Andrew Garfield | the m0vie blog

Does Whatever a Spider Can: Do Chronicle and Kick-Ass Render The Amazing Spider-Man Moot?

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Darren

We still have a few months to wait before Marc Webb reboots Sony’s Spider-Man franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man. Despite some tonal worries, I’ll admit Webb has quite a talented crew assembled – Andrew Garfield is on the cusp of stardom, and Emma Stone is a bit ahead of him. However, I can’t help but wonder if Webb’s film might be a few months too late. After all, haven’t Kick-Ass and Chronicle offered a fairly solid deconstruction of the iconic web-slinging superhero? Is there really enough left to be said in the Spider-Man origin story when we’ve already seen it picked apart and subverted so often and skilfully?

Webb's Spider...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, batman, bryan singer, clark kent, Emma Stone, fantastic four, Gwen Stacy, kick-ass, lizard, marc webb, mark millar, Peter, peter parker, sam raimi, sony, spider man, stan lee | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Chronicle

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Darren

Chronicle is a fascinating deconstruction of the American superhero myth – the notion that “with great powers comes great responsibility”, as Stan Lee once wrote (albeit in a more convoluted fashion). Much like Fox’s other major release this week (Martha Marcy May Marlene), it represents an impressive theatrical debut from a young director who hopefully has a long and distinguished future ahead of him. While there are elements of Chronicle that do lack a bit of polish, it’s a compelling and engaging film, one that succeeds at picking apart some of the core assumptions of the superhero genre.

He's got the power!

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Andrew, Andrew Garfield, Chronicle, chronicle (film), chronicle (movie), Dane DeHaan, film, Josh Trank, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Max Landis, Movie, non-review review, Trank | 10 Comments »

Emo Spider-Man & Going Against the Nerd: It Isn’t Easy Being Geek…

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Darren

The Amazing Spider-Man trailer debuted during the week and it was… kinda okay, I suppose. Nothing too shocking or gripping or incredible, and nothing to push it too high on a “must see” list that includes The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers as two massive hits for my superhero fix. However, I was surprised at the rather immediate response from relatively mainstream sources to “emo Spider-Man.” Even non-geeks seem to have picked up on the fact that Peter Parker in a hoodie hunched over a text book is not a good sign. Surely Spider-Man III taught us that “goth Spider-Man” is not a good idea?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Andrew Garfield, Batman in film, brian michael bendis, counter-culture, emo, films, geek chic, geek culture, high school, marc webb, Movies, punk rock, sam raimi, secondary school, spider man, stan lee, sub-culture, the amazing spider-man, the amazing spiderman | 15 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Spider-Man II

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Darren

This is a post as part of “Raimi-fest”, the event being organised by the always wonderful Bryce over at Things That Don’t Suck.

Aside from Nolan’s two superb Batman movies, Spider-Man II was the only other comic book superhero movie to make my top fifty films of the last decade. There’s a reason for that. Part of it is the fact that the movie helped define what the second film in a superhero franchise should really look like, but a larger part of it is that this film represents the moment at which Sam Raimi seemed most at home with his beloved central character – and I think that genuine enthusiasm on the part of the director really shines through over the course of the film.

I reckon Spider-Man polls highly among superhero fans...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Andrew Garfield, arts, Aunt May, bruce campbell, bryan singer, Comics, films, j.k. simmons, Movies, non-review review, peter parker, Raimi, review, sam raimi, spider man, stan lee, Steve Ditko | 6 Comments »

Leapin’ Lizards: Spider-Man’s Next Opponent Revealed…

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Darren

It was recently revealed that the villain of the Spider-Man reboot would be The Lizard as played by Rhys Ifans. While the presence of Andrew Garfield and Rhys Ifans in the film run the risk of turning the movie into a British invasion, I’m actually relatively impressed by the way that this film is coming together – the casting of Emma Stone and the hiring of director Marc Webb have helped greatly. However, I remain somewhat skeptical of the film – given the nature of its production, the fact that it’s a reboot and unfortunate departure of Sam Raimi. So it comes as something of a bittersweet pill that the villain is named as Spider-Man’s long-term reptile opponent. Apparently Raimi had a long and on-going argument with the studio about the character, him wanting to use the man-sized reptile adversary, but the studio balking over it.