Amazing...

I grew up watching 3 Super-Hero shows. Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man. So far I have yet to see a big screen version of either Superman or Batman that I absolutely love. I *Like* parts of all of them. But mostly they have been major disappointments. Especially Superman. Superman has always been my favorite superhero. Can someone PLEASE do him justice on the big screen?!

Ahem... I'm getting off on a rabbit trail... This post is not supposed to be an a rant about past disappointments in Superman movies, it's supposed to be about Spider-Man.

Spider-Man, has already had three awesome movies. I was disappointed that they decided to end the last film series and start over with a whole new story, but as I began seeing what the new movie could be, I warmed up to the idea and by the time I got to see it I was really excited for it.


My cousin and I went to see "The Amazing Spider-Man" last night, and we both loved it. I thought it was even better than the previous 3 Spider-Man films.

I'm sure a lot of "Hard-Core" geeks hated this, but I really liked that they changed the back story to make his father part of the reason he became Spider-Man. I found this to be a really interesting twist on the story. I also loved the fact that his parents just disappeared, instead of just dying somehow. I am really excited to see where this will lead in future sequels.

The characters were all different from the other movies. Of course they were the same in all the important ways, but they were all different enough so that they were not carbon copies of their predecessors.

Peter was mostly the same, they can't stray too far from his basic character, but he was still different in subtle ways. My cousin noted that in the other films it seemed that he was kind of a show-off, but he seemed a lot more down-to-earth in this movie. I think this is one reason I found this version of the character to be more likable. He just seemed like more of a "Normal" guy.

One of the biggest differences in characters was in the ages of Peter's aunt and uncle. They were quite a bit younger than they have ever been. I would guess them to be around 50. I liked this take on them. It makes more sense to have them be that age than to have them be in their 70's or however old they have been in the past.

Mary Jane was completely absent from the movie, which I didn't mind. In the original comics, Gwen Stacy was Peter's first love, and I liked that they went back to that for this film. I've never been very familiar with the character of Gwen, since she was not included in the animated series that I grew up watching. In that one it was Mary Jane only, from beginning to end.  I've read up on the character and I'm interested to see how this version of the story unfolds. The only downside to having Gwen be in the movies is how they will deal with the character when it comes time to introduce Mary Jane. I'm afraid they may end up giving her the same fate as her comic book counterpart. The reason they didn't include her in the animated series is because they did not want to feature a character in a kid's show that they would eventually have to kill off. In the comics she is murdered by the Green Goblin. Of course this would be a really great twist plot-wise, but I always hate it when they kill off a character you've grown to love.

I was really glad that they chose to do the Lizard as the main villain in the movie. He was probably one of my favorite Spider-Man villains when I was a kid. I'd been hoping they would use him in the other series, and it seemed like they were planning to since Doctor Connors was a character in the other movies. But since they never did use him, I'm glad they started out this new film series with him as Spider-Man's first super-villain.

One minor thing I really liked was this interpretation of Flash Thompson. He doesn't play a very big role in the film, but I really liked how they fleshed out his character compared to other versions of the story. He's always been a bully to Peter, but by the end of this movie, they have pretty much become friends. I always enjoy stories where a "Bad Guy" becomes a good guy. Even though Flash isn't necessarily a bad guy, he definitely would be classified as an antagonist. The fact that he grows as a character like he does, even though it's just a small part, was really great. I hope he plays a bigger role in the sequel.

This movie was a very different version of the story than the three that came before. I still love the first three movies, but I liked this one even better. If you haven't yet seen the movie, I highly recommend it for any super-hero fan. You won't be disappointed.