HOLIDAY MOVIE WEEKEND

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Published on Wednesday, 04 July 2012 19:03

Growing up I was more of a horror fan when it came to comics, reading Creepy and other scary rags. I watched cartoons on Saturday mornings like Spiderman and Super Friends but know very little of the Spiderman story other than Raimi's telling and maybe that's a blessing for I totally enjoyed “The Amazing Spiderman.”

I'm going to assume most, like myself, know a little about the story of Spiderman so I'll keep this brief. Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) gets bit by a lab spider and then becomes a somewhat reluctant good guy fighting crime with his morphed spider super powers after his uncle is gunned down by a fleeing robber. Instead, here are a few differences from the tale the may make diehard fans foam at the mouth and go bath salts crazy at this version of the classic tale.

Gone: Mary Jane. Gone: Parker's geeky qualities making him more a charming skater dude rebel outcast. There are many, many more changes in this story of Parker, AKA Spiderman battling his may or may not be dead parents' scientific partner Dr. Curt Connors in his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde turn from driven visionary to his destructive counterpart The Lizard.

Stan Lee, who created Spiderman (along with Steve Ditko) is Executive Producer of Webb's big screen version, evening making his now expected cameo in the film. Obviously, by doing both of these things Lee has given his blessings to mixing it up a bit and turning the well known and told story on it's ear and who are we as the viewing public to say he's wrong.

The 3-D and special effects are exceptional and everyone is well cast like a stronger Aunt May played by two time Oscar™ winner Sally Fields and even Garfield's interpretation of Spiderman makes it his and not in the shadows of Tobey Maguire's three time go at it.

I think this new, untold story of Spiderman is a fantastic joyride of an action movie and even gives Raimi's version a run for it's money. But, with Nolan's final installment of his Batman series coming to an end in a couple of weeks with the opening of “The Dark Knight Rises” its going to be a battle of the super heroes for the box office take. Only then, when these two films go head to head will it be decided if this telling of Spiderman is amazing or not.

Rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sequences of action and violence.

Running time: 2 H 16 min