Hello all! Welcome to a different sort of installment of Cinema Land! Today I'm doing an Old vs. New and it will be featuring Spider-Man (2002) and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). I'm going to way the pros and the cons of both movies by picking apart the individual parts of a movie (on the screen I'm not going to get into the behind the scenes stuff) like the Protagonist, Antagonist, Love Interest, Plot, Supporting Characters, Conflict, Effects, Delivery and anything else I think is needed to compare the two. I will try to remain objective, but no promises. Now, onto Old vs. New Spider-Man Edition!
I AM DOING A COMPARISON OF THE FIRST MOVIE OF THE SPIDER-MAN TRILOGY AND THE 2012 RENDITION, I HAVE NOT READ THE COMICS SO DON'T BE MISLED BY THAT.
The Protagonist
Let's start with the Old shall we? Tobey Maguire. Maguire gave us a very believable Spider-Man, we saw him go from skinny to buff (not on the Captain America level), we saw his face when his Uncle Ben died...
And several other factors. I do admit that Maguire gave us a good rendition but Peter always had that creepy awkward stalker with a camera syndrome if you ask me (and you are seeing as you're reading this). He followed Mary-Jane around and bombarded her with camera flashes... and from what I understand about Peter Parker he was supposed to be funny. The only times I laughed when Maguire was on screen was that awkward painful sorts of laughter when a character is embarrassing himself and when he was trying to be smart. I never believed that Peter Parker was smart. My last note on Maguire's performance has to be the fact that he looks nothing like a teenager. Nuff said.
Onto Andrew Garfield, a new face on the Big Screen. Garfield as Peter Parker, hilarious, awkward yet adorable, geeky yet sweet, smart but not a show-off, and cute as a button. This Peter Parker I think went through more of a transformation than it's counterpart mostly due to his abandonment issues with his father. Through The Amazing Spider-Man we see Peter really evolve from plucky crime fighter to extremely distraught vigilante. And I truly believe every second of merriment, sadness, anger and sacrifice. And we all know that Spider-Man is all about sacrifice. Plus, nothing went right for Peter Parker in this movie in a believable way. Which is more than I can say for its predecessor.
Winner: NEW
The Antagonist
Now we're getting into the good stuff. Antagonist's have the chance to make or break a film. In the Old Spider-Man we are given the Green Goblin, an alter-ego to Norman Osborn the founder of OSCORP, a company that manufactures new scientific marvels for the military. In this the Green Goblin is terrifying because you're not quite sure if Osbourne is still in there and you have no idea where he's going to strike next. William Dafoe gives us the perfect amount of psychotic balanced with the perfect amount of stability and we know his motives: "BLOW. SHIT. UP."
With The Amazing Spider-Man we get The Lizard. A new villain (to the people who never read the comics) on the big screen. This time around we have a different approach (I think... it's still highly disputed), we have a doctor who was trying to splice human genes with lizard genes to stimulate a regenerative property. What he gets is BIG MUTHER FUCKING LIZARD BODY. And you know what, the Lizard didn't have the great delivery that the Goblin had previously... that's probably due to shortening the film. The Lizard is very forced and we never truly learn what his reason is for doing what he does. I personally think that at first he thought that having healing capabilities made up for having lizard skin, but, again, it's highly disputed. This could've been another alter-ego/multiple personality.
Winner: OLD
Love Interest
Wow. Mary-Jane. I'm going to try remaining objective. Okay *exhale* let's do this. Maaaaaaaaaary-Jane, the pretty girl everyone wants to be with. This is no different for our Peter Parker. But what can I say about her? She's pretty and she's something to fight for... and save... *coughcough* She's your everyday damsel in distress.
On the otherhand, we have Gwen Stacy, science nerd, amazing wit, and she holds her own when all the shit is going down. I mean, when Peter calls her and tells her what the Lizard is doing (Lizard is planning to infect all of NYC with his Lizard Serum) and you know what she says? "I'm going to make an antidote." I mean bitch please, when's the last time you heard the love interest say THAT in an action/comic book flick? I haven't heard it ever. And, on top of all that, when the Lizard is breaking into OSCORP (they brought OSCORP back so I assume they're going to do something with Norman or Harry in the future) and she is being cornered, do you know what she does? She grabs a can of hairspray, she grabs a lighter, AND SHE MOTHER FUCKING TORCHES THE THING. THANK YOU GWEN STACY (Not to mention that Emma Stone is adorable).
Winner: NEW
Plot
I haven't watched Spider-Man for... about a month? So I can't really delve into detail about the plot of this movie so I'm going to go on what I remember. From what I remember the plot of this movie ran rather smoothly. Barely any bumps, and it was the classic Good vs. Evil which is hard to mess up. The progression into how Peter Parker became Spider-Man was real nice though the stint into wrestling was a little weird. Not much else I can say about it. Top notch.
With the new Spider-Man I felt a bit... bumpy... I really did. But that was for the sake of leading up to sequels. You know how much Disney loooooves to make money with its awesome Marvel Studios so, sequel. Why not. Even though this plot was bumpier I feel it was better because it developed Peter more as a character with his father and such. The plot went on with us knowing that Peter will always be troubled... Hunh.
Winner: TIE
Supporting Characters
I'm going to delve into these one at a time, Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Flash, Harry, and J. J. Jameson.
Uncle Ben: This Uncle Ben was the model father figure for Peter, he was funny, he was loveable, and he had those old fashioned morals of being good and doing good and never letting revenge cloud your eyes. He didn't get that much screen time but when we did we loved him so much. <3
Aunt May: I can't really remember Aunt May from the first one. Maybe that just means she wasn't memorable in general. I remember that she loved Peter... other than that... nothing.
Flash: I'm mentioning Flash because he does play a major part in the series as a whole (comics, not movies). We see Flash in this as the abusive boyfriend to Mary-Jane and the overall douche bag. He didn't really have any redeeming qualities. When Peter beat the shit out of him (obvious wire stunts, ftw) and his buddies I felt absolute no remorse.
Harry: Harry Harry Harry, the overall rich kid syndrome. Trying to reach to his fathers standards and being there for his best friend. And he definitely was there, go Harry. But, he was kind of boring. Just a pretty boy with a smile. He has a gorgeous smile.
J. J. Jameson: I don't even know with this guy. If he wasn't the comic relief I don't know what was. His stereotypical fast talking and stubborn attitude led to several laughs all around.
Onto the new cast, Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Flash, and Captain Stacy... no best friend.
Uncle Ben: Wow, if there's one character I hate it's this Uncle Ben. He's just fucking angry and yells at poor Peter Parker all the time. When he got shot, I cried a little, but not as much as 2002 Uncle Ben.
Aunt May: I can't remember this Aunt May either. Except for she seemed like a battered wife half of the time. But at least she allowed her nephew the space he needed when he needed it. More than Uncle Ben did!
Flash: I loved this rendition of Flash, I can totally see him becoming the army vet down the road. Still, he was the bully again and he played that really well in the beginning. But when Peter's uncle died the guy showed some heart. He was empathetic and we all love Flash. Also Flash's love of Spider-Man was divulged in this one! Flash has always admired Spider-Man and it causes Peter and Flash to grow closer in this movie. There's some looking across the hall and some waving (but Flash might be gay and I might be misinterpreting signals) which is so adorable.
Captain Stacy: Holy mother of God. This guy was perfect. The perfect amount of overprotective awkward father, serious cop, and bad ass mother fucker! Honestly, in the end when Spider-Man is going to stop the Lizard but he can't if he needs to turn off the machine so you know what Captain Stacy does? BOOM. Shot Gun to the face.
Winner: NEW
Conflict
Conflict of the Old. Green Goblin kidnapped Mary-Jane and Peter wants to save her. Not much else I can say about it. Typical Good vs. Evil plot and it's done well.
But what do we have with the new? BIG MUTHER FUCKIN LIZARD INFECTING ALL OF NYC WITH MUTANT LIZARD SHIT. I was very curious in the beginning what they were going to do with the Lizard and I'm glad they tried something that a hero would have to dissolve. Gwen Stacy gets captured? Call up her daddy. Spider-Man got criminals and drug lords to bust. Leave Spider-Man the fuck alone.
Winner: NEW
Effects
Here I'm talking about Spider-Man effects. The old version did Spider-Man justice! It really looked like he was climbing around on walls! Go Marvel Studios for doing it right. The swinging action was pretty wicked and it was enjoyable. Now, the explosion scenes, not so much. It was really clear that you blew something up the day prior or out in the middle of the field then threw in a clip of Mary-Jane being stupid. Sort of unbelievable.
Sadly to say... The Amazing Spider-Man had really good effects with the Lizard and everything, it really looked like Peter was swinging through the streets, but there wasn't as much "Spidey Travel" as the original. I really felt a little let down by it. Here's the romantic swing with Spider-Man and Gwen, one swing, "Sorry babe, shit to do. Bye." And he's gone.
Winner: OLD
I'm not going to go to delivery I've already discussed that in the rest of the entire review. BUT I HAVE REACHED A GENERAL CONSENSUS. Through every aspect of the movie that I have gone over I have determined that in this scenario, NEW KICKS OLD IN THE ASS. Thank you all for reading my review of sorts, I'm hoping to do more of these in the future. I had started this right after I reviewed The Amazing Spider-Man but my computer kept crapping on me and deleting everything. My computer hates me. Good thing I'm getting my new laptop in the next few months. Sony Vaio Intel i5-3210m. Sexy computer and I love it. No idea what his name is going to be. Probably Petey. AWWWWWWWW. My computer's name is going to be Petey. Sounds like a dog but I love it. Off track, NIGHT EVERYONE!
xoxo, Momma Love
