The Amazing Spiderman

July 3rd in the U.S.

Thanks for the review. I'm looking forward to this one in IMAX as well. The trailer looked like Peter Parker dialogue scenes had boring flat 3D, shot like 2D, and the action scenes with Spider-Man had strong 3D depth with creative shots and used lots of negative parallax. Did you notice that trend?
Edited by BleedOrange11 - 6/23/12 at 7:02am

I saw just reading that the aspect ratio changes in IMAX during certain 3d scenes. I assume its the scenes with Spidermans point of view and maybe an action scene at the end of the movies (I have not seen the movie). I personally like this and hope when it comes out on bluray 3D it does the same.

Edited by curtishd - 6/25/12 at 7:52pm

Thanks for posting the video. I'll definitely have to see it in IMAX for the vertical aspect ratio. It seems like more movies are starting to do this. It was disappointing not to get the 1.78:1 in MI:4 and Underworld: Awakening on home video. Hopefully, Ridley Scott and Marc Webb feel differently than those movies' directors.

Right, so we pay for a 3D movie at the theatre but only get half a movie in 3D! Sounds like a rip off to me!

And yet another director/dop who thinks 3D can vary from non existant to full on, depending upon the scene! The trouble is this technique is a total distraction because the viewer spends time wondering why the 3D is poor, removing glasses to see if the images are blurred etc etc. Hardly conducive with pulling the audience into the movie and keeping them there is it?

If (according to the video) the ending is "designed for IMAX", then it better be "designed" for blu-ray too

And this brings me to a question I had not long before the Avengers was released. But this time instead of basing it on quality I'll base it on quanity. If this movie is half 3D then would a movie goer be subject to a refund or half a refund (of the 3D premium)? I argued previously that a movie with no 3D effect should warrant a refund when billed as 3D. And again, this has nothing to do perspective of pop out vs depth. In either of those cases, there is an enhanced effect to the film. But I have been to movies that this "effect" was negligible.

Anybody see that large back lite 3D Spiderman stand up poster in a theater lobby? I did and man that looks great. I sure would like to have one of those but was told the employees had dibs on it. That is the best lobby attraction I've seen in a long time.

If you have your price perhaps you can find an employee for a fee that's not necessarily eager to have one in his home. I would think they would raffle it off among the employees and that employee could be your proxy.

All the positive reviews about the 3D have me pretty excited. I will probably see it next Tuesday morning.

Are they starting the story from the beginning again just because they got a new lead actor? It seems the preview I saw on tv showed the spider bite. Hoping the script is original and not an entire story from the beginning.....again.

Rick

New actor, new director, new writers, new everything. They can't just pretend like they're picking up where the Raimi trilogy left off.

My sister today was telling me how she got bored of the Raimi Spiderman and turned it off after half an hour. Her loss...

I liked the last batch of actors in the Raimi trilogy, I think they worked well together.

Just got back from watching the masked vigilante known as Spider-Man! They've found my weakness...it's IMAX 3D.

The movie was awesome! The characters were more likable than those in the Sam Raimi trilogy, especially Spider-Man. About half of the movie was a re-telling of his superhero origin, but Marc Webb did it better. I connected emotionally with the story much more than I had anticipated. The were many humorous moments, and the action sequences and web-slinging bits were just off-the-charts cool. It's a very well-rounded movie, and exactly the sort of film that I love to see in 3D.

It was easy to tell that the IMAX cut is the definitive 3D version. The ~15 minutes of 1.90:1 are just visually stunning and enveloping. If you've seen the end of 3D trailer and been frustrated by the huge window violation created by the round drum falling off the tower, cheer up. In 1.90:1, it becomes a pretty decent pop-out.

The majority of the movie uses too safe, too conservative 3D, filmed with 2D conventions and an overuse of depth of focus. Expect a lazy depth script with 2D dialogue and 3D action sequences. Filming with 3D cameras provided perfect separation between objects, but they needed to increase interaxial distance to achieve realistic-looking proportions for more of the scenes. However, when they do crank up the 3D, it is on! The 3D stereography/cinematography is great during Spider-Man moments, especially toward the end. The POV web-slinging/launching and the sense of height looking down over the Manhattan skyline are just perfect. The Spider-Man/Lizard battles look incredible as well. Webb got the depth right for most action scenes, and he used floating particles for a great 3D effect in the final battle.

There were plenty of pop-outs to satisfy my taste in 3D (Some of them likely worked better in 1.90:1.). Pop-out count: Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Overall, I had so much fun watching this movie. I think it's a tie with Prometheus as my favorite for 2012.

Movie - 5/5
Stereography - 3.5/5
Depth - 3.5/5
Pop-out - 4.5/5
Dimensionality - 4.5/5

P.S. Stay for about 30 seconds after the initial credits for a hint at a sequel.
Edited by BleedOrange11 - 7/3/12 at 11:03pm

I just got back from watching The Amazing Spiderman in IMAX 3D. The title is apt, it is pretty amazing. The action sequences are spectacular and the 3D was great where it needed to be. As in Avatar, the 3D enhances the movie, but is not distracting in the non action scenes, a very good use of 3D in my opinion. My only real beef with the movie was that the two leads, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, are way too old to be playing high school students. Garfield was believable as a college student in The Social Network a couple of years ago, but as a high schooler now, not so much. It may be time to make Spiderman a student at Columbia University, or maybe St. Johns.

I saw this last night with friends and I kind of went in with a chip on my shoulder. I am no big fan of the Raimi films as I think Tobey McGuire was a poor Peter Parker.
This new movie is exactly what I wanted 10 years ago. The relationship between Peter and Gwen was strong and they have some of the best on screen chemistry I have seen in a long time.
The action was exceptional as well. It's nice to see a movie where you can actually see what is going on during action moments and the web slinging was awesome.

The only weakness for me, and it's just a nit is the bad guy and his "evil plot" were a bit meh. That said, it was very well done considering the baddie was a lizard!!

Can't wait for more from this franchise now. I like my superhero movies dark here and there, but it's getting tiresome. It's great to see they can be fun again as this movie and The Avengers prove - and then some!!!!
I am anticipating Dark Knight Rises as much as anyone can, but I don't feel I'm going to walk away "entertained" as much as Spidey and Avengers have done for me.

Oh, and the 3D was awesome too.

I haven't seen Amazing Spiderman yet but I do have a question for those who have: one of my biggest peeves with the Raimi Spiderman movies was the over the top level of angst and the portrayal of Peter Parker as a human dishrag. I haven't read the comics since the lat 1970s but while Peter was always something of an outsider I never recalled him being the impotent leper that Maguire and Raimi made him out to be (it seemed he was constantly being insulted, slapped or otherwise humiliated during the Raimi movies, especially in Spiderman II). Have they scaled those aspects back in this new iteration?

I could not agree more with your issues regarding the Raimi Spiderman. This latest movie he's for sure going through some ****, but his motivation for becoming Spiderman comes more out of just doing the right thing given his gift vs. tons of angst/guilt/regret. I found the Andrew Garfield Spiderman infinitely easy to like than Tobey McGuire. Plus, AG seems to have much, much, much more fun with his powers.

Spider-man 2 went way overboard with Peter Parker getting dissed, even if it was used to stress him out. Amazing Spider-man has a bit of that but it's nowhere near heavy-handed or numerous so I think you'll be good with it.

Well, you guys have convinced me; Imax it is. I've got $10 movie cash for Spiderman and was a little torn between Real D and Imax. The Real D would be free, but the Imax will take 4 bucks out of my pocket. Then again, I'll spend a lot more than that on gas to get to the theater, so ................Imax, here I come!

Saw it today in RealD. I thought the movie was okay, but the 3D wasn't all that great until the last 20min. One of the friends I was with said he forgot he was watching it in 3D.

I caught Spiderman in RealD 3D today. First of all, thanks to Bilbofett and lunaluagua for their insights on this film's level of angst. With regard to the film, I found it entertaining even if it played things a bit safe. Some aspects of the classic Spiderman mythos were completely missing (JJ Jameson and the Daily Bugle for example) but on the whole I found it a very watchable film almost completely devoid of all the angst, quirkiness and dysfunctionality that populated the Raimi movies. About the only time I felt that the film was stacking the deck against Peter (something Raimi did with annoying regularity) was during his argument with Uncle Ben and subsequent death. Other than that, I liked the fact that Peter was played as a brilliant but socially awkward teenager (pretty much in line with my memories of the comic) and that we were spared all the emo of the prior films. The action was well presented and all the characters were more likeable.

In terms of the 3D, I thought the sense of depth felt fairly natural. It was reserved much of the time but clearly visible, with the amount of depth and pop cranking up at key moments throughout the film and really kicking in during the climax. It kind of reminded me of the presentation in Tron Legacy, though with somewhat stronger 3D.

Overall I liked the film and the 3D and I'll definitely buy it when its released on 3D BluRay; that way I'll at least have one Spiderman movie in my collection.

3D looked great but the movie was not so good. Prefer the original Tobey film so much more.

Funny. I felt the EXACT opposite.

I liked the new one better, but spiderman just isn't as good as the other superhero movies IMO.