and it seems really lame to me that Spidey can just BUY the essential components for his look. Uncle Ben died because he couldn't afford a damn drink yet this version of Peter can afford probably dozens of shipments from Oscorp without anyone raising an eyebrow?

*The Lizard. Design is awful and the development of him as a villain is incredibly half-assed; the lunatic side of him comes along way too quick.

*Aunt May and Uncle Ben are both wasted characters. I don't remember May ever leaving the damn kitchen or expressing an emotion other than worry, while Ben somehow manages to forsee his own death and leave Peter a voicemail describing exactly what he would need to hear after he died AND STILL not really deliver the only line everyone remembers Uncle Ben for.

*ASM's Peter Parker is a selfish douchebag that I cannot root for. I don't care about the mystery of his parents and I don't care whether or not he winds up with Gwen. If a movie can't make me invested in the title character, they have failed.

I've heard a lot of critical analysis suggesting that Amazing Spider-Man is essentially a "Twilight" cash-in since both are about a girl who falls in love instantly with a mysterious superpowered individual that breaks into her room at night & her police-officer father tries to disrupt the relationship and while not intentional seems to highlight just how formulaic and cash-grabby the Amazing series is.

[ComicGuy89]

What about the behind the scenes issues? Which ones were you referring to?

I liked ASM, but I did feel that Parker didn't have that heroic edge he should have. He did gain it towards the end of the movie, but it was just a bit too subtle for a superhero movie for my taste. I mean, if Tony Stark seems more heroic than Peter Parker…

All just my opinion of course.

[Paladin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComicGuy89

What about the behind the scenes issues? Which ones were you referring to?

Recently, Andrew Garfield said in an interview that Spider-Man is Jewish- and proceeded to use a number of offensive stereotypes to make that point.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansit.../news/?a=98167

[ComicGuy89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladin

Recently, Andrew Garfield said in an interview that Spider-Man is Jewish- and proceeded to use a number of offensive stereotypes to make that point.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansit.../news/?a=98167

Well Garfield is Jewish. Garfield does have that tendency to spout his mouth about Spidey in a really crude, supposedly funny way; he's done this more than once. I don't like it much either.

[Powerman293]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladin

Recently, Andrew Garfield said in an interview that Spider-Man is Jewish- and proceeded to use a number of offensive stereotypes to make that point.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansit.../news/?a=98167

Wow, that sounds horrible.

Reminds me of that time that Andrew Garfield or one of the producers said that he wanted Spiderman to be gay. Not that there's anything wrong with being gay, but that Garfield and friends bring up socially pressing issues in inappropriate situations like interviews for a movie.

[Dr Kain]

Paladin, I Have to disagree with you on some of your things about TASM. Spider-Man acts like a dbag because he is supposed to be a smart ass. He is a kid when you come down to it. One of the biggest problems with the Raimi Spider-Man movies is that Spider-Man never actually talked down upon the criminals, and when he did, it felt forced or not all that funny. The first Raimi movie is probably the closes he ever did to talking smack while it was gone by the third.

Also, Gwen was a far superior character in that one movie compared to what MJ had in the trilogy. Gwen was developed and could hold her own compared to Zelda in the Raimi movies. Another thing I liked better was that Peter actually got bruised when he was hit. Now I will agree with the lack of development of Connors, but his design was closer to how Lizard first appeared in the comics, so I have no problem with that.

The plot was actually interesting and well done, and it out did the Raimi movies in one swoop (they have not aged well at all). I think the movie would have had a lot more positive reception had we not had one 10 years prior to tell the origin story. Nevertheless, the execution was amazing. Unfortunately, I am very worried about TASM2 due to all of the characters they have seemed to throw into the thing.


Moving on,

Looper: I remember not being the least bit interested in this movie when it first came out, but some friends said it was pretty good. After finally watching it, yeah, no, this movie was quite lackluster. It's biggest problem is that it was just flat out uninteresting. The characters were boring. The concept was a great idea but executed in such a bland manner that I just did not give a damn about the whole thing. In fact, I would have rathered seen the movie flesh out the 30 years before he went back in time over watching a terrible mother and son movie. The movie was predictable right from the get go whereas they should have actually done something to develop Sid's future instead of just throw it in there in the last 5 minutes. Overall, I give this thing a 4/10 because there was some cool things in it.

[Locke]

WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ IS MY REVIEW OF AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 IT IS FULL OF SPOILERS AND YOU HAVE BEEN CLEARLY WARNED.

For the the majority of the movie, this is less a Spider-Man movie and more a Peter Parker movie. That may sound underwhelming, but Andrew Garfield is wonderful. Devilishly handsome, utterly charming and perfectly cast. He is just a brilliant presence. He blows Maguire out of the water. Similarly is Emma Stone, her "America's Sweetheart" hype train naturally rubs a contrary sod like me the wrong way but her Gwen Stacy is undeniably fantastic. Most fantastic about her though is her relationship with Peter, I know someone is bound to take some unnecessary feminist stance but I certainly think she makes it out better than Dunst ever did in the original trilogy.

Parker's relationship with Gwen is realised so perfectly I feel like I need to make some kind joke about chemistry here - especially considering they're both science whiz kids - oh look, I already made it. Ha, ha... I liked the blend of indie romance and high-concept blockbuster smashed into one another so much I would have honestly been perfectly happy if that was just the whole movie.

This movie is fucking gorgeous. The 3D sadly makes a lot of it feel and look kinda artificial but there is just so much energy in every set piece. From the insane swoops through New York as we follow Spider-Man between the buildings, to the insane flashes of colour and dubstep bass drops as Electro "lights his candles" (oh man that line was brilliant) this movie is bound to satisfy the adrenaline junkies and ten year old's in the audience even if the number of set pieces are considerably trimmed down. Webb is mostly known for his work on '(500) Days of Summer' which clearly was a huge influence on the focus on the relationship between Stacy and Parker but when you see the effort, the scale, and just the beautiful sense of style that he captures his action sequences with. Just damn.

It makes perfect sense for a sequel, and especially a sequel in the looming shadow of the world of the Avengers and the respective franchises, to move the focus to more of what is going on around Peter... but it also really doesn't work all that well.

Spider-Man as a character has so much going for him, he doesn't need to be a part of some cross-franchise behemoth. I found the majority of this film so refreshing as it focused on its most important narrative and emotional parts and not just which parts could go ahead and become their own franchise and make them even more piles of money. But then, just when it starts to come together, it actually all starts to unravel a bit.

Electro dies (?) before he even really gets a character to play, which is an utter waste of Foxx, and it isn't even like we can enjoy his final battle as he's immediately upstaged by Green Goblin whose very presence in the film seems to be to make us question why Electro is even in this movie in the first place. And then just as Green Goblin takes centre stage, events transpire which make us question why Green Goblin is even here as well. But just as that happens the whole movie disappears into a giant ad for the Sinister Six film.

The ending result is a very messy wrap up that seems to exist solely for the CG crash bang wallop despite so much of the rest of the film focusing on the emotional crash bang wallop, not the physical one. It's a story focused sequel which turns its own narrative focus into padding through unnecessary twists and turns that seem poorly thoughtout.

Perhaps to contradict my point slightly though, the fact that we come away from this with thoughts like "Electro and Gwen both deserved better than their most important moments being juggled around each other" is as much a testament of quality than it is a straight criticism. Before a negative there must exist a positive, you can't be disappointed by something you don't care about in the first place. "Too many villains" is much bigger than a nitpick but I can almost completely ignore this criticism because of how much I loved all of the other parts.

Ultimately though, what cannot be argued, is Amazing Spider-Man 2 makes one of the most important, daring and progressive moves in the entire history of the superhero boom. It kills someone. That someone stays dead. And that someone matters to us. The climax of this film is a complete and utter clusterfuck but in a very rare moment, the end more than justifies the means.

[Dr Kain]

Transcendence - When it comes down to the core concepts of this movie, the movie sounds extremely interesting and unique. A dying man's brain is uploaded into a computer and he creates technological wonders with it that can also become nightmarish echoes of the future. What we actually got was a movie with a paper plot so thin, you could just watch the two minute trailer and you would be left more satisfied than when the credits start rolling. This movie is just so god damned boring that is it not even worth wasting your time seeing even once. Like I just said, go watch the trailer instead. Johnny Depp sounds like he was bored while Rebecca Hall's facial expressions never seemed to match with what was going on on screen. Perhaps Depp should retire from acting as he is racing down the slide that leads into a pile of crap at rapid speeds while he still has some dignity left to his name. Overall, do not waste your time with this dull monotone called a movie as it never feels like it is going to end because there is no such thing as a climax within it. Go watch something better instead like "The World's End" or "The Matrix" if you want to see something that deals with machines and the end of the world. I give this movie a 2/10 and that is because of its concept.

[SideswipePrime]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladin

Recently, Andrew Garfield said in an interview that Spider-Man is Jewish- and proceeded to use a number of offensive stereotypes to make that point.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansit.../news/?a=98167

Peter Parker is Jewish? I always thought he was just religiously ambiguous.

I mean, I'm ok with it. I don't care what religion he is, but yeah...making offensive stereotypes...I mean Garfield is Jewish, so I guess it's kind of ok...but still...ugh! This is why we're not allowed to discuss religion here. It's to confusing.