The Amazing Spider-Man

Before stating my views, let me tell you that I have been a spidey fan since time immemorial, it was only after coming under the evil influence of Tracer Bullet that I got interested in The Dark Knight and his broodings!

Synopsis:  Peter  Parker is a high school teenager, who lost his parents at a very young age.  He has been raised by uncle Ben and aunt May who dot on him.  One day, he comes across a briefcase (that belonged to his father) in the attic, which leads him to Oscorp and Dr. Curtis Conners, who was his father’s partner.  He visits Oscorp to get in touch with Dr. Curtis Conners.  While loitering around prohibited part of the research lab, Peter is bitten by a genetically enhanced spider.  Slowly, Peter Parker starts developing great physical power, along with superb reflexes and agility.  Like a spider, he can cling to any surface.  Being a brilliant science student, he develops inorganic webs that he can shoot from the bands that he wears in his wrist.  Uncle Ben is shot dead by a thug and Peter makes it his mission to catch the culprit.  Along the way, he realizes that his great powers are not just instruments for personal vendetta, but must be used carefully for the greater good of humanity.  He starts to help the police but is not trusted by the captain of NYPD, who also happens to be his sweet heart’s (Gwen Stacy) father.  Meanwhile, Dr. Curtis Conners transmits himself to a giant lizard with super strength and Spiderman must stop him at all costs.  This forms the crux of story.

I was surprised with Andrew Garfield’s emoting skills.  He is really good, better than Tobey in the first installment of Spiderman.  In order to make the rebooted series different, the script has brought in Peter Parker’s parent’s here,  Peter himself is seen reflecting about his parents at the start and at different times of the movie, somewhat reminiscent of Dark Knight Begins, but still the movie does not have the dark mood of Batman.  It retains the sunny spidey spirit.  The stunts and actions of this Spiderman are more in line with the comic version.

Gwen Stacy is also cool, her character is better defined than MJ in the Tobey version.  I did not like this MJ character in the earlier series.  She seemed to love PP because he was Spider-man.  That is not the case with Gwen.  She is quite intelligent and she likes Peter even when he is a normal guy and his being Spider-man perhaps makes him more adorable to her.

Dr. Curtis Conners is not  a run-of-the mill villain here.  It looks like he got addicted to the potion he developed as a part of his research and on becoming the lizard, he was unable to control his animal instincts.

Uncle Ben and Aunt May are good, with many meaningful and witty dialogues between them, but I guess I loved the earlier Aunt  May in Tobey’s Spider-Man more…..

This was the first time I was watching a 3-Dmovie and I was busy analyzing the difference by removing my glasses during the start of the movie.  I guess 3-D effects made the screen seem not limited by the boundary and things seem to pop out of the screen, it was good, but perhaps my expectation was more, so I was not that much impressed…..

Overall, it was a good experience watching the new spidey  and if you are a spidey fan, then do not miss this one for anything……………..

Batman begins

There never will be a movie like this.  A movie which on first look I hated and on second look absolutely loved.  At one point in the movie, Bruce Wayne, the billionaire protagonist tells his childhood friend that I am not what I seem to be, deep underneath there is more to me..  That is true about this movie as well.  I remember watching this movie at Sreedhar in Kochi and cursing Tracer bullet who had goaded me to watch it.  He had seen it once, but still had some doubts and being a die-hard batman fan that he is, had lured me (a die-hard spidey fan) into watching this movie.  There was some problem with the audio, I believe, because I could not make out most of the dialogues.  My other concern was that I came to see a caped hero who made his entry only at the interval and there also his fights were not clear...I could not see him throwing one solid punch....what the hell.....but all these points are where this movie scores heavy brawny points compared to any other such movie.  It is not just about the man, it is about an idea, about instilling fear, fear in the minds of those who do crime.  Chris Nolan's Batman growls and snarls when he becomes the dark knight, although Bruce Wayne is all style, pomp, and show off.  And all this can be felt only if one knows about the character and if he at least understands the way story moves forward.  The director has chosen nonlinear story telling, which I think confused me a lot on the first viewing, but which nicely explained everything on second view. 


Batman is a very old character, i.e. he was published first in the 1930s.  Although the reason for Bruce Wayne becoming batman has always been the same in different stories, i.e. he witnessed his parents death as a kid, the dark sombre mood which should underlie such a character was absent till the 1980s when Frank Miller and later Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale etc completely turned around the character and made him what he is today.


Similarly, all Batman movies (may be Tim Burton's may have been an exception) were just costume dramas which told the story of a billionaire playboy, who used to wear a mask and becomes a vigilante by night thrashing goons and lumpen elements on the street.  Why was he doing that, night after night, what drove him, his paranoia, his fierce determination, the trauma which he turned into a crusade against crime....all this has been captured brilliantly only by Chris Nolan in Batman Begins and needless to say I have lost count of  how much times I have watched this movie.  Thanks Tracer for all the goading that day....;-)