Escape to the Movies: Untangling Spider-Man

[Battle Catman]

Is this going to be another of Bob's "Scott Pilgrim/Expendables/Transformers" personality tests, where if you liked this movie then you're an idiot and you embody everything wrong with movie audiences today and Bob places the degeneration of the movie industry squarely on your shoulders?

Because I liked it.

 

[Jetsetneo]

Is this going to be another of Bob's "Scott Pilgrim/Expendables/Transformers" personality tests, where if you liked this movie then you're an idiot and you embody everything wrong with movie audiences today and Bob places the degeneration of the movie industry squarely on your shoulders?

Because I liked it.

Yes.
I'm putting good money down that this movie gets mentioned over green lantern in the inevitable TDKR review.

Turns out that much like the whining fanboys/critics that bob chastises, hes pretty much one too. And thats okay, I'll still like to hear his opinion on a movie, but Thor help us his opinion of himself as being 'better than thou' critic is getting a bit too much. I guess thats what internet fame does...

 

[Punch You]

A BLUE background!? What is this nonsense!? [resistant to change]

 

[daxterx2005]

Godzilla, bad effects?

 

[xaszatm]

Untangling Spider-Man

MovieBob gives us a more detailed look into The Amazing Spider-Man.

Watch Video

I still get this feeling that you're going out of your way to hate this movie. Like, far out of your way. And I think you're allowing your (totally justified) hatred of Sony cash-in to color your perception of the folks that actually worked on the movie.

1. The "dangling plot threads" you've mentioned are a result of this movie not being conceived as a one-off. If the movie had introduced and resolved every thread, you'd be complaining that it's too cluttered. Believe me, I'm not a fan of the Parker-Parent-Conspiracy storyline as a whole... but I can see that they're laying out breadcrumbs to lead down that road later. Connors is one of those, in some ways.

2. I'm really, really not seeing your problem with Peter Parker. He's still an outcast geek here. He's just not the 60's "lie down and take it" kind of geek. If you get any opportunity to interact with high schoolers (and recent graduates, who aren't much different), you'll see that in this modern age, geeks don't feel quite so powerless. They're more likely to react with a bit of anger, and to fight back even knowing they don't physically stand a chance. They're also more likely to hide any fear or embarrassment behind sarcasm, and to start slacking off in academics. You're wanting Parker to be a sort of nerd or geek that, by and large, doesn't exist anymore.

In this case, I don't think you're not capable of detecting subtlety, I just think you're very much against assigning any of it to this movie. Perhaps subconsciously, you're dismissing even the possibility that it could be happening.

Alright, I semi-agree with the third point but...

1. Yeah, not buying the breadcrumbs thing. It might have worked if the movie resolved SOMETHING. The movie simply leaves too much unresolved 1. What was the truth behind the parent's death (asides from obviously being killed by Oscorp, that better not be the truth because it is way too obvious)? 2. What happened to Uncle Ben's Killer? Why does this plot thread need to be open still?

Also, I can see most of the plot of the following movies because it is NOT subtle. Not going to discuss them here because that would technically be spoiling. (That, and I don't know how to do the spoiler formatting...)

2. I semi-agree about the "geek" part on Peter Parker but I still don't understand why people are telling me Peter Parker is likable. He isn't. He is passive-aggressive and indecisive without his mask and a pompous jerk who is full of himself with it. What is there to like about his character?

Also, as repeated above, the film isn't subtle. It hits us with a brick of obvious foreshadowing and expects us to go to the sequel to see the other shoe drop.

 

[JaredXE]

Yeah, Bob is really showing his ignorance on this one. It has been said above me already, but yeah, the Lizard is a Jekyll/Hyde thing in which the alternate personality is EVIL. Period. Always has been. Also, constantly trying to turn others into lizards. That's what makes Conners a tragic villain: he can't control it.

Has Bob even read the comics? Or is this an obvious ignoring of the facts because it doesn't fit with Bob's "This movie is shit!" narrative?

See also: Gwen's dad has ALWAYS been a cop, teens have always hidden behind sarcasm and angst (christ Bob, do you not remember highschool?), and nobody ever actually said, "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility", it was always implied....as it is implied in the movie.

You're being a hater for hates sake. At least with Green Lantern, you pointed out bad filmaking decisions, here you just point out things you didn't like.

 

[Aptspire]

I think I get your point a bit better, Bob (and to answer your final question, NO, I will NEVER miss emo-dancing Peter Parker)

 

[omegawyrm]

The funny thing about this remake is that it does almost everything I thought I wanted a Spider-Man movie to do... when I was 12. After I saw Raimi's first Spider-Man, being a dumb, pretentious, little preteen, I insisted that it was a terrible adaptation of Spider-Man because he didn't develop his own webbing, or he didn't quip enough at the villains enough, or Tobey Maguire was too dorky. When the sequel came out, I hated the train scene for being "too sappy". Since then I like to think I've stopped being a stupid kid, and can actually see Raimi's Spider Man as a really wonderful example of the genre. Those films really got what made Spider-Man a dramatically resonant character, and conveyed those aspects of the character and story really well.

Sony has now, hilariously, made that "srs bzns" Spider Man movie that I wanted to see as a 12 year old, and it SUUUUCCCKKKKSSSS.

 

[Misho-]

Usually people see a movie from their perspective and then go out and see reviews or read Wikipedia or something... Well, nowadays people hear/see the review and then comment on why they hate/love the series and why the reviewer is so right/full of it before they actually see the film in question.

The problem is that people forget about the process of making the film takes a lot of time and usually the people writing and directing don't come up with their ideas over one night and stick to them indefinitely. They take aspects of what's popular at the time, their own sensibilities and of course the source material if any it's available. Also the producers, the guys handing out the cash, get a big say as to what goes into the film... So if a producer's niece thinks Edward Cullen is like the OMG sooo hot because of reasons and if more guys in films were like him then all the movies would be box office hits!!!! So then he goes into a meeting were other people are browsing on what's popular right now (they Type romance and the first 5 hits say "TWILIGHT" or "HUNGER GAMES" they go all like yeah they are so hot right now, even tho' the hits are "TWILIGHT SUCKS!") and start throwing ideas at each other that sound pretty similar and then you start to crap all over a still infant project by tying it down to ideas that possibly don't belong to the genre.

Captcha: Zombie attack (in cursive)

 

[Leftnt Sharpe]

I have to admit this film is some serious tactical genius on the part of Sony. They don't care if this film gets good reviews or even if it makes any money(although it undoubtedly will). The entire reason this film exists is to 'license-troll' Marvel, so they can't put Spiderman in the Avengers sequel. If the rights reverted back to Marvel, Sony would effectively be giving them a license to print money(no pun intended). So well done Sony, you magnificent bastards.

Also: Four Spiderman movies and no Black Cat yet?

 

[Dastardly]

2. I semi-agree about the "geek" part on Peter Parker but I still don't understand why people are telling me Peter Parker is likable. He isn't. He is passive-aggressive and indecisive without his mask and a pompous jerk who is full of himself with it. What is there to like about his character?

I'm just not seeing what you're saying about him. Now, is he still a bit immature and arrogant at times? Of course! That's part of Spider-man's origin. And I think it would be silly for so important a character flaw to get "wished" away in just one movie (or comic). That's what happened with the original Spider-Man, and I think here they're trying to make things a bit more organic.

Also, as repeated above, the film isn't subtle. It hits us with a brick of obvious foreshadowing and expects us to go to the sequel to see the other shoe drop.

No no no, don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying the plot is subtle. It's not at all. But that's not the focus of the movie, really. The characters have a lot more subtlety this time around. Not everything is stark black and white (or red and blue, as the case may be). We're not being beat over the head with one-note characters (or one-note characters who suddenly change notes, only to harp on that new note). Even the stereotypical bully gets a moment of compassion at a critical moment.

Some of the updates to the story, I could live without. But the updates to the characters were much needed, and were quite effective in my eyes.

 

[Plinglebob]

I got 2 minutes, 20 seconds into this video before getting fed up, realised Bob had missed things in the film (on purpose or not) due to wanting to be angry at it and closed the window. One video of this crap is fine as reviews are by their nature personal to each reviewer, but a second one in which you try to point out why 66-73% (Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes) of critics are wrong makes you come across as egotistical at best and at worse things I can't say because I want to avoid the ban hammer.

Oh, and Connors/The Lizards motivation made sense to me. Before he turned he came across as being a bit unhinged, having written a book about how the human species could be perfected through genetics (or just because the actor's Welsh). When he turned into the lizard he cracked and his original idea went through the logical chain of "I am better when part lizard, the human race will be better if also part lizard, I have the tech to turn everyone into part lizard, I will make everybody's lives better".

Most of the time I find Bob's reviews reliable. Sadly anything even closely nerd related (or "anti-nerd" like the Expendables) throws the reliability off completely.

Snip

Stop making so much sense its getting annoying!

Edit:

Sniped

AND YOU DID IT AGAIN WHILE I WAS TYPING!! I hate agreeing with people on the internet so say something stupid now so things feel normal again!

Edit 2: Rewatched to the end more out of morbid curiosity then anything else and yeah, Bobs an idiot.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

Is this going to be another of Bob's "Scott Pilgrim/Expendables/Transformers" personality tests, where if you liked this movie then you're an idiot and you embody everything wrong with movie audiences today and Bob places the degeneration of the movie industry squarely on your shoulders?

Because I liked it.

But...he liked Scott Pilgrim. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/1918-Scott-Pilgrim-vs-The-World]

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

You're wanting Parker to be a sort of nerd or geek that, by and large, doesn't exist anymore.

My god, and I thought I was the only one from the last video's thread to actually realize this. The stereotypical nerd that Bob wants so desperately hasn't been real or at least hasn't been in prominence for the last decade. This is what you call an update.

 

[Plinglebob]

Is this going to be another of Bob's "Scott Pilgrim/Expendables/Transformers" personality tests, where if you liked this movie then you're an idiot and you embody everything wrong with movie audiences today and Bob places the degeneration of the movie industry squarely on your shoulders?

Because I liked it.

But...he liked Scott Pilgrim. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/1918-Scott-Pilgrim-vs-The-World]

I'm guessing he meant that for a period it was a case that if you didn't agree with Bob's reviews of these films, you were an idiot who could not be trusted with choosing what films to watch.

 

[Dastardly]

Stop making so much sense its getting annoying!

Bob only gets like this once in awhile. While I'm not a Transformers fan, I also never came close to understanding his intense, irrational hatred for the movies and for Michael Bay. I hate to label things "fanboy rage," because the term is so grossly overused, but it's the only semi-reasonable explanation for this type of overreaction at perceived mishandling of "geek material."

 

[lord.jeff]

So every teen romance in a movie is ripping off Twilight now? As for the lizard goes he took a drug and it caused him to turn insane/evil, you know the very same story the green goblin followed in the first movie, as for we he wants to turn everyone into lizards, well he wanted to improve the human race before this start this is just his drugged up brain mutilated the idea or it's because he's running more on instincts and instincts say to propagate the species.

What happened to Uncle Ben's Killer? Why does this plot thread need to be open still?

I'd rather have that open, not so it can get resolved later but because it makes the character, it's not I got my revenge lets move on now, he actually had to let it go and go a proper route of forgiveness for himself.

 

[itsthesheppy]

2. I'm really, really not seeing your problem with Peter Parker. He's still an outcast geek here. He's just not the 60's "lie down and take it" kind of geek. If you get any opportunity to interact with high schoolers (and recent graduates, who aren't much different), you'll see that in this modern age, geeks don't feel quite so powerless. They're more likely to react with a bit of anger, and to fight back even knowing they don't physically stand a chance. They're also more likely to hide any fear or embarrassment behind sarcasm, and to start slacking off in academics. You're wanting Parker to be a sort of nerd or geek that, by and large, doesn't exist anymore.

I object. I still exist.

 

[Phlakes]

I thought the Lizard's motivation was really, really obvious, with the primal side literally fighting with his human side over it. Hell, when he's fighting Peter in the school he blatantly says he's not thinking straight.

And I have to say I'm getting some fanboyish vibes here. Most of the people I've talked to have either read the comics and didn't like the movie, or haven't read the comics and did.

 

[Stabby Joe]

Hmmm, I was actually tempted to post in the last video thread that this Friday he would continue. Dam, would have called it exactly.

Now while I think its good he's doing a more legitimately critical presentation than the last, many will still probably feel he shouldn't have flung off the handle in the first place. Just breath and wait for Friday like this video.

However being a continuation I still get the impression that the video is trying too hard to be portrayed as fact. Granted every review comes off as absolute but most reviews aren't hammered in once again in a short time frame.