I came across a review of Marc Webb‘s The Amazing Spider-Man that called it dull and lazy (to paraphrase) but since I don’t know/trust the reviewer, I’m not sure I’ll credit him here. But what I am seeing is that the movie seems to be received well.
Over on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics score is sitting at 71%. Movie Review Intelligence also has it sitting at a 71% good ratings with critics.
Critics I Do Trust:
EW‘s Lisa Schwarzbaum gave it an ‘A-,’ she starts with “A friskier, sweeter-natured variation on the story Sam Raimi told in his recent trilogy, with greater emphasis on human relations than on special effects…”
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Norman Wilner from Now Toronto gave it 4 out of 5 ‘N’s', saying “…the franchise gets a fresh start in The Amazing Spider-Man. And it mostly works.”
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Tom Long from the Detroit Press wasn’t so enthused by it, saying that “The latest Spider-Man is overly familiar and technically shaky.”
His gripe being that we’ve seen this story already, even if this version of Peter Parker is slightly different.
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I hate when critics I trust disagree… but there it is.
My tie-breaker comes from Screen Rant‘s Kofi Outlaw, who says “Amazing Spider-Man arguably gets more right than it gets wrong, but it is far from being a perfect film. At its core, the movie seems to be, in fact, two films: The hour-long teenage character drama that director Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer) invests great time and care in telling – followed by a standard superhero blockbuster,”
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After many months of critically reviewing reviews, I trust these folks perspectives. Especially Outlaw’s take. I think the gripe most might have with the movie is that it’s so soon after the other scream-fests that Sam Raimi put out. (Mary Jane screamed more than talked in Raimi’s movies.)
I was on a bubble, but when I get a chance, I do think I’ll be headed out to see The Amazing Spider-Man. I’m not worried about wasting the cash. Now whether I spend money on 2D or waste it on the 3D experience, well, I’m leaning towards 2D, but we’ll see how the timing works out at the theater.
-Bruce
About Bruce Simmons
I've been writing newsletters since 1999. Of late, I've been focusing on the entertainment consumer angle on mostly the sci-fi, fantasy and action genres of TV, movies and books.
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