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zwolanerd

I guess I just like liking things

Yes, I am taking whatever “M” words I want and turning Mondays into that particular thing. I DO WHAT I WANT.

spideygwenI went with some friends to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 over the weekend and I liked it well enough. There’s a thing they do near the end that’s pretty  much straight from the comicbooks, and it was sad but necessary but maybe not? but I liked it anyway even though I don’t like what it means for the series. I’m trying very hard to not spoil a comic book that is 42 years old in another month, but if you know anything about comicbooks you probably already know this thing.

I don’t mind the new Spider-Man movie series, even though I loved the first 67% of the first trilogy. I liked Tobey Maguire’s sad sack Peter Parker and you’re not going to cast anyone better than J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, so don’t even bother. Spider-Man 2 is the best Spider-Man movie ever made so far.

But the new series is fine, and even has some things in it that are better. Emma Stone, for instance. Her Gwen Stacy is someone who’s getting things done with or without anyone’s permission, thank you very much. She’s got a speech in 2 that’s basically, “Hey, I’m choosing to do this, so don’t try and stop me and don’t try to feel responsible for my actions” and it’s great.  I also love Spider-Man’s interactions with the public while he’s out and about saving random folks from random dangers. He gives little encouraging pep talks and calms people down and it is some wonderful character work.

The new series is a mix of classic Spidey and the new stuff (“Ultimates,” I think it’s called), and some of it I could do without.  This is going to sound mean about fictional people who never existed, but I don’t like the “Peter’s dad had a hand in Peter becoming Spider-Man” backstory. I don’t mind the update to “genetics!” from “radiation!” but the random selection of Pete resonates more for me.  Sure, I get that they want to tie all the villains and Spider-Man into Oscorp, but that gets a shrug and an “eh” from me.

Overall I liked it. It was a bit crowded, but it didn’t feel as crowded as Spider-Man 3 or Batman & Robin did.

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